GovHack Logo

GovHack 2021 Year in Review

Photo by: Markus Spiske

Acknowledgement of Country

GovHack's staff, volunteers and community work all around and on the lands that are now called Australia and New Zealand.

In 2021, our work has taken place on the lands of the: Aotearoa, Aranda, Bunurong, Darambal, Djiringanj, Eora, Gunditjmara, Jaadwa, Jagara, Juipera, Jukambe, Jupagalk, Kaurna, Kirrae, Koenpal, Kurung, Larakia, Māori, Ngugi, Ngunawal, Peramangk, Pindjarup, Taribelang, Tharawal, Undanbi, Walbanga, Walgalu, Wandandian, Wathaurung, Wembawemba, Whadjuk, and Wurundjeri.

We acknowledge that sovereignty was never ceded and pay our respects to elders past, present and emerging across Australia and New Zealand.

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What is GovHack?

GovHack empowers communities all over Australia and New Zealand to experiment and tackle today's big policy and service delivery challenges with data.

Established in 2009 as a small Canberra-based event to showcase the opportunities of open government data, GovHack has grown into the largest open data community in the Southern Hemisphere.

We exist to:

  • connect community, government and industry to work together to grow data skills and build a digitally capable and inclusive society;
  • showcase data as the tool to identify and address today's most pressing social, economic and environmental challenges;
  • impress upon government the economic and social value of quality machine-readable, standardised open data;
  • highlight how open government is strengthening our democracy by promoting transparency and trust.

We value:

  • Inclusion — We're here for everyone! We believe that everyone deserves to participate in our digital future which is why GovHack is age-less, diverse, accessible, safe and secure.
  • Free — All our events, everywhere, for everyone.
  • Hackers-first — Our community is our priority. We work to elevate the needs of our community and members.
  • Regional — Opportunities shouldn't be limited to where you live. We work to drive GovHack to regional and rural locations, as well as all our capital cities.
  • Volunteer-driven — Passionate volunteers are the change makers and life blood that makes GovHack come alive.
  • Transparency — We believe in being accountable and open in all that we do.
  • Open Access — We advocate for FAIR (findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable) data to be used in open ways, shared and adaptable for everyone.

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Photos by: Zaidul Alam, Naiyer Khanom

A few words from our Board

Much like 2020, 2021 was a year of change and distruptions stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic.

In 2021, we saw over 1000 people come together in person and online as participants, volunteers, sponsors and mentors to produce 155 projects by the afternoon of Sunday 22nd August. This is inline with the participation we saw last year during our first hybrid GovHack in response to COVID-19. Before the competition weekend we had hoped to see larger participation from physical events around Australia and New Zealand however as a result of the COVID-19 Delta variant these physical events were not able to go ahead for the health and safety of our GovHack community. Nevertheless, these events were able to transition to a digital delivery method so participants were still able to come together.

We put together four overarching major themes; energy and infrastructure; agriculture and the environment; our digital future; and health and wellbeing. Each of these themes and their range of sub-themes, were areas of interest that we as a society are facing and our commonwealth government have a strategic focus on. It has been great to be witness to so many of the challenges offered by sponsors this year and the resulting projects, some of which we have seen this evening, responding to these themes. By putting together so many people with different skills, backgrounds and experiences, some of the outcomes of this Festival of Ideas will hopefully go on to be ongoing solutions to issues brought forward in the challenges of the competition.

GovHack wouldn't be possible without the huge effort put in by our volunteers and supporters. We would like to thank the many people that have made GovHack 2021 possible. GovHack is primarily a volunteer-led initiative with people contributing their evenings and weekends. The GovHack volunteers provide their time not just during the GovHack competition weekend but in the extensive planning that happens throughout the year in the lead up to the event and following the event.

— Jason Weigel
Chair, GovHack Australia Ltd

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Photos by: Bernadette Hyland-Wood, Jason Weigel

Our Community

We're lucky to have a diverse, talented and supportive community of individuals, communities and organisations all across Australia and New Zealand. While these numbers capture our scale in terms of quantity, they don't capture the scale of impact our entire community makes.

523 5,082 20,957
participants completed their 2021 GovHack hackathon submission are part of our online Slack community follow our newsletter & social channels

We published 33 editions of our e-newsletter in 2021 with articles highlighting the A/NZ Open Government Data event, Digital Australia Strategy, and various news and events.

