Looking back at the first Hackathon Open Data Brussels

The first Hackathon Open Data Brussels successfully took place in transforma bxl on 17/18 October 2014 in partnership with Entreprise Globale, the city of Brussels and Brussels Region. 45 participants got together to put to good use the enormous amount of open data provided by the city and the Region of Brussels. They had two days to find a concept of a web or mobile app and to build a first usable prototype around it.

Teams were formed on the spot to work on one of the selected projects:

• noselus.be: an application to empower participatory democracy,
• Think of the children, an application allowing citizens to visualise the availability of schools and kindergartens currently as well as in the future based on demographic predictions.
• Brussels Open Wifi (BOW): an application built around a listing of wifi spots in Brussels,
• Publi-city: An application allowing citizens to rate advertisement in the public space,
• An application tracking on the air quality in Brussels
• An application on the hidden beauties of Brussels

One of the positive outcomes of this edition was the participation of a considerable number of women, who had a very valuable impact on the results of the hackathon: two of the three winning teams were composed of a majority of women participants. This outcome is the result of the focus transforma bxl puts on empowering women entrepreneurs and on its ambition to create an innovative gender balanced community.

These efforts are led in transforma bxl by inhouse gender equality expert Valerie Kinoo, who in partnership with Girls Code Europe have organised a preparatory event especially dedicated to women to introduce them to Open data principles and to hackathons.

At the end of the two days, pitches of the prototypes have been delivered in front of the audience and a jury of 5 experts. The prize of best prototype was awarded by the region of Brussels to Brussels Open Wifi. The prize of the application using the most data sources has been awarded by the city of Brussels to think of the children. While the prize of the prototype with the highest business potential has been awarded by Beci to Publi-city.

Below you can relive the hackathon through the eyes of its participants: tweets, pictures, videos posted by the participants as well as articles and other media sources.

Looking forward for the next hackathon in transforma bxl…