[Linux-aus] GovHack is open for registration

[Kathy Reid]

(posting this with both Secretary and Member hats on)

As you may recall, Linux Australia was a major sponsor of GovHack in 
2013, and the event was a roaring success in both open government and 
open data terms, with dozens of teams competing across the country. 
Although we're not sponsoring financially this year, we very much 
support the aims of the event and recognise the significant role it 
plays in supporting the open government and open data movements.

I'd like to personally commend this event to members of this list for 
consideration.

http://www.govhack.org/

Blurb from site follows.

With kind regards,
K.

---

What is GovHack?

We fill a room with as many web and application developers, open data & 
visualisation gurus, user experience folk, accessibility peeps, 
augmented reality-ists, mobile maesters, user experience fanatics and 
anyone interested in open government as we can find and set them loose 
on government data sets to create new mashups, data visualisations and 
apps. We provide everything you’ll need to hack to your hearts content, 
for glory, or money, or both!

On hand will be:

Data “owners” and mentors from a range of technology backgrounds
Facilitators to help teams focus, and move forward throughout the event
Copious amounts of power, wifi, food and caffeine
A range of developer tools and support throughout the 48 hours

Governments collect and publish enormous amounts of data, but have 
limited resources to get it into the hands of their citizens in engaging 
ways. GovHack is an event to draw together people from government, 
industry, academia and of course, the general public to mashup, reuse, 
and remix government data. GovHack is about finding new ways to do great 
things and encouraging open government and open data.

GovHack runs over 48 hours starting with drinks and the competition 
announcements on the night of the launch. Mentors in a range of areas 
will be on hand to help out. Teams work through the weekend and by 
Sunday 5pm you have to have submitted your team page, 3 minute video and 
any code/source materials.

Who should come along?
GovHack is open to everyone and anyone. From data vis, designers and 
UX’ers through to web developers and hard core application developers. 
Pull a team together to raise your chances of winning!

GovHack is about having fun and learning, regardless of your level of 
expertise. From first year university students through to hardened 
developers, everyone who gets involved will come away from the weekend 
with something new, whether it be code, content, an idea or new contacts.
What's in it for me?
Aside from having the opportunity to interact with your peers, get 
mentored by experts or show off your skills to a community who loves 
this kind of stuff?

Matthew Cashmore – Hack Days rock. They rock because when you get cool 
people in a room they do cool stuff. The essence of a Hack Day is 
achieving something remarkably amazing — awesome — in a very short 
period of time.You will also be in the running for prize money and 
grants for the best work undertaken with government data across a number 
of major and minor categories. The categories will be announced Friday 
night.

You can probably somewhat infer the categories from who our data and 
prize sponsors are, but GovHack is about what you can develop from 
Friday night till Sunday afternoon, and that work is what the judges 
will take into account.

GovHack day’s provide an opportunity to get exposure to new ideas from 
different perspectives about technologies and approaches you never get 
to experiment with in your day to day job or at university. This is an 
opportunity test run those ideas you’ve had, but never had the chance to 
partner up with someone or the dedicated time with experts around you to 
make the idea a reality.

Sound good? Yea we think so too.