IN a programming competition targeting Guyana’s sharpest ICT minds, the Hackathon 2016- which opens today at 12:00hrs, will feature young people channelling their creative talents for a 48-hour stretch into creating programmes for national development. According to the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) advisor to the Minister of Public Telecommunications, Lance Hinds, “The Hackathon is an event where programmers, software developers [and] mobile developers all come together to develop a product.”

This product, he noted, is one which should be of some benefit to the Guyanese society; for example, an ambulance-response app can be created to provide faster service to civilians.
This Hackathon will feature young and talented ICT minds creating similar products- all in a non-stop 48-hour period which will begin at 12:00hrs today and will conclude at exactly 12:00hrs on Sunday. Hinds is encouraging members of the public to show their support for these creative minds or that they tune into the live stream online.
“It is the overall policy of the ministry in which we want to build an enabling environment for ICT.” Hinds underscored too, “The ministry is trying to have ICT be a contributing sector to Guyana’s economy” and added that in order for this to happen, “We need to know what we have, we need to know the current talent that we have and the emerging talent we see.”
The advisor also disclosed that the target group for this event is generally between 17-37 years old, however, youths a few years younger have become a part of the event. This ICT event, which is sponsored by GT&T, will award the creators of the first, second and third- placed products $300,000, $200,000 and $150,000 respectively.