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This document exists to introduce GovHack Event Hosts and Managers to how GovHack's online presence will be changing in 2016, to help them to take advantage of the changes, and to guide them in getting information published.
There are two major changes taking place this year:
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Revamping our main website at govhack.org with a simpler, cleaner, more modern design, and rewriting and restructing its content to be more accessible to a wider audience.
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Launching a new website focused on the competition at portal.govhack.org to provide a single place for competitors to find all of the information they need to know (a one-stop shop!) - from the prizes on offer, the available datasets, who's mentoring, and ultimately, the projects that come out of it, and the prize winners.
In short, we're introducing structure where before there was very little by:
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Formalising how we describe and collect information about events, datasets, prizes, et cetera and storing it in a database.
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Trying out some new ideas we think will enhance the competition - such as adding themes, and better supporting challenges/problem statements from sponsors.
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Now that everything has a defined structure, we're going to link it together to make navigating the competition easier - e.g. Look at a prize and see not only its description, but the datasets and data portals relevant to it, the mentors who are supporting it, and so on.
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Creating a showcase that will highlight all of the awesome projects the hackers create, celebrate the winners, and provide a permanent home for all of the stories and outcomes from GovHack.
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Creating attractive marketing pages for each state/region at govhack.org at govhack.org/nsw, govhack.org/qld, et cetera.
In short, so we can run GovHack in a leaner and more efficient manner; so we ask less of all of our wonderful volunteers; and to support GovHack to exist all year round, not just as a blip on the year's calendar.
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To give GovHack a permanent home online and to "collect once, publish multiple times". As GovHack has grown and evolved over the years we've relied on people-intensive and time consuming ways of collecting information from event hosts - often asking for information multiple times, and having it pass through many pairs of hands before it ultimately gets published everywhere it's needed.
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To give GovHack a year-round presence and provide a foundation to do more between events to support GovHack projects, and the broader open data mission. Traditionally GovHack goes quiet between September and March each year, but we've heard a lot of feedback from our community that they'd love support to continue their projects through the year. The first step towards doing that is making sure our online presence enables us to do that.
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To better showcase all of the amazing outcomes of GovHack and follow their stories. Right now there's no one place to go to see all of the projects that have come out of GovHack, all of the projects from a particular city, all of the projects in a particular broad category - we're fixing that.
In short, you'll be using a set of forms we're creating to provide the updates to our new Web Team, and they'll be updating it for you.
To publish new information use these links to jump to the forms:
To update information about something that's already published contact your Digital Producers.
Fair question - and we're planning for that, but this first iteration is very much an experiment and a "Minimum Viable Product". If everything goes well, and these new ideas work, we'll be investing time after GovHack in creating a user-friendly publishing interface with no technical knowledge required.
But it requires a bit of technical knowledge and isn't as user-friendly as a WYSIWYG interface you'd find on platforms like Wordpress and Squarespace. If a member of your local team is proficient in Markdown, and has used GitHub's web interface before, then we're more than happy to give them access to the backend of the platform to self-publish.
Get in touch with the Web Team via Basecamp or at [email protected] for more information.
That's great! Actually, quite a few of the ideas we're adopting this year were inspired by things we've seen on GovHack websites created by local event teams. If your team has the capacity and drive to run its own web presence we're fully supportive of that, and will do what we can to help you (e.g. By supplying GovHack digital assets, and a style guide).
But remember, we'll still need you to list all of the key information about your event (where it is, prizes, datasets, mentors, et cetera) using the forms here so we can publish it in one place.
If you have questions about any this, have found a problem, or have a suggestion contact your region's Digital Producer on Basecamp or via email.
For NSW, QLD, ACT, and NZ: [email protected]
For WA, SA, VIC, and TAS: [email protected]
Contact your Digital Producers to discuss, and to make any changes to your marketing page (govhack.org/qld, govhack.org/wa, et cetera).
Each state/region has it's own page within portal.govhack.org (e.g Queensland) - where all of the relevant information supplied by state managers will be available.
We're still working on creating this form - in the meantime place contact your Digital Producers to make any changes.
What we need to know
- Name
- Description
- Photo/Logo URL
Each event has it's own page within portal.govhack.org (e.g Brisbane) - where all of the relevant information supplied by event hosts will be available.
We're still working on creating this form - in the meantime place contact your Digital Producers to make any changes.
What we need to know
- Name
- State/Region
- Event Type (Official Event or Youth Node or Theme Node or Maker Node)
- Event Description (A few paragraphs welcoming people to your GovHack event and saying why it will be great.)
- For Node Events:
- Node Description (A few paragraphs describing the particular theme, youth, or maker element of your event.)
- For Youth Nodes:
- Child Safety Commitment (A statement about your child safe environment that demonstrates compliance with state laws.)
- Information for Guardians (Instructions and information for guardians.)
- For Maker Nodes:
- Maker Facilities Information (Describe the maker facilities available, safety information, advice regarding supplies and equipment you'll need to bring e.g. Paint, soldering irons.)
