GovHack 2013 Started

Greetings from GovHack Canberra 2013 at the Inspire Centre, University of Canberra, which just started (five minutes late due to some technical difficulties). It runs until 2 June, with people in Adelaide, Brisbane, Canberra, Gold Coast, Hobart, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney. Teams of volunteers, ranging from school students to university professors, building computer applications using free open source government data. There is involvement from the three tiers of government (perhaps the UN next year?).

The four themes for GovHack 2013 are:

• Open Government
• Digital Humanities
• Science
• Data Journalism

There are National Prizes  as well as ones for the different locations. This year there are developer and entrepreneur prizes, where the winner are provided with resources to improve their application (other prizes are simple cash awards). There is also an award for the government agency which has made the best contribution to the event. Most of the prizes are from government agencies for use of their data. Best of Data Journalism prize is also new this year. Best digital storytelling is by Microsoft. Prizes will be handed out Thursday night at the companion GovCamp event.

On a similar theme, the Australian National University is hosting "Start-Up Camp Canberra 2013" from 6pm Friday 14 June to 5pm Sunday 16 June 2013.