5 September 2019
UCOL Whanganui is one of six New Zealand locations playing host to GovHack, the Southern Hemisphere’s largest open data
competition, this weekend.
GovHack is a weekend-long hackathon bringing together coders, artists, storytellers, observers, communicators and more,
to work with government data to create innovative, community-focused solutions.
The Whanganui event will kick off in the UCOL Atrium on Friday 6 September and concludes on Sunday 8 September.
The aim of GovHack is to bring people together to have fun, solve civic challenges, and make life better.
Teams have 48 hours to create a proof of concept and a short video explaining how they have used open data. Projects can
be anything that takes official open data and uses it in a clever and creative way. Previous projects have ranged from
mobile apps to artistic displays to 3D models.
Event organiser Masina Kenworthy says it is exciting to bring GovHack to Whanganui for the third time and see what the
entrants can create.
“It’s great to hold GovHack in Whanganui again and see what some of the creative minds here come up with. This year is
extra significant for Whanganui as we will also host the New Zealand GovHack awards night later in the year.”
Stats NZ is a national sponsor of GovHack NZ, along with Whanganui software firm Proaxiom.
ENDS