SOFIA2015

The hackathon will be held at the Central post office building in Sofia. Participants so far include wide varienty of it specialists, designers, photographers, journalists, data enthusiasts and government officials.

It will run for 2 days: 21st and 22nd (the weekend). Each day from 9:30am to 8pm.

There will be a competition and prizes (provided by CSD.bg) for data visualisation related to Energy. There will also be little, symbolic prizes (provided by the volunteer-orginazers) for all other topics.

Catering will be provided for the duration of the event.

No need to RSVP. However you can make it a bit easier and more predictable for the organizers if you sign-up at:
 * facebook event for the hackathon
 * [todo: other rsvp sites]

Location details
The central post office (map) is in the heart of Sofia. An old building, though equipped with wifi and a conference room which will be used for the event. Here's a video how to find the room. In the days of the event there would be posters for additional guidance. There is access for disabled visitors.

The location is provided by ECNIS agency part of the Ministry of Transport.

Hackathon topics

 * (IT developers) data miners and data-linking. We have specific non-open sources in mind. They are related to the parliament monitoring project we are pushing. Data miners like political figures' properties, linking votes in the parliament with bills and laws (which are not linked in Bulgaria)
 * (visual designers) Infographics for energy-related data and problems in Bulgaria. We are hoping to team up with "Center for the Study of Democracy" (CSD) which are currently organising competition for best infographic or mobile app related to Energy-problems. We hope that the prize will boost interest of this activity.
 * (visual designers & general) future of e-gov - developing of a concept of what e-governance could do for Bulgaria (and any country as a whole), a provocative topic of thinking without the limits of current legal framework and government capability
 * (general topic for investigation) "What has been done on e-governance n Bulgaria" . We hope to attract journalists and any other interested parties to analyse what e-governance projects have been paid for in the last 10 years, what is working, what is not. We are told (by ex-government officials) that around 2.2 billions have been spent for e-services.
 * researching and starting a CKAN data pusher to automatically push data in the national open-data portal we launched with the Council of Ministries late 2014 - http://opendata.government.bg/
 * (journalists, writers, copywriters + general) Starting a long-delayed paper on „Why should software be treated as intellectual property and not treated as goods, when creating public tenders“ - that happens to be a problem in Bulgaria and we must explain why is it important difference.
 * (journalists, writers, copywriters + general) Additionally, we will offer the open-data enthusiasts with writing skills to research and formulate a statement on „What are the best selling points of open-data“ . This is triggered because the open-data minded people in our government primarily use the argument of "GDP will rise" which is by far the only or unique selling point.
 * (strategists) "Prioritizing civic-hacking tasks in Bulgaria and which resources must be directed towards what" - we have built some interesting contacts with non-governmental organisations, individuals and government bodies. How do people think they should be used best.
 * (research, optimisation) - stories from government officials what are the main show-stoppers for modern communication in gov administration.

21nd (saturday)

 * 9:30am - 10:30am - Light breakfast and introduction and guiding the participants intoto groups by topic
 * 10:30am - 12:30pm - Hacking
 * 12:30pm - 1:30pm - Lunch
 * 1:30pm - 8:00pm - Hacking

22nd (sunday)

 * 9:30am - 12:30pm - Hacking
 * 12:30pm - 1:30pm - Lunch
 * 1:30pm - 6:00pm - Hacking
 * 6:00pm - 8:00pm - Final, prizes, networking