Open.NRW Hackathon
Publication Date/Time
2017-11-22T09:00:00+00:00
#NRWHack - a success story at federal state level
On the 4th and 5th November 2017, North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW), one of
Germany's 16 federal states, held the 3rd annual hackathon in a row.
The annual #NRWHack is a successful and one of a kind platform
bringing together the Open Data community and representatives of the
public administration in NRW, and aims at facilitating communication
and cooperation as well as awareness for Open Data. What could the
participants expect? Open data enthusiasts, an open dialogue with
public administration representatives and lots of Open Data - this
time in particular Open Geo Data and Open Mobility Data - to explore
and work with.

ONE STEP FURTHER TO TRANSPARENCY AND OPENNESS

NRW, as the only federate state in Germany, committed itself in 2014
to an Open Government strategy (Open.NRW Strategie
[https://open.nrw/sites/default/files/atoms/files/opennrwt1web.pdf])
to implement the cornerstones of transparency, participation and
cooperation. Since 2014 there have been numerous pilot projects to
further familiarise public administration with the concept of openness
and to foster a more collaborative working culture within the public
sector. However, in order to achieve sustainable systemic change a
legal basis for openness and transparency needs to be created.
Furthermore, the Open Government community, and in particular the
German Open Data community have been asking for more openness, more
high-quality data and more importantly for less bureaucracy. With the
entry into force of the Open Data Law in July 2017, the adoption of
several Transparency Laws in the German _Länder_ and Germany's
participation in the Open Government Partnership since December 2016,
Germany is building the solid foundation for more openness and
transparency.
[https://data.europa.eu/sites/default/files/img/media/open-nrw-meeting.png]
 

WHAT CAN OPEN DATA DO FOR YOU? WHAT CAN THEY DO FOR SCHOOLS AND
EDUCATION?

The first day of the #NRWHack aimed at training those who were not
accustomed to working with Open Data. Guests could attend and choose
between workshops for start-ups, Open mobility Data and geodata. The
second day focused on the actual coding and the subsequent
presentation of the prototypes. The winner was able to go home with a
prize money of 5.000€.

The winning concept focused on raising awareness about Open Data and
Open Government by starting with Open Data courses in schools and
universities. The team developed the prototype webgis.nrw
[http://www.webgis.nrw/] which enables interactive lessons in schools.
With the tool users are able to visualise different, interdisciplinary
data, e.g. population data, election results or labour market /
unemployment figures, in an easy and comprehensible way. It shows the
user how Open Data can be used to understand the 'nuts and bolts' of
economy, society and politics, while at the same time helping teachers
and students to further develop their digital competencies.

[https://data.europa.eu/sites/default/files/img/media/open-nrw-winners.png]
 

Further prototypes included a new way for train passengers to
communicate with each other via a chat, or applications for Amazon's
Alexa to search for the best and fastest way from A to B. All in all,
fun, creativity and developing new ideas for NRW - in dialogue with
different stakeholders - were the accomplishments of this year's
#NRWHack.

More information about the hackathon can be found on the Open NRW
Website here [https://open.nrw/geo-it-tag-1-beim-nrwhack-2017] and
here [https://open.nrw/webgisnrw-gewinnt-den-nrwhack-2017] (in
German).

Would you like to find out more about Open Data in NRW? Then check out
the following brochure: 11 Facts about Open Data in NRW
[https://open.nrw/11-fakten-ueber-open-data-in-nrw] (in German).
