Understanding the scope of open data in hackathons

Some would argue that a hackathon is not a hackathon without open data resources available and that the entire idea of a hackathon revolves around data. This is how the concept of a hackathon came about, using different data resources and combining them in new ways to create innovative solutions to a challenge. This could be executed within an organization or, as in the example of Hack for Sweden, with many organizations offering the hacker teams their datasets and APIs. I often get the question of what kind of data we need for the hackathon at hand, and I always answer that the question is not possible to answer. True innovation knows no boundaries, and therefore it is impossible to say what kind of data should be offered to the hacker teams. Open data sources need to be well organized and sufficient for the task at hand, but data that may seem irrelevant to the naked eye may trigger a great idea for a solution in a hacker team.

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