Thousands of people will hit Wyndham for one of the world’s biggest “hackathons” this week.
From Friday to Sunday, Wyndham council will host GovHack, an annual competition that challenges participants to develop the most creative uses for publicly available online data.
Run by several federal government departments and the Australian Bureau of Statistics, GovHack aims for participants to create a project that will benefit the community.
Cr Aaron An said many innovative internet sites and mobile apps had been developed at past GovHack competitions.
“Some of the award-winning projects developed as part of last year’s event included a website that calculates your risks of being involved in a car crash or your home flooding or being broken into, and recommend ways of reducing those risks; a visualisation that can pick the best location for a new business; and an augmented-reality mobile app that helps people learn about nearby wildlife, parks and landmarks,” Cr An said.
He said the council would also supply data for this week’s GovHack contestants to use.
“Our surging population, and the challenges that represents, means we need to be innovative and work collaboratively to come up with new solutions,” he said. “GovHack is one way we can continue to think outside the box … and be a part of this global push towards innovation.”
Details: wyndham.vic.gov.au/govhack
