GovHack is a significant annual

open government Open government is the governing doctrine which sustain that citizens have the right to access the documents and proceedings of the government to allow for effective public oversight. In its broadest construction, it opposes reason of state and ...

and

open data Open data is data that is openly accessible, exploitable, editable and shared by anyone for any purpose. Open data is licensed under an open license. The goals of the open data movement are similar to those of other "open(-source)" movements ...

hackathon A hackathon (also known as a hack day, hackfest, datathon or codefest; a portmanteau of hacking and marathon) is an event where people engage in rapid and collaborative engineering over a relatively short period of time such as 24 or 48 hours. Th ...

, attracting over 15,000 participants since 2009. First run as a small Canberra-based event, it quickly expanded to an international competition with simultaneous events taking place in major cities across Australia and

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 List of islands of New Zealand, smaller islands. It is the ...

each year, with virtual events for remote and international participants. Since its inception, over 2,500 projects have been published by participants to demonstrate the practical value of open data.

Format

The competition requires small teams of competitors to produce a project using open data within 46 hours, from Friday evening to Sunday afternoon. The format of the project is unspecified, but

web application A web application (or web app) is application software that is accessed using a web browser. Web applications are delivered on the World Wide Web to users with an active network connection. History In earlier computing models like client-serve ...

mobile app A mobile application or app is a computer program or software application designed to run on a mobile device such as a phone, tablet, or watch. Mobile applications often stand in contrast to desktop applications which are designed to run on ...

s, and visualisations are common, with games and art also being encouraged. Although competitors may use any available open data, certain prize categories mandate the use of certain datasets, such as "Best Geoscience Award" or "Best Use of Taxation Statistics Award". Typically, participating sponsors and government departments release new datasets for the competition each year. Each team must produce evidence of work, such as source code, and are judged on a three-minute video they must produce about their project. Teams are required to publish their projects using an

open license A free license or open license is a license which allows others to reuse another creator’s work as they wish. Without a special license, these uses are normally prohibited by copyright, patent or commercial license. Most free licenses are ...

History

GovHack was first run at the

Australian National University The Australian National University (ANU) is a public research university located in Canberra, the capital of Australia. Its main campus in Acton encompasses seven teaching and research colleges, in addition to several national academies and ...

in 2009, funded by the Australian "Gov 2.0 Taskforce".In 2012, GovHack became an annual event and was run in two locations. During the early years of the competition, the Australian chapter of the

Open Knowledge Foundation Open Knowledge Foundation (OKF) is a global, non-profit network that promotes and shares information at no charge, including both content and data. It was founded by Rufus Pollock on 20 May 2004 in Cambridge, UK. It is incorporated in England a ...

assisted with the operation of the event, with

Pia Andrews Pia Andrews (née Pia Smith, also formerly known as Pia Waugh), born 1979, is an open government leader and the ''Special Advisor, Digital & Client Data Workstream Lead'' for Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC). Andrews spearheaded ...

as head of the national GovHack operations team. From 2013 to 2017 GovHack rapidly expanded to become an international competition run throughout Australia and New Zealand, with virtual events for remote and international participants. 2014 marked the first annual GovHack Red Carpet Awards to celebrate the winners, sponsors, and volunteers of GovHack, taking place at

Brisbane City Hall Brisbane City Hall, in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, is the seat of the Brisbane City Council. It is located adjacent to King George Square, where the rectangular City Hall has its main entrance. The City Hall also has frontages and entrance ...

. During the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identified ...

, GovHack was run entirely virtually. As a result, participation dropped significantly from 1500 participants in 2019, to less than half of that for the following years.

Events

External links

Data Point (The Age blog)

References

{{reflist Open data Hackathons Open government Hacker culture Computer-related events