We have put in place many tools to ensure that competitors competing remotely still have a great experience. As a digital competitor you will still need to be associated with a Region and join a team. Your region is where you are normally based. Being digital, for your team, you are not restricted to team members by region. You can be in (say) NSW and join a team in NT or Christchurch if you can find team members based there. At least one person from your team needs to be based in the Region that you choose for your team registration.
We will be using four primary tools: Youtube Livestream, Hackerspace, and Slack.
Youtube Livestream
Over the weekend there will be five live streams that take place between Australia and New Zealand. There are two opening and closing livestreams, one forAustralia and one for New Zealand. These will take place on Friday and Sunday respectively. There is also a joint Australian and New Zealand Trivia Event livestream event that will take place on Saturday.
On our Youtube page you can set reminders for each livestream. Our page is GovHackAustralia
We encourage everyone to comment and post questions. Please feel free to share the livestream with anyone else that might be interested, even if they’re not participating in GovHack. The livestreams are public so don’t be shy about sharing on your socials. We are @GovHackAU.
Hackerspace
The hackerspace website at hackerspace.govhack.org/ is where you will join teams, create projects, find challenges and datasets, and submit your projects.
In order to participate, you must create an account and register for a competition. You will also have a profile page where you can list your skills and interests. Your profile page is hidden by default. When you’re ready to make it public, ensure the checkbox is ticked within Update Profile, so that it is visible to other competitors. Use Hackerspace to search for team members based on skills, interest and region. To contact other competitors, go to their profile and click to message them on Slack.
Slack
Slack is the main platform for event weekend communications and chatting to other competitors. Register for a Slack account at govhack.org/slack then join us at govhackhq.slack.com.
We want our Slack to be a safe, inclusive community for everyone, and usage of Slack is covered by the GovHack Code of Conduct. By joining the Slack workspace, you are agreeing to adhere to the Code of Conduct which can be found at Code of Conduct
We encourage you to find and join relevant Slack groups for your region and selected challenges.
As a starting point, you may wish to join:
- #announcements – Important competition announcements
- Join your region’s slack channel: #hack-vic / #hack-sa / #hack-wa / #hack-qld / #hack-nsw / #hack-tas / #hack-act Here you can connect with hackers, volunteers, mentors and facilitators from your local region
- #find-team – here you can look for teams and look for team members across all of Australia and New Zealand
- #talk-[organisation] – (#talk-abs, #talk-ato, etc) – here you can connect with specific mentors from a particular organisation
- #help-mentor – here you can reach out to all mentors if you aren’t sure which organisation is the best to approach
- #help-hackerspace – here you can reach out to organisers if you are experiencing issues with the Hackerspace or need some assistance with the platform
- #help-and-moderators – here you can reach out to organisers if you are facing non Hackerspace issues
- Use /leave to leave a channel
GovHack is friendly, diverse and accessible. If you feel you can contribute to a channel with your experience and knowledge, please do so! We encourage you to help each other out if you see someone asking for help in Slack.