GovHack SA 2017: Creativity + Data = Change! Connections Event 27 June 2017

Photo: GovHack SA Connections Event 27 June 2017 at UniSA City West Campus.
Pankaj Chhalotre, Executive Manager (front) and Catherine McIntyre, Community Information Coordinator (back left) from Connecting Up Inc. discuss the SAcommunity dataset with competitors to explore opportunities for innovative reuse. 

What is GovHack?
GovHack is an annual Open Data competition held across Australia and New Zealand.

The community event is organised and run by volunteers, with the aim to inspire innovative data re-use, with teams exploring openly released datasets and developing resourceful and imaginative concepts for their use, ranging in format from apps, projects, games or art.

When does the competition run?
In 2017, the GovHack weekend starts at 6pm Friday 28th July 2017 and closes 5pm 30th of July.
In 46 hours, teams create a project page, proof of concept and a video that tells the story of how government data can be reused. Prize categories are announced at 7pm Friday.

How can I get involved?
Register as a competitor – GovHack is a free event to attend for competitors and observers
Provide Sponsorship – money raised through sponsorship directly supports competitors.
Become a mentor – Are you an authority on datasets, or a subject matter expert?
Competitors will need guidance on data sets and experts to discuss their ideas, consider supporting the participating teams and be a GovHack mentor or coach.

Why is Open Data and GovHack important?
Open data provides transparency and can be used as a mechanism for identifying and solving social, economic and environmental challenges. GovHack provides an opportunity for the community, government, corporate and not-for-profit industries to collaborate, gain knowledge and develop new skills and perhaps new uses for existing data that provide community benefit.

Connecting Up Inc. is committed to open data, sharing SAcommunity for innovative re-use and public benefit for GovHack, contributing directory information to public information datasets at data.sa.gov.au. Whilst staff continue to be involved as data coaches and mentors during the connections (pre-competition) and competition events, supporting competitors and teams by providing guidance on datasets.

I need inspiration!
Browse through last year’s Hackerspace for inspiration! Explore some of the prize-winning GovHack projects and datasets used.

I have questions?
Email GovHack SA or visit the GovHack contact page to find out more!