53 teams vie for big prize in Open Data Hackathon challenge

CYBERJAYA: A total of 53 teams with 176 participants began a 48-hour challenge vying for a cash prize of RM60,500 in the 2017 Open Data Hackathon Programme here, yesterday.

The programme which started at noon at the Malaysian Global Innovation and Creativity Centre (MaGIC) ends Wednesday.

Participants are required to develop or create applications or data products using the open data from data.gov.my portal.

Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Joseph Entulu Belaun said the Open Data Hackathon programme was divided into three categories, namely the public sector category for 48 hours, the industry and public and private universities category (48 hours) and high school students category ( 30 hours).

Additionally, 104 participants from 34 groups also began a 24hour challenge to win a cash prize of RM12,500 for the 2017 Mobile App Hackathon open to civil servants only.

Entulu said the Hackathon programme is a government initiative to encourage the creation of creative and innovative data applications and products to improve government services.

Entutlu explained that government-related data that was open to the public was not personal data or classified as confidential.

— Bernama