Just realised our team has received a special mention on the GovHack 2013 winners page, aren’t the organisers lurvely! 🙂
We also made the staff news at work, the only disappointing thing was the headline in the news digest email reads “ITSC take on GovHack”, with no mention of the library! Hmph!
I thought I might be biased as I go through all the GovHack projects yesterday, I believe the Perth teams would win big at national level. Well, today the winners have been announced, proved that I wasn’t biased! The Perth teams have scooped up lots of awards! Go Perth!
In today’s post, I want to highlight my top 3 picks that are GLAM-related (Otherwise I’ll not be able to finish this post by the end of 6/6).
#1 AdVintage
The AdVintage app showcases Australian print advertisements from the Trove collection in a very visually appealing way. Users can browse by categories, search and save ads to their favourites to create their very own collection.
When I first saw the app in action at the presentation, it reminds me of Pinterest, and I automatically think it’s going to be highly addictive! In my world, AdVintage is the winner, the team has made the awesome Trove collection even more awesome-r. Follow @advintageapp on Twitter.
#2 Pixtory
First off, that sign up page was just beautiful. I’m so in love with this idea! I tweeted something similar at @MuseumofPerth when he asked Twitter for “one big idea” for Perth a while ago.
I was thinking more on interactive touch screens in the city, I think it’s more accessible, also a more candid way to attract users to find out more about Perth’s history. Nevertheless I love Pixtory because again it brings the archive to life. It is an iPhone app that shows users geotagged images from the SLWA archive according to their physical location. I really look forward to playing with this app when it becomes available via the Apps store. Follow @ourPixtory on Twitter.
#3 Hansard Hack
In my last job I had to search the Hansard, a lot. They usually have the most painful, frustrating, and non-user-friendly interface. I still remember I almost had a mini melt down once when a research request required me to trawl through hansards from all States. The Hansard Hack works with all digitised debates, it is also searchable by people and date, and the bubble charts of politicians frequently used words are just superb!
Ms Gillard says “Opposition” a lot http://hansearch.heath.cc/bubble/81
I can see this app being used by advisors, librarians, researchers and citizens who enjoy exploring the occasionally entertaining and amusing parliamentary debates. I hope this app gets expanded to include data from other States.
So these are my top 3 picks, yours?
p.s. I totally dig deathmatch.me, too. It’s so much fun.
Photo by Keith Moss @kevin_rudds_cat https://plus.google.com/photos/104491962222747663658/albums/5885203750660844673
** You’d think I’ve done enough shameless self-promotion, not really. I hope that you would sign up and vote for us if you like our idea. We’re Team =), our project is Friends with Benefits. he-he.
So I bit the bullet and attended GovHack as a participant last weekend. It’s an eye-opener, all in all an amazing experience. The photos are up, check them out! If you’ve ever contemplated whether you should attend any hack/jam events (I always had), don’t waste your time just thinking about it. Join in! And here’s my list of 5 reasons why you should attend next year.
#1 Make connections
Something I have not done enough in the weekend, I must admit. Those people who gave up their weekend for this event are the most talented, passionate, generous, and, ahem, crazy types ;). Even the worse networker like me had no trouble meeting and talking to new people at this event. Everyone was so friendly, positive, and supportive. Ask questions and you’ll get answers, even got shown how to do things.
One of the best thing about GovHack is that you can attend as an observer, you can talk to all the teams and check out what they’re doing without joining the competition. Depends on what you want to get out of it, you can even make better connections that way.
#2 See how magical things happen
Attend GovHack and let the amazing works blow your mind, you’ve got to see it in action.
How often do you have an idea in your head, but you don’t know how to turn it into reality? I attended this event with a few ideas in mind, many of the teams have actually turned these ideas into reality, even better than what I had imagined!
How many times have you heard of all the programming languages and tools that you have never used because you don’t know when to use what? Ruby on Rail, JSON, d3.js, SVG… And how do you scrap PDFs, Facebook, and Twitter? The teams pitched the ideas on day one, delivered the end products with source codes and presentations on day two, demonstrating what to use for each idea, how they tackled problems etc. The apps are all open source, so learn and explore!
#3 Learn something newÂ
The event was not just attended by programmers, attendees are of all sorts of interesting background, I even met a historian! I truly believe everyone who attended the event would have learned something during this weekend. Creating something in 48 hours is very rush. Working as a team, you would be able to learn from your team members, it could be someone you just met 2 hours ago. Librarians who’re interested in picking/polishing up your coding and design skills must attend GovHack!
#4 Sell your stuff
The attendees are your best friends if you have a collection of things, such as archival materials and data sets. These people have mad skills that could turn them into meaningful applications and visualisations that could bring your collection to life. If you work with data, you should attend GovHack with an open mind, sell your collection to them and see what’s possible. More importantly, learn what you need to do to make your data more accessible and coder-friendly. Don’t give them PDFs, please.
#5 Challenge yourself
Finally, pretty self-explanatory really. Get out of your comfort zone, be brave, stretch yourself. Do something you have never done before, and be amazed at what you can actually achieve.
I feel like I just woke up from the GovHack induced coma.
The dream I had last night was so surreal, and I could remember every detail. In my dream, I boarded an ordinary looking train, just like the one we boarded on Friday night to the launch party.
Once I got in, the train didn’t look like anything I’ve previously seen. The interior was made out of wood, the chairs are scattered all over the place, there’s a black toilet in the middle of the carriage, spilling thick black liquid occasionally, like an active volcano.
A couple of transit staff were standing by each of the doors, they looked relaxed and nice. I asked one of the staff where the train was heading, she said, “Brighton”. Brighton, I had no idea where it is. There were quite a few people, but not packed, they all seem to know where they’re heading and didn’t seem to think this train looked different from an “ordinary” train.
I stayed on the train, and the track turned out to be just like a roller coaster but I didn’t feel like I’d lose my grip. I was nervous, yet excited. There’re not many stops, I pondered whether I want to get off at every stop, but I ended up staying on this weird looking train, all the way to Brighton. Brighton looks like Los Angeles, and that’s the end of my dream. I keep thinking about this dream today, my subconscious might have just summed up how I feel about the past 3 days. Anyway, enough of my silly dreams…
Having attended GovHack gave me a lot of blog post ideas. Although I really want to pour it all out in one go, I am going to break it down into several topics and blog about them in the next few days because 1. it’s #blogjune and I’m supposed to blog everyday and I already missed a day :P, 2. I need a bit more rest.
Today I’m going to write about our project. I’m part of Team =), our project was called Friends with Benefits. Friends with Benefits is a web app that allows users to check if their Facebook friends have any unclaimed money via the ASIC and WA Department of Treasury web services. There are other databases we could use, such as the ATO Superseeker and Fair Work Ombudsman unpaid wages search. They cannot be queried in the same manner, as they require other details such as tax file number or employer name. We have also thought of analysing user’s Facebook friend’s status updates and recommend suitable charities they might wish to donate the money to. This has not be added to the app so in the presentation video we thought if your friends are grateful and kind enough, you could probably take a cut of the money you found for them.
It was not my idea, but it’s really fun to do and most importantly, achievable in 2 days. It’s all programming so I couldn’t actually help (I’m very rusty :)), I’d probably slow everything down if I did “help”. So I just focus on getting our team registered in Hackerspace, doing the project video and helped with the design side of things. While the guys, Steven, Rubesh, and Paul worked on putting the app together.
Do check out our team page in Hackerspace, the source code and our project video. Paul has also created a Prezi about our experience. We’re still in the running for the People’s choice award, if you like our idea, please sign up and vote for us 🙂
//icecjan/ 