Rewired State
Rewired State is aiming to run a "hack day" in Scotland, probably during June. Rewired State has been closely associated with the Guardian newspaper's "Free our data" campaign, and similar hack days were highly influential in creating the movement towards open and linked data in Whitehall. RS continues to work with the Guardian, Government Departments, and others to encourage cool use of data. The Scottish Government is fully supporting this hack day and will be supplying data for developers to use and play with.
The day - a Saturday - will bring together volunteer developers (physically and sometimes also virtually) with some public data. Developers will be encouraged to build prototype applications which surface, analyse or mash up the data in interesting ways. The day raises the profile of public data as a resource; raises the profile of developers with potential employers (including public bodies); and raises the political profile of public sector data and the economic and democratic benefits that can flow from it. The day ends with a "show and tell" session where apps are presented to the whole set of attendees and also to people who might be interested in picking up prototypes and turning them into fully-fledged apps - policy people, operational managers, political folk, IT providers, or anyone who might just be interested.
Sponsorship needed
RS is looking for sponsorship from organisations and companies that have an interest in new development - it costs about £20k to put on a hack day - and would love to hear from anyone who might be interested in offering sponsorship - enquiries and proposals to rob@rewiredstate.org.