GovHack's staff, volunteers and community work all around and on the lands that are now called Australia and New Zealand.
In 2022, our work has taken place on the lands of the: Aotearoa, Aranda, Bunurong, Darambal, Djiringanj, Eora, Gunditjmara, Jaadwa, Jagara, Juipera, Jukambe, Jupagalk, Kaurna, Kirrae, Koenpal, Kurung, Larakia, Māori, Ngugi, Ngunawal, Peramangk, Pindjarup, Taribelang, Tharawal, Undanbi, Walbanga, Walgalu, Wandandian, Wathaurung, Wembawemba, Whadjuk, and Wurundjeri.
We acknowledge that sovereignty was never ceded and pay our respects to elders past and present across Australia and New Zealand.
Section 1
What is GovHack?
GovHack empowers communities all over Australia and New Zealand to experiment and tackle today's big policy and service delivery challenges with data.
We exist to:
connect community, government and industry to work together to grow data skills and build a
digitally capable and inclusive society;
showcase data as the tool to identify and address today's most pressing social, economic and
environmental challenges;
impress upon government the economic and social value of quality machine-readable, standardised
open data;
highlight how open government is strengthening our democracy by promoting transparency and
trust.
We value:
Inclusion — We're here for everyone! We believe that everyone
deserves to participate in our
digital future which is why GovHack is age-less, diverse, accessible, safe and secure.
Free — All our events, everywhere, for everyone.
Hackers-first — Our community is our priority. We work to
elevate the needs of our community and
members.
Regional — Opportunities shouldn't be limited to where you live.
We work to drive GovHack to
regional and rural regions.
Volunteer-driven — Passionate volunteers are the change makers
and life blood that makes GovHack
come alive.
Transparency — We believe in being accountable and open in all
that we do.
Open Access — We advocate for FAIR (findable, accessible,
interoperable and reusable) data to be
used in open ways, shared and adaptable for everyone.
GovHack is an annual 46 hour hackathon, a Festival of Ideas, using open government data to make our communities better places.
We do this by providing access to data and a space to connect with Government and organisations so you can workshop ideas around community challenges and imagine and develop concepts to drive meaningful change.
Across one weekend, thousands come together across Australia and New Zealand to form teams, agree to projects, and participate in what has become one of the world's premier open data competitions.
During the competition, teams create a proof of concept and a video that tells the story of how data can be reused, looking for new ways to solve challenges facing government.
Established in 2009 as a small Canberra-based event to showcase the opportunities of open government data, GovHack has grown into the largest open data hackathon in the Southern Hemisphere.
Section 2
A few words from our Board
In 2022, over 1000 people came together to participate in GovHack, with the majority being in person engagement. This consisted of participants, volunteers, sponsors, mentors and judges across Australia and New Zealand, producing 147 projects by the afternoon of Sunday 21st August.
I am so happy that this year we have been able to come together at physical events both over the competition weekend and for the International Red Carpet Awards after COVID causing us apart for so many years. For many of those that make GovHack happen, this is the first time we have seen each other in person or the first time in the last three years.
This year we centred our overarching themes on Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG). Each of these themes and their range of sub-themes, are areas of interest that we as a society are facing and the commonwealth government has a strategic focus on. It has been great to bear witness to many great challenges being offered by sponsors this year and some excellent projects developed to address these challenges. By bringing together so many people with different skills, backgrounds and experiences, we hope that some of the outcomes of this Festival of Ideas will hopefully go on to be ongoing solutions to the issues brought forward as the challenges of the competition.
GovHack wouldn't be possible without the huge effort put in by our volunteers and supporters. We would like to thank the many people that have made GovHack 2022 possible. GovHack is primarily a volunteer-led initiative with people contributing their evenings and weekends. The GovHack volunteers provide their time not just during the GovHack competition weekend but in the extensive planning that happens throughout the year in the lead up to and following the event.
— Jason Weigel Chair, GovHack Australia Ltd
Section 3
Our Community
We're lucky to have a diverse, talented and supportive community of individuals, communities and organisations all across Australia and New Zealand. While these numbers capture our scale in terms of quantity, they don't capture the scale of impact our entire community makes.
