Open data hackathons drive digital innovation
Are you an entrepreneur or part of a start-up and developing a new
application? Then open data hackathons and digital innovation
competitions are a great opportunity for you to find external
partners, develop new ideas and collaborate, or even extend your ideas
to a new start-up. 

A Greek research team at the University of Macedonia
[https://www.uom.gr/en] recently studied exactly what it is that
drives the success of these events. In other words, what are the goals
and design strategies that make open data hackathons and innovation
competitions successful?

They looked at 6 case studies of open data hackathons and innovation
competitions between 2014 and 2018 in Thessaloniki. Here’s what they
found: 

 	* Businesses, policymakers, citizens, practitioners and developers
need to actively collaborate to publish and reuse datasets.
 	* Organisers should be aware of the potential for knowledge and
insight creation of an event and develop explicit knowledge management
mechanisms accordingly. Also, these mechanisms should evolve alongside
the different phases of an event.
 	* Though every open data hackathon and digital innovation
competition is unique in its set-up,  the whole set-up should meet
the needs of each public institution and should ideally even be
adapted for each specific user.

The researchers conclude the study by stating that, first and
foremost, it is the active involvement of businesses, non-governmental
organisations, and the collaboration between companies and developers
that drives the success of the events and creates new channels of
communication. According to the authors, to truly progress the digital
transformation of government: 

“ … entities from the public and private sectors must collaborate,
primarily by publishing official government data sets, providing
funding, educating citizens to participate in related open data-driven
activities, sharing knowledge and technical tools, and creating
networking opportunities that will aid in the launch of more open
data-driven platforms, services, and start-ups.”

Curious to learn more? Read the publication
[https://www.researchgate.net/publication/357908349_Digital_innovation_and_entrepreneurship_transformation_through_open_data_hackathons_Design_strategies_for_successful_start-up_settings].


Looking to stay tuned for more news and events? Follow us on Twitter
[https://twitter.com/EU_opendata], Facebook
[https://www.facebook.com/data.europa.eu], and LinkedIn
[https://www.linkedin.com/company/publications-office-of-the-european-union/],
or subscribe to our newsletter
[https://data.europa.eu/en/newsletter].

Publication Date/Time
2022-02-02T07:00:00+00:00
Discover learnings from researchers at the University of Macedonia