33
editions of our e-newsletter were published in 2021

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Photo by: Zaidul Alam

In the Media

We featured in several stories published by the Queensland Government and Telstra Dev 2021.

Our social media channels helped to carry live video feeds and foster discussion across our state and territory, national and international award ceremonies.

Competition Month Statistics

Facebook Twitter LinkedIn
32,756 people reached in total 65,800 tweet impressions 25,903 post impressions
464 page views 7,890 page visits 2,025 page views

Annual Statistics

Facebook Twitter LinkedIn YouTube
1,860 followers 7,098 followers 2,078 followers 328 subscribers
39 followers gained 46 followers gained 526 followers gained 100 subscribers gained
42 reactions on top post 138 mentions 2,173 unique visitors 1,100 hours of watchtime
19,175 reach of top post 3,799 impressions on top tweet 19,348 views on top post 617 opening livestream views
118 new page likes 227 tweets 160 posts 9,362 total views across all videos

Hackerspace Statistics

Hackerspace
1,059 Total Registrations 155 Total Projects 652 Sponsor Website Clickthroughs 6,109 Data Set Clickthroughs 1,640 Resources Clickthroughs

A few of our tweets using GovHack hashtags #Govhack, #GovHack2021, #PetsofGovHack

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Our People

Our volunteers include mentors, data custodians, state leads, digital facilitators and our core operation teams that coordinate our organisation and the largest open data hackathon in the southern hemisphere. We're grateful to the 100+ dedicated and passionate volunteers that helped organise and run GovHack in 2021. Without the expertise, support and energy you all bring we simply wouldn't exist.

Our 2021 volunteers' efforts were noticed and highly appreciated by participants and sponsors alike. During the 2021 Feedback survey, participants were asked what they Loved about GovHack 2021. Here are some of the replies:

"Just the event in general and all the support from the volunteers and organisers."
— GovHack Participant
"...great responses & response time from GovHack organisers & helpers. Very respectful & friendly."
— GovHack Mentor
"...phenomenal community, wonderful organisation, great event."
— GovHack Participant

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Photo by: Krystal Tobias

Our Events

Our annual open data hackathon draws together teams of passionate civic hackers over 46 hours to develop data-driven insights and solutions to policy and service delivery challenges.

Following on from the digital first approach to GovHack 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, GovHack in 2021 delivered as hybrid approach to events. The majority of our events were digital based events. A small number of physical events took place in locations where it was safe to do so. Additional physical events were planned to take place, however due to local restrictions being introduced on short notice in response to COVID-19, these physical events transitioned to digital.

Part of the magic of the weekend hackathon is seeing brilliant people crouched over computer screens sharing ideas, teaching each other new skills (or refreshing old ones…) and connecting different datasets to gain new perspectives on big problems. With the majority of our events being digital, however some of this was missing. While our digital competition lacked some of this magic, it more than made up for it with teams jumping on slack and video conferences to collaborate and work together. It was fantastic to see all the mentors who volunteered time to be able to jump from team to team imparting wisdom as they went.

For a lot of us, the weekend was an opportunity to break through the mundane routine of our COVID-19 lockdowns and make new friends.

Events

  • Digital Conference — 27 July to 10 August
    This consisted of a series of sessions over a 2-week period, hosting several technical conversations, data owner presentations and messages from our sponsors. The sessions took place as digital livestreams on YouTube. Check them out here.
    These sessions included the Connection Events. These sessions provided information to participants about what GovHack is all about and how they can get involved with the event.
  • Competition Weekend Events — 20 to 22 August
    The GovHack Competition Event was a two-day hack event held simultaneously around Australia and New Zealand, over a 46 hour period to create concepts, mashups and models with open government data, to examine the challenges facing government and communities in new and innovative ways.
  • Region Awards Events — 12 to 19 October
    The GovHack Regions Awards took place during October after the GovHack competition weekend and after region level judging has been completed by all the region-level sponsors. Region Sponsors presented the very best projects from their GovHack Region Competition with their awards. The awards were livestreamed on YouTube. Check out the videos here.
  • International Digital Red Carpet Awards Events — 21 October
    The GovHack International Digital Red Carpet Awards event was the pinnacle night that showcases and celebrates the creativity and ingenuity of ANZ's most talented teams. Projects from across Australia and New Zealand that entered the international and national competitions will have been judged and the finalists and winners selected.
    The event was presented by David Bartlett, Former Premier of Tasmania as the Master of Ceremonies. The ceremony was livestreamed on YouTube. Check out the videos here.
523 391 155
participants completed their 2021 GovHack hackathon submission participants compete for their first time in 2021 projects were completed over 46 hours

Challenges for the competition focused on four main themes: Energy and Infrastructure, Digital Future, Agriculture and the Environment, and Health and Wellbeing.

