GovHack is an annual national competition that brings together geeks, digital creatives, data analysts, story tellers and entrepreneurs to work together over 46 hours to explore open government data and make it more useful or engaging.
Teams will trove through the official data sets to find new ideas or ways to reuse the data to win prizes in international, national and local categories.
“A ‘hack’ is when you take something and make it better. You don’t have to be super technical, although it helps, but we’re looking for people’s ideas, passion and energy,” RDA Sunshine Coast Interim CEO Anne Lawrence said.
“This competition provides a great opportunity for people with mixed skills to come together to build a project using open government data and make it available to the community through mobile and web apps, application programming interfaces (APIs), data visualisations and infographics.
“Examples of regional projects could include information about off-leash dog areas, recreational information, employment, transport or community facilities,” Mrs Lawrence said.
“We have amazing data sets available about our region. The challenge is to discover new solutions for presenting this information and uncover the business opportunities.”
GovHack Sunshine Coast 2015 is sponsored by Atmail, RDA Sunshine Coast, Sunshine Coast Council, Noosa Council and all collaborators in the Digital Sunshine Coast project.
More information: www.govhack.org/sunshinecoast2015
GovHack Sunshine Coast 2015
Time: From 6PM Friday 3 July 2015 to 6PM Sunday 5 July 2015
Venue: Atmail at Peregian Beach, or ‘virtual’ seats from home/work location
The official data sets and prize categories will be announced several weeks before the event.
For more information, check out the Competition rules and code of conduct. View the Event Road Map for more guidance on how to spend your time and check out the hacker how to for tools and tips for creating awesome hacks.
IMAGE: Organisers of GovHack Sunshine Coast (from left): Jack Lewis (Noosa Council), Anne Lawrence (RDA Sunshine Coast), Justin Thomas (Noosa Council), Carole Licht (Sunshine Coast Council), Jarna Baudinette (RDA Sunshine Coast) and Michi Tyson (Atmail).