GovHack is an annual open government data competition held all over Australia and New Zealand. Teams are eligible for some great prizes, in addition to honour and fame at our Red Carpet Awards.

GovHack is about getting our best and brightest, working with government data to innovate and create. It is about encouraging and celebrating our technical and creative capacity, connecting citizens with government for great outcomes, and building upon the social and economic value of open data published by government.

In 46 hours teams create a proof of concept and a video that tells the story of how the data can be reused.

What is GovHack?

GovHack is an event that draws people together to innovate with Open Government Data. The best teams have a mix of skill so we encourage every one to come along including entrepreneurs, developers, designers, digital media creators, artists, story tellers, researchers and open data enthusiasts.

A “hack” is when you take something and make it better. So for this competition you need to take open government data and make it more useful or engaging!

GovHack runs over 46 hours starting with the competition categories announced on the Friday night of the launch. Teams then trove through the official data sets  to find new ideas or ways to reuse the data to win prizes in International, National and Local prize categories.

In 46 hours teams create a proof of concept and a video that tells the story of how the data can be reused. Many of the concepts are innovative community apps. There are also a heap of entries that mash up data and display it in an informative visualisation or a creative artistic display. Teams work through the weekend and by Sunday 5pm you have to have submitted your team page, 3 minute video of your concept and any code/source materials.

More information can be found on the GovHack Website.

Please register asap here!

If you have any questions, please reach out to William Clarke via wclarke@usc.edu.au