Telecommunications Ministry launches 2nd Hackathon

DPI, Guyana, Thursday, November 9, 2017

The Ministry of Public Telecommunications continues to fulfill its mandate in creating an enabling environment for the growth of Information Communication Technology (ICT), with the launch of their second Hackathon competition.

The 2017 Hackathon will take place from November 17 to 19 at the Guyana Pegasus Hotel. Teams of two to five application developers, graphic designers, and other ICT-skilled registrants will again be required to create IT applications to resolve specially identified social and economic problems.

According to Ministerial Advisor and head of the innovative unit of the Ministry of Public Telecommunications, Lance Hinds the Ministry is excited to once again host the event. He added the goal is to have 12 teams compete this year. To date, four local teams and one from neighboring country Suriname have registered.

However, Hinds revealed that registration is “A first come first serve basis, so when we have reached 12, we will close off. I am encouraging persons to put themselves together and come register”.

The prizes remain the same as last year -the first prize of $300,000; second prize of $200,000 and a third prize of $150,000.

Hinds further explained what makes this year’s competition different, “… when we select the product or products that we are going to ask them to develop, we will have a subject specialist from the respective agency and what we will ask them to do is give an hour so that they can sit down and explain to us how this works from their perspective.”

One of the rules for the 2017 Hackathon, states that submissions must not contain material that promotes discrimination based on race, gender religion nationality, disability sexual orientation or age

Also, the Hackathon will run for 48 consecutive hours and during that time period, all members of the team must participate. At any given time, at least one person must be working on the application, and at no time can all members of the team take a break.

Teams interested in registering for the competition can contact the Ministry of Public Telecommunication on telephone number, 227-2705.

 

By: Gabreila Patram