Volunteering at the GovHack Melbourne Open Data Hackathon

By Carly Lyddiard in Hackathons, Open Data 0 Comment

Open Data, Open Government and Civic Tech are super interesting to me, and I’ve had my eye on the Open Knowledge Foundation‘s GovHack event for a few years now. GovHack is a competitive hackathon run across Australia and New Zealand, using open data published by all levels of government. This year everything lined up in terms of my location and availability, and I decided to get involved. Being a hackathon n00b and knowing very little, I decided not to compete, and instead signed up to volunteer at the Melbourne event. Volunteering at the hackathon turned out to be a brilliant idea (well done, past Carly!).

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Historical Maps of Melbourne

By Carly Lyddiard in Hackathons, Non Tech, Open Data 0 Comment

Last night I had the pleasure of attending Night School: Historical Maps of Melbourne, a free event by Melbourne Library Service. I wasn’t sure what to expect, and was curious about both the event and Boyd Community Hub. I was delighted with the Hub, the relaxed vibe, the enthusiasm and humour of the hosts Natalie and Ivy, and the open dialogue with the others in the audience. And pleasure of pleasures: all of the presented material is available online and free to the public! Not just a list of maps, but high res maps and in some cases even interactive map tools and full scans of map books. Oh, the joy!

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