Tonight at Open Knowledge Melbourne we helped launch a 2 week open data hackfest leading up to the spatial conference GeoNext. The competition rewards the most innovative use of official competition APIs from Airbus Defence & Space, What 3 Words, HERE Maps, and the Victorian Government. Participants must submit a web-accessible demo by midnight on August the 12th to be eligible for the $7500 prize pool.

Staff from VicRoads, who are running the hackfest and provided refreshments for the launch, were there in force. Brent from HERE Maps showed the incredible range of services available through the HERE Developer portal, which is open to anyone throughout the hackfest. Airbus are providing access to high resolution satellite imagery, available through a range of geospatial services – see the hackfest page for the details. And What3Words provides an alternative, simpler location service in which any location on earth can be specified with three words.

Full details of the competion are at www.geonext.com.au/hackfest.

Steve Bennett’s slides with a summary are here.