Digital Catapult collaboration unlocks civic data and invites coders to participate in challenge

LONDON - March 26, 2014 - PRLog -- London, 26 March 2014 – the Connected Digital Economy Catapult, a national centre to rapidly advance the UK’s best digital ideas, part of the Technology Strategy Board’s Catapult programme, is pleased to announce it is holding a coding challenge as part of the Greater Manchester Data Synchronisation Programme (GMDSP), an open data collaboration with FutureEverything and the Future Cities Catapult.

The 24-hour coding challenge event kicks off at 4pm on Saturday 29th March at TechHub Manchester (http://manchester.techhub.com/). The event is a chance for coders, developers and data activists to use the data that is being released through the GMDSP, which was announced last year.

The programme brings together three councils, Manchester City Council, Salford City Council and Trafford Council, each with a dedicated coder, known as code fellows, working to synchronise datasets in order to make them available for SME use. The GMDSP platform brings together seven different datasets (from varying platforms, formats and physical places), from each of the three councils, into one open data platform, thereby facilitating the use of the data by coders to develop new, innovative and potentially commercial uses for the data or solve city challenges.

The coding challenge is a chance to see who can come up with the best ideas and creations.  A prize fund of £3,500 will be split between the best ideas and presented after the event on Sunday 30^th March by Dr. Maurizio Pilu, partnerships director at the Connected Digital Economy Catapult.

Pilu said: “One can imagine the challenges involved with bringing so many disparate public sector data sets together, a hurdle many SMEs face, yet we know that there is value to be unlocked both for the citizen and the economy by doing so. We hope to see some really exciting and innovative potential uses for the data come out of the coding challenge.”

The Greater Manchester Data Synchronisation Programme (GMDSP) is one of the first projects to launch out of the Digital Catapult and seeks to further demonstrate the Catapult is achieving its aim of reducing friction for SMEs who have innovative solutions to everyday problems by using open data.

To learn more about the code fellows who have been the keystone to platform please visit: http://gmdsp.org.uk/about/gmdsp-code-fellows/

Anyone interested in putting a team together for the challenge or entering as an individual for the event should register here: http://gmdsp.org.uk/2014/03/24-hour-coding-challenge/

Event details:

4pm Saturday 29th March
TechHub Manchester (https://www.google.com/maps/place/TechHub+Manchester/@53....)
3rd Floor
Carver’s Warehouse
77 Dale Sreet
Manchester
M1 2HG