GovHack sounds like people hacking the government. Which is somewhat right but it’s with governments’ approval. GovHack is about governments opening up their data and seeing what a big bunch of developers and likeminded people can do with that data over the space of a weekend. There were over 1000 participants and observers nationwide and there were 135 teams formed. There were some amazing projects that came out of the weekend and $170,000 worth of prizes up for grabs.
Our Team, “The Tasmanian Tiger Team” produced a web based app where you can see a storm water map feeding into the Derwent River. We’ve tried to provide functionality where people in the community can monitor their own water ways by uploading pictures and tagging the map. Our presentation can be viewed here. It’s mostly a proof of concept and there is a fair bit more we could implement. However, we managed to walk away with 3 local prizes.
There were two Tasmanian teams that both received national prizes. One of my favourite apps is called, “Marvellous Ultimate Appliance” and it is a card based game where you get to pitch you house hold appliances against your neighbours to see who wins. Attack and defence are based on energy efficiency. Have a play here. Some other projects that I think are shiny are Australia in Review allows you to scroll through recent Australian History, Impress Me allows you to assess your carbon footprint and Deathmatch me is a fun way of comparing and displaying cause of death facts.
All of these great ideas are just some of the possible applications of providing open data to people and no we’re not likely to find any government’s deep dark secrets just by data mining sensis data.