GovHack 2023

GovHack 2023 is 18—20 August

GovHack is an annual open government data competition held all over Australia and New Zealand. Teams are eligible for some great prizes, in addition to honour and fame at our Red Carpet Awards.

GovHack is about getting our best and brightest, working with government data to innovate and create. It is about encouraging and celebrating our technical and creative capacity, connecting citizens with government for great outcomes, and building upon the social and economic value of open data published by government.

In 46 hours teams create a proof of concept and a video that tells the story of how the data can be reused.

GovHack is an event that draws people together to innovate with Open Government Data.The best teams have a mix of skill so we encourage every one to come along including entrepreneurs, developers, designers, digital media creators, artists, story tellers, researchers and open data enthusiasts.

A “hack” is when you take something and make it better. So for this competition you need to take open government data and make it more useful or engaging!

GovHack runs over 46 hours starting with the competition categories announced on the Friday night of the launch. Teams then trove through the official data sets to find new ideas or ways to reuse the data to win prizes in International, National and Local prize categories.

In 46 hours teams create a proof of concept and a video that tells the story of how the data can be reused. Many of the concepts are innovative community apps. There are also a heap of entries that mash up data and display it in an informative visualisation or a creative artistic display. Teams work through the weekend and by Sunday 5pm you have to have submitted your team page, 3 minute video of your concept and any code/source materials.

GovHack is open to everyone and anyone. From data vis, graphic designers, journos, digital media dablers, budding entrepreneurs, OpenGov enthusiasts and user experience peeps through to web developers and hard core application developers. Pull a team together with a mix of skills to raise your chances of winning! GovHack is about having fun and learning, regardless of your level of expertise. From high school and 1st year university students through to hardened developers, everyone who gets involved will come away from the weekend with something new, whether it be code, content, an idea or new contacts.

Aside from having the opportunity to interact with your peers, get mentored by experts or show off your skills to a community who loves this kind of stuff?

You will also be in the running for prize money for the best work undertaken with government data across a number of challenges. The challenges will be announced Friday night. You can probably somewhat infer the challenges from who our data and prize sponsors are, but GovHack is about what you can develop from Friday night till Sunday afternoon, and that work is what the judges will take into account. GovHack day’s provide an opportunity to get exposure to new ideas from different perspectives about technologies and approaches you never get to experiment with in your day to day job or at university. This is an opportunity test run those ideas you’ve had, but never had the chance to partner up with someone or the dedicated time with experts around you to make the idea a reality.

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