3 International major prize challenges

  • Hack for a Circular Economy (Infosys)
  • Living in a post-pandemic world (Confluent)
  • Health and wellbeing of autistic people during a pandemic (GovHack)

6 National Australian major prize challenges

  • Create a solution to a customer need using the ABS Data API (Australian Bureau of Statistics)
  • Exploring the National Skills Commission's Australian Skills Classification (Department of Education, Skills and Employment)
  • IoT insights for better regional agribusiness at scale (TelstraDev)
  • Our financial future (Australian Taxation Office)
  • Youth education and employment (Australian Taxation Office)
  • Reimagining Digital Government Services (Infosys)

Check out all the award challenges and their sponsors on our website.

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Photo by: Zaidul Alam

Red Carpet Awards

49 116 $83k
winning regional, national and international projects runner up and honourable mentions in prizes awarded

The Red Carpet Awards are a key opportunity for our sponsors to recognise the teams that have created the most innovative and creative projects with open data. With the ongoing health and safety concerns related to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Red Carpet Awards had a different look. Instead of a single physical event the ceremony was live streamed by our guest presenter, David Bartlett, on Youtube Live on 21 October.

A huge congratulations goes to everyone who submitted a project. It was no easy task for the 80 judges from our sponsors to work though 155 amazing projects. An enormous thanks goes to each of them.

We saw over 40 winning entries and 115 runner up and honourable mentions across the regional, national and international award categories. A couple of our favourites included:

DigiKey 🔑

by Big Sunday (QLD (Digital), AU)
who won Reimagining Digital Government Services (Infosys); Digital Economy (Queensland Government); Safeguarding citizens privacy and ownership of their personal data (Victorian Department of Premier and Cabinet); and Building Citizen's Trust in this Digital World (Pernix)

DigiKey is a web app and API that provides a safe and secure way for Australians to share their data, as well as receive timely information that is relevant to their health, lifestyle and travel within Australia. DigiKey believes that for all Australians to feel safe and connected, government data regarding their health and wellbeing should be standardised and accessible while placing full control of their personal information in the hands of the everyday Australian.

Screenshot of DigiKey

SuperCattle

by The Lone Alpaca (Hobart (Physical - Location: UTAS, Sandy Bay), AU)
who won Best Youth Project (GovHack) and The digital future of agriculture (GovHack)

SuperCattle measures the growth of vegetation using computer vision for farmers to work out where to move their cattle. The data used was images from google to train the computer vision as well as 'Farm physical characteristics: Beef' to get cattle station size and location which was crucial for defining the project.

Screenshot of SuperCattle

El Camino - Explore Occupations without Preconceived Notions!

by JesseWeHaveToCode (NSW (Digital), AU)
who won Exploring the National Skills Commission's Australian Skills Classification (Department of Education, Skills and Employment) and Youth education and employment (Australian Taxation Office)

People often have a preconceived notion of the jobs they're supposed to have. Project El Camino seeks to change that by using simple heuristics, El Camino presents you jobs that might suit you, based on core competency numbers. This is calculated from the australian skills classification dataset, which has core competency levels for every job.

Screenshot of El Camino

CIRCLES

by Team BC (Canberra (Digital), AU)
who won Hack for a Circular Economy (Infosys) and Wellbeing in the ACT (ACT Government)

Project Circles is a mobile app that uses digital technology and open data to intelligently suggest locations for where circular economy Community Circles should be located, act as a hub for existing circular economy initiatives within Community Circles, and suggest locations where additional initiatives could take place. Circles builds more sustainable communities that cut down on waste, activate existing spaces, and promotes positive social and economic change by connecting people to circular economy initiatives within their Community Circles.

