“Local Geographic Information System and Big Data”, “Transparent Local budget” and “Local Open Data in smart city” were three topics at the centre of the DataBoom hackathon that took place on the 15th and 16th of April in Budapest, Hungary. The event, which was organised by the K-Monitor, the Magyary Zoltán Association on e-Government Science and the Kitchen Budapest, is considered as the first Open Data, reusing, hacking competition organised in Hungary, the website states.

The hackathon was also part of a series of events organised by the Netherlands Presidency of the Council of the European Union, called the TransparencyCamp Europe. This programme is the first European initiative of the US TransparencyCamp created by the Sunlight Foundation.

“The best team can qualify for the international competition hosted by the Transparency Camp Europe 2016 in Amsterdam”, the Facebook page of the event said. TransparencyCamp Europe is scheduled on June 1st 2016 in Amsterdam.

The aim of the hackathon in Budapest is to help teams of 3-5 developers create “effective software applications within 24 hours that are adapted to the needs of both the local inhabitants and entrepreneurs”.

This event was also aimed at improving skills in data re-using in Hungary, as the country “lags well behind other countries in the adaptation of those practices”.

Spatial data, participatory budget and local open data

In the Local Geographic Information System and Big Data topic, the group intended to work at crossing data from public bodies and other data, like spatial datasets from the European Open Data portal, to generate new information. “Linking smart devices, remote sensing technologies and public sector information is still an unexploited territory”.

In the project “Transparent Local budget”, participants will work at developing “ standards in open municipal budgeting, compare budget and to design an open source tool for municipalities to inform citizens about the incomes and spendings of their communities”.

Finally, “Local Open Data in smart city” aimed at using Open Data to help municipalities become smarter. “Data from the local authorities, together with other public bodies’ data lays the foundation for producing new value - provided it is open, freely reusable data.”