To understand better how to develop open data competitions and to inform our own competition, we asked those of you that had hosted these already. We’ve had some thought provoking interviews from the shires and from the south west on hills and hearts.
From one port to another as we move from Bristol to Amsterdam. Because open data is alive and kicking on the continent too! Without further ado, here’s our interview with Alper Çugun and images from Hack de Overheid.
What motivated you to organise an open data competition?
We had a small amount of budget from the municipality that we wanted to use to generate as much impact as possible. The competition stimulates the opening up of data, prolonged attention from developers and the public and several moments (kickoff, awards, hackathon) to get attention for.
How do you think the competitive element helps stimulate the use of open data?
It’s an excuse for people to participate and an a good way to give people recognition for the work that they did. The actual money amount is not that important (though it should not be neglected).
What surprised you the most about the ideas put forward?
Not that much really. The ideas are usually well determined by the data that is released. We were surprised by the increasing amount of coder literacy that is present. People came from all over the place to submit their applications.
How did you pick the winners?
We had a light-weight jury process with a form to fill in ahead of time and a jury deliberation to pick the actual winners.
What would you say to anyone taking part in these competitions?
Go forth and hack! 🙂
Over to you!
If you’ve developed similar competitions or if you’ve taken part in a competition and would like to blog your thoughts, get in touch and we’ll feature the best on this blog.
And if you’ve just got a good idea on how to help people help each in their neighbourhoods or to make it easier to report issues to your council, check our own competition out with up to £3000 in prizes!
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.