Over the week­end, DKA and Charles Dar­win Uni­ver­si­ty part­nered to host Gov­Hack, the largest open data hackathon in Aus­tralia. Gov­Hack is an event that brings peo­ple togeth­er to inno­vate using open gov­ern­ment data, host­ed annu­al­ly in cities and towns all over Aus­tralia. It’s all about tak­ing raw data and turn­ing it into some­thing use­ful and accessible.

Six dig­i­tal inno­va­tors came to the Desert Knowl­edge Precinct in Alice Springs, com­bin­ing their skills and knowl­edge to bounce ideas around and cre­ate clever new things for a bet­ter world. Over 46 hours, com­peti­tors com­pet­ed in 14 chal­lenges across the NT and nation­al­ly. Incred­i­ble new projects and ideas were cre­at­ed in an inspir­ing cel­e­bra­tion of cre­ativ­i­ty, inge­nu­ity and the pow­er of open data. 

Renew­able Ener­gy Challenges

The Intyal­heme Cen­tre for Future Ener­gy sub­mit­ted two renew­able ener­gy chal­lenge ques­tions that par­tic­i­pants from all over the coun­try could choose to address. The win­ner of each of these chal­lenge ques­tions wll receive $1000 in prize money.

• Renew­able Renters: How can we enable renters in Alice Springs to access the ben­e­fits of rooftop solar (clean ener­gy, reduced pow­er bills), like their home-own­ing peers? (Prize spon­sored by CDU and DKA.)
• The Ener­gy Source: What are the most effec­tive ways of help­ing Alice res­i­dents to under­stand, and care, where their ener­gy comes from? (Prize spon­sored by Hut­six and DKA.)

Alice Springs Projects

Judg­ing is cur­rent­ly under­way; the Gov­Hack Awards cer­e­mo­ny will be held lat­er this year. Until then, check out what the Alice Springs teams got up to: 

Hut­six: Pay it Forward

Pay it For­ward is the free plat­form for acts of kind­ness in the North­ern Ter­ri­to­ry, pri­mar­i­ly ori­en­tat­ed towards ride sharing. 

SolarAS: Alice Solar Homes

SolarAS has writ­ten a web­site to assist renters and land­lords coop­er­ate with the help of real-estate agents to build and main­tain high-qual­i­ty, high-volt­age black­out resis­tant solar sys­tems with­in their homes.

#NewAus­trali­a­Day

The team at #NewAus­trali­a­Day cre­at­ed an entry that helps to adver­tise pub­li­cal­ly acces­si­ble BBQ sites and tal­lies pub­lic BBQ gatherings.

Local Awards

Spir­it of GovHack

Each Gov­Hack loca­tion presents a Spir­it of Gov­Hack Award (spon­sored by Infos­ys) to a com­peti­tor who exem­pli­fies coop­er­a­tion and team spir­it. In Alice Springs, Edan Bax­ter was award­ed the Spir­it of Gov­Hack. Con­grat­u­la­tions, Edan, and thanks for your enthusiasm!

Local Team Prizes

Thanks to CDU for spon­sor­ing $1000 for local team prizes. 

First Prize $750: SolarAS
Sec­ond Prize $250: Hut­six

Thank You

• Event Part­ners CDU and DKA
• NT Spon­sors North­ern Ter­ri­to­ry Gov­ern­ment, CDU, City of Dar­win, NAB, and Hut­six
• Infos­ys pro­vid­ed the prize for the Spir­it of Gov­Hack Award
• CDU and DKA vol­un­teers Wendy, Mel, Jodie, Anna, Sara and Toni 
• Precinct Elder-in-Res­i­dence Harold Furber, who deliv­ered a stir­ring Wel­come to Coun­try at our Alice Springs event. See if you can spot him in the Offi­cial Gov­Hack Clos­ing Video below!