IP Australia has announced it is to be the lead Agency sponsor for GovHack 2016.
GovHack will be held in 36 locations across Australia and New Zealand from 29 July to 31 July with the aim of developing new and innovative uses for Government data. IP Australia said the contest
was designed to demonstrate the benefit of open access and Government 2.0.
It said the annual competition brought together more than 1,000 participants, including geeks, digital creatives, data analysts, storytellers, entrepreneurs and civil society enthusiasts to work in teams over 46 hours to explore concepts using open Government data.
IP Australia said GovHack would be a major event in Innovation Month 2016.
It said in previous years, entries had included art, jewellery, digital signs, a board game, historical film pieces, a virtual reality game, a 3D model, visualisation of data, an informed
article and web apps.
IP Australia said selected finalists could receive flights and accommodation to the GovHack Red Carpet Awards.
It said Hackerspace was the official GovHack competition submission site and allowed entrants to submit all components required for their team’s entry.
IP Australia said all team members must be registered and entries should include a descriptive project page listing team members, details about the project, what datasets have been used and what competition categories (local, national and international) are being entered.
It said any code, graphics, mashups, applications, website URLs and photos of each stage must all be made available under an open source/content licence to be eligible for prizes, and entrants would be required to record any data used.IP Australia said all entries would be judged by the GovHack Competition Judging Panel against the following criteria: originality; the relevance to the team’s nominated category definition; specific prize eligibility criteria detailed (if any) — for example, data use, team criteria; consistency with contest purposes including social value; quality and design (including standards compliance); and usability (including documentation and ease of use).
It said at least one team member must be aged over 18 and judges would expect entries to be primarily developed throughout the weekend of GovHack.
IP Australia said if it was shown that submissions had been worked on before the weekend,the submission would be ineligible for prizes.