Australia’s largest open data ‘hack-a-thon’ competition will be held in Darwin and Alice Springs from 6-8 September for the third consecutive year.

The event encourages teams from across Australia to ‘hack’ solutions to predetermined challenges over the course of the weekend, with an emphasis on using government data to solve challenges.

City of Darwin is sponsoring the event again in 2019 and is calling on the community to get involved.  Successful teams require a variety of skills and GovHack is open to anyone with a desire to deliver innovative solutions to a range of issues facing government.

“GovHack provides a unique opportunity to help government solve a broad range of challenges,” said Lord Mayor Kon Vatskalis. 

“In 2018 there were 15 teams and in 2019 we would like to see even more. Its not too late to enter a team and I encourage anyone interested to register now through GovHack's website.”

City of Darwin is providing data to competitors from a wide range of sources and disciplines, including their newly launched OpenGov platform, to assist them respond to and solve challenges. 

“The challenges set are aimed at improving the lives of our community by using information available through open data,” said Lord Mayor Vatskalis.

Teams access information from Federal, Territory and Local government open data platforms, using categorised and filtered information to create useful datasets.

Challenges could include finding solutions to parking in the city, investigating ways to make Darwin a cooler city and encouraging the community to become more health conscious.

City of Darwin’s OpenGov open data platform was launched in early August. The platform is an on-line integrated cloud solution for budgeting, performance, communications and reporting, providing the opportunity for stakeholders, including businesses and community members, to connect and provide feedback on projects and initiatives. 

For more information and to enter GovHack visit - https://darwininnovationhub.com.au/govhack-2019/

For more information on City of Darwin’s OpenGov platform visit - https://www.darwin.nt.gov.au/council/transforming-darwin/smart-darwin/making-our-city-smarter