Teemu from Open Knowledge Finland challenges hackers!

MyData Ultrahack – let’s hack some human-centric, ethical MyData solutions based on our personal data! Say what….!?

Personal Data is important to us all – NOW. It should be important for you – your angle might be for example privacy, efficiency, new business or just personal control. We’re sure the developer community has some awesome ideas to demonstrate how personal data can be used in an ethical and human-centric way – in accordance with the MyData principles.

As MyData is still in very early phases, that’s exactly why the goal of the hack is to get concrete examples, prototypes and concepts based on MyData. More understanding!

We want to know how one can, for example, combine wellness/health data to one dashboard, how can we analyze our shopping and/or finance data from various sources, what does our media consumption tell about us, how can we make transportation easier and more personalized, how can we simplify public services so we don’t fill the same forms over and over again – and so on. How can we – as users – benefit from the personal data we produce.

The MyData 2016 hackathon takes place on 30 Aug – 1 Sep. Stop reading, and register NOW for the hack, if you’re as excited as we are.

2016 is the year of MyData. Open Knowledge Finland is all about the free flow of information. Open data, open knowledge, open collaboration – and, we believe, free (user-controlled) flow of personal information. These are tools not only to build more transparent societies – but also effective services and new business in the digital domain.

MyData represents the BIGGEST concentration of effort for us this year. In particular, Open Knowledge Finland key actions for the fall of 2016 are geared towards the MyData 2016 conference (31 Aug – 2 Sep) and the Ultrahack MyData hackathon running in parallel with that – with the Ultrahack Main Event (25 – 27 Nov) as the other key community event later in the year.

Cool stuff to hack. Even though the upcoming EU GDPR and other legislation will force organizations to provide you access to your personal data in a digital format, most data is not in such formats YET – but there are some really interesting datasets, APIs and supporting technologies to help you, from our partners in Transportation, Public Services, Finance, Retail and Health & Wellbeing sectors.

Resources you can use include HSL Citybikes data, Yle Tunnus data (what you’ve read/watched), S Group synthesized shopping data,  OP Financial Group/Open Bank Project bank transaction data, National Architecture for Digital Services (KaPa), IBM Watson/Bluemix and many others.

However, you do not need to be confined to these themes or technologies – be creative! For example, there’s been a lot of talk joining MyData with the ah-so-hot blockchain – why not conceptualize or develop something based on this?

Be a game-changer – for a better, data-driven world. The very best teams will be on the main stage on Friday, pitching to the conference audience – with people from some 25 countries in attendance. As a support to developers, we are awarding some 10 000 eur in prizes. All hackers get free access to the MyData 2016 conference, to get an inspiring break when needed. Above all, you are showing the MyData community concrete examples that will influence the development of ethical, human centric use of personal data.

Take it further – is the world ready to invest? Ultrahack MyData is one of event in the Ultrahack 2016 Tournament. The best teams from this MyData hackathon get access to the Ultrahack Main Event where you can continue your work! There you compete for over 1 million euros in investments and some 200k euros in prizes. It’s on 25-27 November, just before Slush. Wow, do we wanna see some MyData teams rock there!

You will want to follow/visit some of these:

• Register for Ultrahack MyData: https://ultrahack.org/mydata2016
• MyData Ultrahack website w/ more info (being updated): http://mydata2016.org/ultrahack/
• Join the event on Facebook and show that you are coming to the hackathon: https://www.facebook.com/events/1754797534732053/

Other practicalities

BTW, to make things affordable, there will be a possibility to catch some sleep in hacker spirit, get extra food in off-hours and public transport tickets for 5 days. Just get yourself to Helsinki!

Let’s do it! We certainly hope to see a wide range of experts at the hack, at the conf. Let’s get hacking and build some new human-centric awesomeness into this world! 🙂  

Daring, sharing, caring!

-Teemu