GovHack

GovHack is a significant annual open government and open data hackathon, attracting over 15,000 participants since 2009. First run as a small Canberra-based event, it quickly expanded to an international competition with simultaneous events taking place in major cities across Australia and New Zealand each year, with virtual events for remote and international participants. Since its inception, over 2,500 projects have been published by participants to demonstrate the practical value of open data.

Format
The competition requires small teams of competitors to produce a project using open data within 46 hours, from Friday evening to Sunday afternoon. The format of the project is unspecified, but web applications, mobile apps, and visualisations are common, with games and art also being encouraged.

Although competitors may use any available open data, certain prize categories mandate the use of certain datasets, such as "Best Geoscience Award" or "Best Use of Taxation Statistics Award". Typically, participating sponsors and government departments release new datasets for the competition each year.

Each team must produce evidence of work, such as source code, and are judged on a three-minute video they must produce about their project. Teams are required to publish their projects using an open license.

History
GovHack was first run at the Australian National University in 2009, funded by the Australian "Gov 2.0 Taskforce". In 2012, GovHack became an annual event and was run in two locations. During the early years of the competition, the Australian chapter of the Open Knowledge Foundation assisted with the operation of the event, with Pia Andrews as head of the national GovHack operations team.

From 2013 to 2017 GovHack rapidly expanded to become an international competition run throughout Australia and New Zealand, with virtual events for remote and international participants.

2014 marked the first annual GovHack Red Carpet Awards to celebrate the winners, sponsors, and volunteers of GovHack, taking place at Brisbane City Hall.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, GovHack was run entirely virtually. As a result, participation dropped significantly from 1500 participants in 2019, to less than half of that for the following years.