Guyana hosts first Hackathon next Friday

WITH the aim of advancing the speed of business and national development, the Ministry of Public Telecommunications has launched its first Hackathon and is inviting applications from groups of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) software developers to compete for some $750,000 in cash awards.Groups of persons are invited to apply to participate in ‘HACKATHON 2016,’ which will be held under the theme “Code Til’ Yuh Drop” at the Arthur Chung Convention Centre for 24 hours, beginning at noon on November 4.
The first-prize winners will take away $300,000, while second and third-prize winners will carry $200,000 and $150,000 respectively.
At the launch of the Hackathon at Colgrain House on Wednesday, Minister of Public Telecommunications Cathy Hughes told reporters that the event offers an opportunity to software product developers to own and market their own products and develop their skills.
Hackathon, Hughes explained, is an Information and Communication Technology (ICT) marathon for software developers
According to the Wikipedia online dictionary, “a Hackathon (also known as a hack day, hackfest or codefest) is a design sprint-like event in which computer programmers and others involved in software development, including graphic designers, interface designers, project managers, and others, often including subject-matter experts, collaborate intensively on software projects.”
Hackathons typically last between a day and a week and some are intended for educational or social purposes, even though the goal is mainly to create usable software.
Minister Hughes said the Ministry of Public Telecommunications seeks the first Hackathon event here at a major level to encourage technological solutions for positive developments.
The ICT marathon invites participation of software developers, computer programmers, graphic designers and other creative people, both novices and experts, to collaborate and explore with creativity, inventing a variety of programmes and applications, the minister said.
The possibilities are endless as to what can be the result of conceptions in the minds of folk, even as external groups and individuals from Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago have expressed interest in participating.
“There are very few limits to what can be achieved when groups of people, especially small groups, turn their minds in the same direction and create fantastic things … perhaps to write flexible computer programmes, or find ways to improve existing services, public and otherwise,” Hughes told the press.
The ministry has used this as a launch-path to its future collaboration with the Ministry of Education to offer training in ICT in schools and rural centres throughout the country.
“… we still have to conduct training and knowledge-based sessions, especially for the managing committees of the rural community centres where we have installed computers and wireless equipment for the use of everyone there,” Hughes said.
She said while Hackathons tend to have a specific focus, many Guyanese are still to be taught to use modern devices which are readily available.
“We in Guyana have a bigger purpose. We have a whole nation of people of different generations to teach how to use the modern devices that they now have at their disposal… We don’t have to convince Guyanese that they would do better with modern technologies. They already know it …. Our people – the young and not so young — can learn and earn, establish new businesses, create linkages in and out of Guyana and ultimately contribute to the drive to digitise this nation,” Hughes said.
She said the ministry plans to help create more avenues for new jobs by staging about three more hackathons next year, as it plans to continue to encourage those with technological skills to innovate and create specific programmes that will make reality tele-medicine, or e-health, and training aids for e-learning.
Meanwhile, Ministerial Advisor on ICT Lance Hinds described the event as a tournament where developers, programmers, database designers come together as teams and compete to develop particular products.
Hinds said participants will know what products they are expected to develop an hour before the project starts and a panel of expert judges will be on scene to make final decisions.
“They have 48 hours to do it. It will be 48 hours of non-stop work… There must be at least two persons… The work could be done only at the convention centre,” Hinds stated.
Application information is available on the ministry’s Facebook page and deadline for applications is October 28.

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