[Linux-aus] Gov mashup hackfests in Canberra and Sydney

[Pia Waugh]

Hey all,

I wanted to pass this on because I think it is an awesome opportunity for
our community to shine, and for us to do our part to support getting public
access to government data. I'll be going to the Canberra mashup camp for a
while, and the Open Australia event in Sydney. There is also a Google mashup
event on this Wed the 28th October. All events at:

  http://mashupaustralia.org/events/

You could also run your own hackfest, perhaps use a LUG meeting or something
for hacking. Just let the Mashup Australia people know if you do something
so they can list it and get people along to your event :)

The outcomes of the events, the "mashups" can enter the competition up until
the 13th November, and they've already had some entries.

It'd be seriously awesome to get as many FOSS community people along as
possible. It is fairly web centric, but there are all kinds of people coming
along.

Up front, I will say that this and some other projects are being "funded by
Microsoft" as part of the Taskforce efforts, but please know that although
it is technically Microsoft funding (actually it is a percentage of Gov
spending on MS put aside for "innovation" spending), all funding is
controlled by the Gov 2.0 Taskforce, which is a good group of people who
care about largely the same stuff we do.  Openness, transparency, open
standards, FOSS. Don't let the mere participation of Microsoft be a turn off
from participating in the first serious look at reform for more openness in
the Australian government - the Gov 2.0 agenda (whatever you think of the
silly name :)) is really about opening access to public sector
information/data and creating more transparency and collaboration in gov
processes, and of course FOSS, open standards and open community methods
play a huge potential part in that :)

I wrote a blog post about it for more links and information:

  http://pipka.org/blog/2009/10/15/opening-up-government-data-get-hacking-people/

Hope to see a few of you there :) Please forward this around to your FOSS
usergroups.

Cheers,
Pia

----- Forwarded message from John Allsopp <john at webdirections.org> -----

Date: Tue, 20 Oct 2009 18:01:43 +1100
From: John Allsopp <john at webdirections.org>
To: greebo at pipka.org
Subject: GovHack the the FOSS community

For those who may not have heard, the Australian Government 2.0 Taskforce 
is supporting Govhack, a hacking day focusing on building mashups and web 
applications using Australian Government Data, and other open data sources 
and web services.

It's free, and takes place in Canberra at the end of October (yes, only 10 
or so days away now).

Love to see many members of the FOSS community participate. Read on for 
more or visit

http://govhack.org

and

http://govhack.eventbrite.com - to register

The event is an initiative of  the Australian Government 2.0 Taskforce, part of the  
Federal government's Finance Department, and produced by Web Directions, 
Gov Hack is a free, intensive day and a half of creating mashups and 
applications with government data and services.
Teams of developers work during the event to develop web based mashups and 
applications using government data sources and services.

http://govhack.org

In summary

        - What: The first ever Australian Government supported hacking day
        - When: October 30 and 31 2009 (you can come to one or both days, or hack 
through the night at the venue)
	- Where: ANU - CSIT - Building 108 Canberra, Australia. Or you can attend 
virtually!
	- Who Should attend: Web designers and developers, IAs, back-end  
engineers, usablity and interaction experts, information visualization  
gurus, graphic designers and anyone interested in developing applications, 
mashups, visualizations, webapps and other creative uses of Australian 
Government data
	- What will be provided?: Power, wifi, food, caffeine, inspirational  
mentors, and the chance to connect with new collaborators. Cool prizes  
will be available as well.
	- Price: Free, but RSVPs are essential

http://govhack.eventbrite.com

Thanks,

john

John Allsopp

----- End forwarded message -----

Cheers,
Pia

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