City of Sails”- Auckland, New Zealand hosted its very first civic Hackathon to support the democratization and evolution of open government data and also to provide an opportunity for self development and personal network building. The event was organized on 24th and 25th May 2014 at AUT University, Sir Paul Reeves Building and involved developers, designers, activists, entrepreneurs and anyone else who is an Aucklander or New Zealander.
In its endeavor to become the world’s most liveable city, the Auckland Council has foreseen Auckland Transport(AT) and its services as a key enabler of its goal. While infrastructure upgrading is underway, plans are in store to perk up the customer experience and emotional connection with users of services of AT. Hackathon has been organized to enable innovation for greater good and solving local challenges mainly those related to transport in conjunction with technology. The broad areas for creating data solutions include Public Transport, Walking & Cycling, Parking and Driving. The event was supported by AT and organized in partnership with AUT University and software house Propellerhead. As the event approached, AT published a beta application programming interface or API to open up a wide range of the organisation’s data, including real-time bus information, geo-coding, road and congestion data. A community GitHub has been set up by the organizers where collaborators can store, access and improve source code.
For Further Information: http://hackakl.org.nz/