Insights | 08/03/2016

Hacking Open Data: #odd16 at Ubilabs

It’s Saturday, 5th of March, 10  in the morning, coffee is ready. The team of Code for Hamburg and the team of Ubilabs are prepared for the Open Data Day 2016. Jonas Hagenhoff, who is currently supporting our marketing department, took part as well – and provides us with a little recap.

Once the guests have arrived and had their first cup of coffee, Ubilabs welcomed them and inaugurated the event. After a short introduction, a member of Code for Hamburg started with a presentation about the International Open Data Day and led to the topic of the day: data visualization and interactive maps.

A combination of hackathon and workshop-day

This year the participants could decide whether they wanted to hack or listen to presentations about software and tools for maps applications. Quite fast, after a short round of introduction, half of the participants formed little working groups. It was fascinating to see how developers, mathematics, coders and designers shared their ideas and discussed projects they wanted to realize at this day. Their ideas were as enormously varied as the members of the groups. From a map that helps gambling addicts to a recent code of law platform.

Yummy exchange of experiences

Lunchtime at the Open Data Day, the guests closed their notebooks to change the focus from  maps and visualization to drinks, food and good conversations. Everyone seemed to be satisfied. Not surprising, with fresh hot pizza in one hand and a delicious drink in the other. After a little break the  hackers continued working on their projects and the listeners payed attention to the presentations and talks again.

Terror visualization and intelligence tools – great input by experts

Two technical journalists from the online magazine “Spiegel” presented a tool that visualizes the development of a tourist-destination after a terror attack. Furthermore they showed an application, that illustrates and compares the home-win-statistic of all soccer teams in Germany – nice to have for all soccer fans. After that, Phillip Lauser, Sales Engineer at Ubilabs, presented the tool ATLAS, a business intelligence tool developed by Ubilabs. ATLAS simply illustrates business locations, customers and competitors on a Google map. All members got a free test-access for ATLAS so they could work with the tool and learn more about the potentials of ATLAS.

 

Impressive results: gambling addiction prevention and a law update

During the last hours of the Open Data Day, the listener and the hackers were working together on their projects, which they could present at the end of the day. All tables were occupied, everyone had his task, everyone used the opportunity to be a part of the process. To the pleasure of all of us, at the end of the day the groups introduced great results.

One team created a map, that shows every casino or gambling center/house in Hamburg. Thanks to the map, gambling addicts find routes in Hamburg easier without passing a casino or a gambling house or can see which areas should be avoided. Another great result of the day is a website that shows the most recent laws that have been passed.

All in all it can be said, the day was a excellent success with friendly open-minded guests. The huge interest in Open Data and the varied presentations made this day so awesome.