Congratulations to GovHack for another fantastic year

The weekend just past featured the 6th GovHack event, involving over 2,000 participants in 280 teams across 41 locations in Australia and New Zealand working on 439 registered projects.

Effectively the world's biggest government hackathon, GovHack includes some amazing ideas on how to solve public challenges, using open data from agencies in innovative ways.

Whether you've previously heard of the GovHack event or not, visiting the Hackerspace (2016.hackerspace.govhack.org/projects), where all the registered projects are listed, is an inspiring way to start the morning and get some innovative ideas on how to address some of the pressing challenges facing your agency or organisation.

I wasn't actively involved in GovHack this year, due to family commitments, so don't have any insights from the ground on how the event went.

However from the social correspondence and general mood online, the event maintained the heights it attained in past years, while maturing further with better systems and challenge structures.

With GovHack managed by a second generation team (with the founder and key past organisers moving on or otherwise engaged), this year marked a major transition for the event.

The success of this year proves that GovHack isn't just a passion-play, but is a solid, sustainable, professional event that can become an important ongoing part of the open data movement, and tool for governments to foster citizen engagement, for a long time into the future.

Congrats to all of the organisers this year, who have made this possible.

Here's some stats from the event, based on the current information in the Hackerspace.

Total projects registered: 439
Total projects submitted: 351 (80%)

(Projects must be submitted to be eligible for judging)

The tables below show the number and percentage of submissions (Sub.) by territory, as well as submissions by 2015 population estimates.

As I measure it, the smaller the population per submission, the greater the level of engagement with GovHack within that territory - leaving ACT the most engaged, followed by South Australia, Tasmania, Queensland, New Zealand and then Western Australia, with Victoria and NSW at the end.

Projects by Country

Country	Reg.	Sub.	% Sub.	Population	Sub./Pop.
Australia	373	291	78.0%	23,781,200	81,722
New Zealand	66	60	90.9%	4,596,700	76,612

Projects by Australian State/Territory

State/Territory	Reg.	Sub.	% Sub.	Population	Sub./Pop.
Australian Capital Territory	51	44	86.3%	390,800	8,882
New South Wales	70	45	64.3%	7,618,200	169,293
Queensland	84	70	83.3%	4,779,400	68,277
South Australia	60	49	81.7%	1,698,600	34,665
Tasmania	13	11	84.6%	516,600	46,964
Victoria	69	48	69.6%	5,938,100	123,710
West Australia	26	24	92.3%	2,591,600	107,983

Projects by Region and Local event - Australia

	Region	Local Site	Reg.	Sub.	% Sub.
	ACT	Canberra	45	39	86.7%
	ACT	Canberra Heritage Hack	6	5	83.3%
	NSW	Camperdown Games for Learning	4	4	100.0%
	NSW	Parramatta	6	5	83.3%
	NSW	Sydney Official	55	32	58.2%
	NSW	Tyro Fintech Hub	5	4	80.0%
	QLD	Brisbane Maker Node	11	7	63.6%
	QLD	Brisbane Official	42	35	83.3%
	QLD	Brisbane Youth Node	1	1	100.0%
	QLD	Far North Queensland	1	1	100.0%
	QLD	Gold Coast	6	4	66.7%
	QLD	Ipswich	4	4	100.0%
	QLD	Logan	6	6	100.0%
	QLD	Rockhampton	3	3	100.0%
	QLD	Sunshine Coast	6	5	83.3%
	QLD	Toowoomba	4	4	100.0%
	SA	Adelaide	36	31	86.1%
	SA	Adelaide Maker	2	1	50.0%
	SA	Mount Gambier	9	9	100.0%
	SA	Onkaparinga	5	2	40.0%
	SA	Playford	7	5	71.4%
	SA	Port Adelaide Enfield	1	1	100.0%
	Tas	Hobart	7	5	71.4%
	Tas	Launceston	6	6	100.0%
	Vic	Ballarat	9	8	88.9%
	Vic	Geelong	5	4	80.0%
	Vic	Hack for Wyndham	5	5	100.0%
	Vic	Melbourne	36	20	55.6%
	Vic	Melbourne Mapspace	14	11	78.6%
	WA	Geraldton	3	2	66.7%
	WA	Perth	23	22	95.7%

Projects by Region and Local event - New Zealand

	Region	Local Site	Reg.	Sub.	% Sub.
	NZ	Auckland	16	15	93.8%
	NZ	Christchurch	15	12	80%
	NZ	Dunedin	1	1	100%
	NZ	Hamilton	10	9	90%
	NZ	Napier, Hawkes Bay	2	2	100%
	NZ	Northland	1	1	100%
	NZ	Queenstown	3	3	100%
	NZ	Wellington	14	13	92.9%
	NZ	Whanganui	4	4	100%