GovHack SA 2019: Adelaide Competition - Data Mentors Unite!
Data Mentors Unite!
GovHack Mentors 2019 (Back L - R)
Bhavya Chauhan (Data Science Mentor), Kristy Kokegei (History Trust), Courtney Cummings (EPA), Catherine McIntyre (SAcommunity - Connecting Up Inc.), Chris Rawlinson (DPTI), Purnima Krishnan (EPA), Amanda Chenoweth (EPA), Mikaela Lawrence (CSIRO), (Front) Andrew Pfeiffer (Data Science Mentor)
The GovHack annual Open Data competition weekend is on! Held across Australia and New Zealand, South Australia is hosting two events held in Mount Gambier and Adelaide.
GovHack Mentors gathered at the University of Adelaide campus to assist onsite and offsite competitors (through GovHack Slack) with their questions, challenges and innovative ideas to support GovHack teams with their projects to make life better through open data.
Present at the Friday night launch event and Saturday morning competition day, the time also allowed mentors themselves an opportunity to meet each other and find out more about their respective datasets https://data.sa.gov.au/ used across government departments in SA, form new networks and further discuss topics they hoped the competition might address through innovative data re-use.
The Importance of GovHack
GovHack provides an opportunity for the community, government, corporate and not-for-profit industries to collaborate, gain knowledge and develop new skills and new uses for existing data that provide community benefit. Open data provides transparency and can be used as a mechanism for identifying and solving social, economic and environmental challenges.
Why we are Involved
Connecting Up Inc. is committed to open data, sharing SAcommunity data for innovative re-use and public benefit through GovHack, with SAcommunity staff continuing to be involved every year as data mentors to support the competition.
Find out more about GovHack >>here https://govhack.org/about/
Local SA challenges this year included:
Local Government Information Technology Association of South Australia
How might we identify opportunities for improvement or new Council services, infrastructure and facilities to benefit community outcomes in South Australia? "Councils provide a wide range of services, infrastructure and facilities for local communities, businesses and residents. Many people interact with different Councils to live, work, shop, socialise and with different levels of government for other everyday activities. Combining data from Councils with other Councils, State or Federal government provides different views, perspectives and opportunities to identify new problems to solve ways Council can provide benefit to diverse communities." >>here https://hackerspace.govhack.org/challenges/local_government_information_technology_association_of_south_australia
Showcasing our Regions:
How might we promote South Australian regions to boost regional development?
"South Australia’s regions and the communities that live and work in them are vital for the future prosperity of the state, and we want to make sure these communities continue to grow and thrive, with the South Australian government preparing a Regional Development Strategy as a plan to recharge our regions" >>here https://hackerspace.govhack.org/challenges/showcasing_our_regions
GovHack Projects can be found in Hackerspace https://hackerspace.govhack.org/projects
One Mount Gambier based group used the SAcommunity Dataset:
Team M1 and their project Blue Lake Mountain Bike Trails - promoting mountain biking in and around Mount Gambier and linking to local trails and mountain bike communities via the information on SAcommunity. Video here: https://youtu.be/MY_PfAtc48o
Editor note: GovHack 2019 Winners results are in and the group received an honourable mention in the 'Showcasing our regions' Award sponsored by the Department of Premier and Cabinet South Australia.
