Warwickshire News Mine

It follows the launch of the county council’s Open Data website last month, which is making many of the council’s previously unreleased datasets, on everything from the number of school exclusions to bridge height restrictions, freely available to the public for the first time.

The “Hack Warwickshire” competition, which launches on Monday, encourages people to think about how technology can deliver better public services – and challenges them to come up with applications that do just that.

Warwickshire County Council is following other authorities such as London, Lincoln, Lichfield and Kent, in making its data freely available and is offering prizes for the most innovative use of the information.

Data mashing involves combining data or the functions of two or more sources to create a new service, which is the aim of “Hack Warwickshire”. The grand prize is a brand new Apple iPad, the latest technological must-have.

Entrants are being encouraged to think about developing map visualizations, iPhone applications, ways of integrating the data with social networking and much more in their bid to win the competition.

Cllr Martin Heatley, Warwickshire County Council’s Portfolio Holder for Resources, said: “This is not only about making our work more transparent, but also about making the information we hold as a county council more useful to people.

“Making our data freely available was just the first step. Now we want you to identify other methods of making this information available, bringing it together in dynamic ways that people can interact with.”

Cllr Heather Timms, the county council’s Portfolio Holder for Customers, Workforce and Partnerships, said: “We are always striving to provide information to people in a way that is quick and convenient to them.

“We’re keen to explore how our customers’ needs can be met by bringing together information from different services and offering them in ways that are more accessible. We’re excited about this competition and about what the technologically talented are going to produce using our data!”

The competition runs until 25th June. A shortlist of ten finalists will be selected, before a grand final is held in July, with the ultimate winner chosen by a panel of Warwickshire County Council and industry experts.

For more information see http://warwickshireopendata.wordpress.com/hack-warwickshire/.
Join the Warwickshire Open Data community at http://opendata.warwickshire.gov.uk/pages/community
Email opendata@warwickshire.gov.uk
Follow @wccopendata on Twitter (hashtag: #hackwarwickshire).

Link to WCC