After a great competition, the winners of #HACKJAK 2015 were finally announced on Tuesday 18th August 2015 just after Indonesia's Independence Day at Balai Kota, the Governor’s office in Jakarta. HackJak (Hackathon Jakarta) is an event coordinated by the Provincial Government of Jakarta, encouraging creative minds and the tech savvy to develop tech based approaches in education, healthcare, disaster management, tourism and social empowerment. There were three categories for the competition: Scrapathon, Visualthon and Hackathon.
Pulse Lab Jakarta was represented at the awards ceremony by Derval Usher and Jonggun Lee along with the UN Resident Coordinator to Indonesia, Douglas Broderick all who attended the ceremony as honorable guests of the Jakarta City Government. Pulse Lab Jakarta had a guiding role in shaping the overall HackJak 2015 by helping to plan the problem statements for all categories involved in the collaboration along with the SKPD (local government body) of Jakarta.
Innovate Jakarta
First announced were the winners of the Scrapathon, a competition involving scraping data released by the provincial government of Jakarta. Participants were given a certain time frame to turn the data into an index accessible by the public. The winner was Firman Maulana Aditya who achieved 67 data collections in 6 hours with 1,604 data rows.
Following that came the Visualthon, asking contestants to make interesting, simple and informative infographic posters to help deliver messages given by Jakarta’s government about national services. The main challenge to contestants was in their ability to make designs that would capture public attention as well as reach all levels of Indonesian society.
Team Hakuna Matata who made an infographic design on Kartu Jakarta Pintar (Jakarta Smart Card for children's education) gained 3rd place. Team HIASA who made a beautiful campaign to garner public awareness for women and child abuse placed 2nd. The winners, team GxE, drew attention with their creative title ‘Mpok Siti (Miss Siti) City Tour Jakarta’, which is a handy infographic about services for Jakarta Tour Buses.
Finally it was time for the results of the much anticipated Hackathon where contestants were tasked with developing applications and games for the government using data from portals such as Open Data DKI and other official sources.
In 3rd place was Parkirmu.com which is an app that helps citizens pre-order parking space to save time and fuel. J-Explore came in 2nd place with its fun feature allowing users to play location-based games in any Jakarta hot spot. And the winner was JakCare, for its outstanding feature in helping people allocate funds for underprivileged children, the homeless and others in need. It is equipped with assurance and verification features so the funds are delivered promptly and securely.
Governor’s Support
The Governor of Jakarta Province, Basuki Tjahja Purnama (Ahok) awarded the prizes and also gave a very inspiring and motivational speech. He was astounded by the creativity of all the participants. He also stated his full support for open data and data innovation that can lead to a more transparent and efficient Jakarta. Ahok talked about his hopes for transforming the civil service into a more digital form with reduced need for government and civil employees. One of the apps he highlighted was Parkirmu.com, citing that Jakarta has the potential to make Rp 1.8 Trillion in parking income every day, but in reality only Rp. 26 Billion is collected. The visualthon participants were also praised for their creative works, because government information and processes can be easily read and understood by each and every Indonesian individual. One of Ahok’s future plans is to construct an exhibition room in City Hall, which will be free and open for all.
Open Data’s Future
What was very encouraging about this year’s hackathon event was the number of female participants and finalists. In a world where IT is perceived to be male dominated, it is encouraging to see women achieve equal success in this sector.
The expected future #HackJak2015 is shining brightly for the winners and participants, as citizens are further inspired and motivated to create more tech-based approaches to solving city problems. The Indonesian government will patiently wait and greatly support young innovators that are continuously looking to contribute to a smarter Jakarta.
#Kaki5JKT
Contributing to the spirit of #HackJak2015, Pulse Lab Jakarta is also involved in the events by crowdsourcing data on street food vendors (pedagang kaki lima). We have asked citizens to tweet about their favourite street food stalls using the hashtag #Kaki5JKT. The data will be fed into Jakarta’s smart city platform and will form the basis of apps for tourists and foodies. The crowdsourcing of data on street food vendors also has a series of prizes for participants. So even if you weren’t a part of this year’s HackJak, you can still get involved in developing digital services in Jakarta by contributing data!