525
5,621
21,117
participants completed their 2022 GovHack hackathon submission
are part of our online Slack community
follow our newsletter & social channels
We published 45 editions of our e-newsletter in 2022 with articles highlighting the The A/NZ Open Government Data event, Digital Australia Strategy, and various news and events.
45
editions of our e-newsletter were published in 2021
Section 4
In the Media
We featured in several stories published by Infosys and Queensland’s Moreton Bay Regional Council in 2022.
Our social media channels helped to carry live video feeds and foster discussion across our state and territory, national and international award ceremonies.
Our volunteers include mentors, data custodians, region leads, digital facilitators and our core operation teams that coordinate our organisation and the largest open data hackathon in the southern hemisphere. We're grateful to the 100+ dedicated and passionate volunteers that helped organise and run GovHack in 2022. Without the expertise, support and energy you all bring we simply wouldn't exist.
Section 6
The Competition
525
404
147
participants completed their 2022 GovHack hackathon submission
participants compete for their first time in 2022
projects were completed over 46 hours
Challenges for the competition focused on three main themes: Environmental, Social, and Government.
3 International major prize challenges
Managing or repurposing Covid-19 waste (Infosys)
People's Choice (GovHack)
Spirit of GovHack (GovHack)
7 National Australian major prize challenges
Reducing climate impact through sustainable energy behaviours (Infosys)
Best Creative Use of Data in Response to ESG (AU) (GovHack)
Flood, fire and the future: the road to resilience (National Freight Data Hub)
What's going where? (National Freight Data Hub)
Helping Australia reach net zero emissions by 2050 (Clean Energy Regulator)
Small Business Performance Indicators (Australian Taxation Office)
The 2021 Australian Census (Australian Bureau of Statistics)
Section 7
Red Carpet Awards
51
105
$61k
winning regional, national and international projects
runner up and honourable mentions (including multiple mentions)
in prizes awarded
The Red Carpet Awards are a key opportunity for our sponsors to recognise the teams that have created the most innovative and creative projects with open data. We saw a return to a physical International Red Carpet Award in 2022 taking place in Melbourne, Australia. The event took place on the evening of Saturday 30 August 2022 at the Melbourne Infosys Living Lab. The event was hosted by Livia Lam and Harshitha Rajashekara.
A huge congratulations goes to everyone who submitted a project. It was no easy task for the 100 judges from our sponsors to work though 147 amazing projects. An enormous thanks goes to each of them.
We saw over 51 winning entries and 105 runner up and honourable mentions across the regional, national and international award categories. A couple of our favourites included:
AquaDashby AquaDash (Digital QLD, Queensland) who won Digitising your drinking water (Unitywater); [RU] Reducing climate impact through sustainable energy behaviours (RAA); [RU] Integrate Disparate Data Sources like a Palantir Engineer (Palantir); and [HM] Moreton Bay greening as we grow (Moreton Bay Regional Council)
Dirty Wattsby Questionable Research Labs (Whangarei, New Zealand) who won Technology Literacy in a Digital First World (Infosys); and Best Creative Use of Data in Response to ESG (Trimble, Smart Christchurch, Questionable Research Lab, Media Design School, UC Centre for Entrepreneurship)
PolExby Apples (Canberra, Australian Capital Territory) who won Community wellbeing in the ACT (ACT Government); BIntegrate Disparate Data Sources like a Palantir Engineer (Palantir); and [RU] The 2021 Australian Census (Australian Bureau of Statistics)
Section 8
The Numbers
Competitors
Projects
IRCA Winners
IRCA Runners Up
IRCA Honourable Mentions
Regional Winners
Regional Runners Up
Regional Honourable Mentions
ACT
32
7
1
2
1
3
—
2
NSW
42
15
—
—
3
3
1
2
NT
51
17
—
—
—
5
1
1
QLD
125
27
4
2
4
5
5
4
SA
74
22
2
1
2
4
2
3
TAS
33
17
1
1
—
4
3
1
VIC
95
28
2
2
3
4
3
6
WA
37
7
—
—
3
2
—
1
AUS
489
140
10
8
16
30
15
25
NZ
36
7
—
—
—
4
2
—
Total
525
147
10
8
16
34
17
25
Section 9
Thank Yous
This year wouldn't have been possible without all these incredible humans and organisations. Thank you all so very much!
