Call for 'hackers' as national competition hits Peregian Beach

Noosa Council is calling for local ‘hackers’ to join this year’s GovHack competition for a chance to win prizes.

The competition, held all over Australia and New Zealand, encourages innovation with open government data, and it comes to the Sunshine Coast for the first time in 2015. And in a coup for Noosa, Peregian Beach software company Atmail will host the Sunshine Coast event.

GovHack unites geeks, digital creatives, data analysts, story tellers and entrepreneurs in a weekend team-based competition.

Teams have 46 hours to trawl through official data sets and develop useful ways of reusing the data for a chance to win prizes in international, national and local prize categories.

“All sorts of useful apps and computer programs are traditionally developed during GovHack in a fantastic demonstration of the entrepreneurship opportunities associated with open data sharing,” says Noosa Council Economic Development Officer Carolyn Bullen.

“Council is thrilled to be supporting GovHack this year as it is a great fit with Noosa’s growing e-commerce sector,” Ms Bullen said.

Noosa Council will provide datasets for use in the competition. These will be made available through the Australian Government Open Data portal at data.gov.au - an easy-to-use system for accessing the data at no cost.

“Peregian Beach is becoming an e-commerce hotspot and Atmail is one of our great local examples of successful knowledge economy businesses, so it’s a fitting location for this year’s Sunshine Coast event to take place,” said Ms Bullen.

Council has provided a $1000 cash prize, plus staff time to ensure data sets are accurate and accessible for this year’s event.

“The best teams have a mix of skill, so whether you’re an entrepreneur, web developer, a designer, digital media creator, an artist, story teller, researcher or an open data enthusiast, you’ll find a way to contribute.”

For more information about GovHack and how to get involved on the Sunshine Coast, visit www.govhack.org/sunshinecoast2015

10 June 2015