Here’s another good initiative open to developers and social entrepreneurs. Ireland’s first ever Open Data 18-hr Challenge, will be held at NDRC, Dublin 8 on the 4th and 5th July.
Working with data provided by Dublin City (DUBlinked.ie) and Fingal County Council (data.fingal.ie) the challenge for participants will be to practically demonstrate how Open Data in areas such as environment, housing and transport can be used to develop commercially viable businesses.

Brainstorm
Working in mixed teams with techies from NDRC’s Inventorium programme, product and graphic designers and local council experts, participants will brainstorm, generate and prototype new business ideas based on the Council’s open data sets.
The event is free to attend with various cash prizes to be won and the ‘best ideas’ securing follow up commercial development support from NDRC/Inventorium.

Burst of new ideas
Already well established in other cities and countries, the Open Data movement has seen a burst in new business ideas based on previously inaccessible information held by Governments. From better models of water and energy consumption, to the safest route for children to cycle to school. The goal is to utilise public data that governments hold in new ways with the aim of stimulating new economic activity, innovation and competition, while also fostering a greater culture of openness and transparency.

Real business potential
Dr. Teresa Dillon, of NDRC’s Inventorium programme said: “Ireland is playing catch up to a lot of other cities and countries in this space and we believe there is much untapped potential here. With our track-record in supporting the development of great new digital ideas, we expect to produce applications that will have real business potential. We also expect to get greater insight into what types of data people would like the Irish authorities to release”.

To register your place and receive information on the data sets you can build ideas with, check out www.inventorium.org

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