Animated image showing screenshots of Circles

People's Choice

The People's Choice Award is judged by our participants and volunteers. Everyone gets to have a say on the project they think went above and beyond during the competition.

The winner this year was Just Tripping Nudge from Brisbane with their project HydroSight.

HydroSight

by Just Tripping Nudge (Brisbane (Digital), AU)
who won International People's Choice and Water information without borders (Department of Planning, Industry & Environment)

Our data story starts in the northernmost limits of the Murray Darling River Basin along the Queensland and New South Wales border. Then it jumps southward to the intersection of three states in the heart of Australian agricultural country. Then it moves upstream along the Murray River and becomes more detailed - telemetry data from sensor buoys is collected, analysed, and crosslinked with water markets data, rainfall data, and irrigation. It finishes in the upper catchment above the Hume Dam, in the southern end of the Great Dividing Range, where in 2019 dams ran dry, and wildfires ripped through the area destroying crops, livestock, and livelihoods.

Screenshot of HydroSight

Check out all the award challenges and their sponsors on our website, or watch the announcements and presentations from our challenge sponsors on our website, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

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Photo by: Niki Fernando

The Numbers

Competitors Projects IRCA Winners IRCA Runners Up IRCA Honourable Mentions Regional Winners Regional Runners Up Regional Honourable Mentions
ACT 63 19 2 2 4 5 7 6
NSW 90 23 3 3 3 4 6 8
NT 3
QLD 118 37 2 1 6 10 4 10
SA 27 11 1 2 4 1 3
TAS 31 11 1 2 1 5 6
VIC 104 28 1 5 7 2 4 10
WA 33 11 1 2 3 1 3
AUS 469 140 10 16 27 29 29 40
NZ 57 15 1 1 7 2 3
Total 526 155 11 17 27 36 31 43

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Thank Yous

This year wouldn't have been possible without all these incredible humans and organisations. Thank you all so very much!

Lead International Sponsor

Infosys

International Sponsor and Partners

Confluent
Slack

Lead New Zealand Sponsor

Proaxiom

Australian National Sponsors

Australian Bureau of Statistics
Australian Taxation Office
Department of Education, Skills and Employment
TelstraDev x Microsoft

Australian Community Partners

AARNET
Hackathons International
Luma Institute

Australian Capital Territory Sponsors and Partners

ACT Government
Premier Sponsor

New South Wales Sponsors and Partners

Department of Planning, Industry and Environment
Platinum Sponsor
x15 ventures
Event Partner

Queensland Sponsors and Partners

Queensland Government
Platinum Sponsor
Moreton Bay Regional Council
Silver Sponsor
The University of Queensland
Silver Sponsor
The University of the Sunshine Coast
Venue Partner
SplitSpaces
Venue Partner
ENE-HUB
Supporting Sponsor

South Australia Sponsors and Partners

Pernix
Silver Sponsor
Stone and Chalk
Event Partner
Torrens University Australia
Venue Partner
Adelaide University Entrepreneur Club
Community Partner
Founders Institute
Community Partner
Moonshots
Community Partner

Tasmania Sponsors and Partners

Tasmania Department of Premier and Cabinet
Premier Sponsor
City of Hobart
Silver Sponsor
University of Tasmania
Event Partner
WOTSO
Venue Partner

Victoria Sponsors and Partners

Melbourne Water
Gold Sponsor
Victoria Department of Premier and Cabinet
Gold Sponsor

Western Australia Sponsors and Partners

City of Fremantle
Gold Sponsor
The University of Notre Dame
Gold Sponsor
Two21
Bronze Sponsor
Break Thru WA
Venue Partner
City of Albany
Supporting Partner

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Final Words from our Chair

Thanks for taking the time to learn about GovHack's achievements throughout 2021. We're looking forward to returning to physical events, incorporating the lessons we've learnt to encourage digital engagement.

In 2022, we'll continue our work to boost inclusion, with projects underway to upgrade the accessibility of our website and Hackerspace. We'll also be looking to scale our influence and reach with government by sharing our experiences and perspectives to inform policy development and service design. We're excited to host more curated talks and presentations that provide a learning experience for everyone. We're looking forward to refreshing our strategic plan this year to ensure GovHack is positioned to help create world-class, data-driven society for the people of Australia and New Zealand.

Finally, we're excited to have all of you join us for the next chapter of GovHack!

— Jason

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