- Childcare Information (Information on childcare arrangements at your event - optional)
- Event Photos (Photos of previous year events and competitors if available - Up to 3)
- Venue Information:
- Name
- Address
- Accessibility (Information about how accessible your venue is - e.g. for wheelchairs.)
- Photos (Photos of your venue if available - Up to 3)
- Opening Hours (e.g. "Closes at midnight", "Open all night if at least 5 hackers remain".)
- Catering Arrangements (If any)
- Getting There
- Parking availability
- Public transport options (With links to local public transport info)
- Last call for public transport (When does the last bus or train depart)
- Event Team:
- Event Host: Name, and optional contact info (email, social media accounts)
- Event Team Members: Name, and optional contact info (social media accounts)
- Event Logo (Location branded logo for your event - optional)
- Event Website URL (URL of your event's standalone website - optional)
- Event Email Address (The official @govhack.org email address for your event)
- Social Media Accounts (optional):
- YouTube
- Flickr
- Related Datasets
- Related Data Portals
Every organisation that sponsors GovHack (nationally, at the state-level, and for individual events) will have their own page within portal.govhack.org (e.g. IP Australia) where their sponsorship of GovHack and contributions will be highlighted.
We're still working on creating this form - in the meantime place contact your Digital Producers to make any changes.
What we need to know
- Name
- Description (A few paragraphs from the sponsor saying who they are and, optionally, why they're involved in GovHack.)
- Type (Government or Corporate)
- State/Region (optional)
- Event (optional)
- Sponsor Level
- Website URL
- Logo
- Related Data Portals
Each prize that's on offer for GovHack (internationally, nationally, at the state-level, and for individual events) will have their own page within portal.govhack.org where the prize details, related datasets, the prize sponsor and so on will be highlighted.
We're still working on creating this form - in the meantime place contact your Digital Producers to make any changes.
What we need to know
- Name
- Description:
- A sentence describing the prize.
- A few paragraphs describing the prize in more detail.
- Requirements (A few paragraphs describing any requirements the prize has [e.g. "Must use this sort of data"] - optional)
- Type (Prize or Bounty)
- State/Region (optional)
- Event (optional)
- Sponsor
- Image URL
- Related Datasets
- Related Data Portals
- Related Mentors
- Related Themes
Each official dataset that is being highlighted for GovHack (internationally, nationally, at the state-level, and for individual events) will have their own page within portal.govhack.org where information about the dataset, links to download it, related metors, and so on will be highlighted.
NB: This form should be sent to data providers for your state and local event to fill out.
What we need to know
- Name
- Description
- Hacker Toolkit Info & Links (Supplied by GOT)
- State/Region
- Sponsor
- Data Portal
- Dataset URL
- Related Mentors
Each official government data portal (nationally, at the state-level, and for individual events) will be listed on the data portals list within portal.govhack.org, and from each related page (e.g. the pages for your state/region andevent.
We're still working on creating this form - in the meantime place contact your Digital Producers to make any changes.
What we need to know
- Name
- Description
- Type (Major, Local, Domain, Agency)
- State/Region
- Website URL
- Logo URL
- Related Mentors
- Related Datasets
Each mentor that is part of GovHack (nationally, at the state-level, and for individual events) will have their own page within portal.govhack.org where information about them, what they can help with, who they work for, and where they'll be mentoring, and so on will be highlighted.
NB: This form should be sent to sponsors for your state and local event to provide to the mentors they'll be making available.
What we need to know
- Name
- Biography
- State/Region
- Event (The event they'll be at - optional)
- Sponsor
- Photo URL
- Position Title
- Ask Me About
Themes are a new concept for GovHack that will let GovHack (nationally, at the state-level, or for individual events) highlight a few broad high-level themes that emerge as part of the competition.
For example - if your local event has a range of sponsors relating to transport you might create a Transport theme around your event that links together the prizes, interesting and useful datasets, related government agencies, and so on.
For example - last year the CSIRO put together a dedicated theme website for GovHack Science.
The ultimate decision to create a theme will lay with you as GovHack organisers looking at a combination of who your sponsors are, what your prizes are, what data sponsors are submitting, and what bounties and challenges sponsors are putting up. Creating themes isn't mandatory, but the GOT team will be here to guide and assist you if you would like to.
In specific cases (such as CSIRO) where a single sponsor represents a broad subject area that's relevant to your prizes, and has super engaged mentors willing to put in the work, they may be given more direct input on the content of the themes.
We're still working on creating this form - in the meantime place contact your Digital Producers to make any changes.
What we need to know
- Name
- Description:
- A few paragraphs introducign and describing the theme
- Curated Links (Links to places to find more information and context about the subject of the theme.)
- Serving Suggestions (A few paragraphs describing the sorts of projects that might be created under this theme.)
- State/Region (optional)
- Event (optional)
- Photo URL
- Related Datasets
- Related Prizes
- Related Data Portals
- Related Mentors
- Related Sponsors
More info coming soon.
More info coming soon.