SAcommunity Goes to GovHack 2021

Photos courtesy of Hang Zhang.  Photo 1: Hang Zhang.  Photo 2: Hang Zhang, Alison Do.  Photo 3: P2J Project Team.

This month saw the annual GovHack competition take place over the weekend of 20-22 August. 

GovHack is an Australian and New Zealand open data competition which invites teams to use government data to inspire and create projects that benefit the community. The event runs for 46 hours, and is organised by volunteers. Teams choose from provided data sets, and then use their selected data in creative and innovative ways to create prototype solutions that may take the format of projects, apps, art or games. These solutions must address at least one, but often investigate multiple, challenges designated by GovHack. Teams must create a project page, proof of concept, and a video which demonstrates how the government data can be reused to address social, economic and community issues or needs. The competition offers national, state and local prizes. 

This year SAcommunity once again provided our data and coverage for the Gov Hack challenge.  

One of our volunteers, Hang Zhang, also participate as part of a team with six others. Hang and his team decided to focus on five challenges: 

Using data from the National Skills Commision they proposed their solution: P2J (Person to Job), an app that would help match prospective employees with employers, and business with other businesses. It would also provide insights into in demand skills in specific employment areas, and the most in demand jobs in a users’ nominated sector. Their solution was designed in response to the changing employment landscape in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the need for young, vulnerable Australians to find employment, and to assist Australians during a period of financial uncertainty and stress.  

Hang's role in the team was to identify, clean and present data for their project. Working in such a tight timeframe meant that effective communication and delegation was vital.  

"You just have forty-six hours to finish a project so you need to make sure that the project can run smoothly. 

"My favorite part was choosing challenges and discussing and sharing ideas with each other”, said Hang.

Hang believes that participants can learn a lot from being a part of Gov Hack, and not just from working with your own team.  

"There are a lot of exciting ideas coming from your competitors." 

Hang's team's demonstration video can be found here. 

SAcommunity takes pride in our continued support of Gov Hack. Not only do we provide open data, staff and volunteers, such as Stathis Avramis also act as data mentors, and we have volunteers who assist in the operations and running of the event. Additionally, many of our volunteers have also competed over the years, such as former SAcommunity volunteer Alison Do, who has also acted as a Gov Hack volunteer. 

We look forward to returning to GovHack in 2022.