The first hackathon of the Moravian-Silesian Region showed clever solutions in transport
Using a taxi in the region together with public buses, shared lines, traffic optimization or passenger moods or improved night-time connections.
These are the trends shown by the Open Data Hackathon of the Moravian-Silesian Region which took place at the weekend. The event attracted hackers, IT experts and other professionals from across the region and involved a 48-hour non-stop coding session using the data provided by the region. The region is going to organize the event also in the following years.
Ostrava's Impact HUB was busy at the weekend. "HUB for change", the association which officially organized the event with the subsidy of the Moravian-Silesian region, welcomed more than thirty hackers who had 48 hours to come up with solutions for current issues concerning transport accessibility and route optimization in the region and the City of Ostrava.
"As far as I know, we are the very first public institution in the Czech Republic that has organized a hackathon. The final presentations clearly showed that it makes a lot of sense. The local hackers have shown us ideas about how we can work with the data we own, and how public transport can look like in ten years when we re-tender carriers", said Jakub Unucka, Deputy Governor for Transport and Smart Region.
The Deputy Governor added that the region is going to organize the hackathon "Transport 4.0" again next year: "This first regional hackathon is the beginning. Next year, we will organize it at national level and in 2020 even at the European level."
The term "hackathon" comes from the words "hack and marathon". This is an inspirational meeting of IT professionals, graphic designers and programmers who are given a limited period of time to achieve the stated objectives.
In this case, the region chose transport. In its strategy "Smarter Region" aimed at saving time and money using modern technologies, the transport sector has the greatest impact on citizens.
Other entities dealing with the issue of traffic data were the Ostrava Transport Company, IT4I, Moravian-Silesian Innovation Center, Liftago, Keboola and T-mobile.