The online Open Data Hackathon for students and start-ups has a winner. The Discindo team offered the best and most creative software solution for the challenge that the local self-government units are facing when publishing the budget, as part of the hackathon that was organized by the Metamorphosis Foundation for Internet and Society as part of the USAID Civic Engagement Project in the period 17-20 May.
13 participants took part in the hackathon and 3 working teams were formed. The teams had the task of preparing software solutions that would benefit the citizens, using open data from publicly available databases from institutions, informed Metamorphosis Foundation.
The winning Discindo team offered a web application that will allow а conversion of an Excel table into a readable document, which allows the storing of converted documents into a public repository and it allows the user to see visualizations of the municipalities’ budget and make a comparison between revenues and expenditures.
The best-ranked team was voted by a jury consisting of 5 members, and the winner gets $3,000 that will be used for upgrading their demo solution into a functional application that they can put into their portfolio.
The online hackathon was opened by Metamorphosis Foundation’s Executive Director Bardil Jashari. He stressed the importance of institutions’ openness i.e. the availability of data of public interest. He stressed the importance of institutions’ openness i.e. the availability of data of public character.
By using open data, through innovative ideas and application of existing knowledge, creative teams of various sectors had the opportunity to contribute to increasing the quality of life or alleviation and solving people’s social problems. The open data, apart from increasing the trust of the citizens toward the institutions through transparency and accountability, can positively influence the business, academic and civil society sector. It is extremely important in the creation of new products and services that can alleviate and improve people’s everyday lives.
