Two Bath University students have won the prestigious grand prize in the third Bath: Hacked event, by making it easier for parents to find out about the primary school admissions process.
Karolis and Jesse took the enormous booklet for parents with children due to start school in 2015, and looked for ways to simplify the process and explain it more clearly.
In less than 36 hours they summarised the entire 100 page publication into a more digestible format that highlighted the key points parents should know when applying to local schools.
Their work is at www.bathhacked.org/admissions2014.
Bath: Hacked events encourage people to solve local problems using technology in a collaborative, no rules environment.
Richard Speigal, Chair of the steering group, said: “In less than year we’ve attracted over 120 local tech experts who are happy to give up their time for the city.
“That’s the hack spirit – embracing problems and using a collaborative approach to solve issues, large and small.”
Council Leader Paul Crossley (Lib Dem, Southdown) and one of the event judges said: “These days, the digital and creative sector is the biggest form of income in Bath and Bath: Hacked is a brilliant place to help grow these businesses as well as fix local problems.”
Other projects included a twitter account developed by Duncan Barclay which broadcasts planning decisions as soon as they are received by the Council, which you can follow at @bathplanning; new ways to look at food hygiene data that are already helping a local startup; interactive tools to play with Blue Plaques in the City and a tool to help understand how the council spends money.
Bath: Hacked is a joint community and council run initiative who use data published by Bath and North East Somerset Council and other public bodies to do interesting things locally.
To find out about all the projects and prizewinners and to get involved, visit http://www.bathhacked.org/.
The Bath:Hacked event was run as part of Bath Digital Festival, and £2000 in prizes was awarded from sponsorship by Bath and North East Somerset Council, Bath Girl Geeks and multinational organisations Socrata and GitHub Community.