Ever wondered what would happen if Dictionary of Sydney data was opened to a group of programmers or hackers? We got our first glimpse over the weekend 31 May - 2 June with GovHack2013. GovHack is a national competition where hackers (coders, engineers, designers, statisticians etc) form teams and compete to create the best new mashups, data visualisations and apps using open government data. They compete not just for the fun and the glory, but also for prizes. The Dictionary of Sydney Trust was lucky enough to be invited by Intersect, who hosted the Sydney event, to contribute our data. Other data available to hackers included contributions from State Records NSW, the National Library's TROVE api and plenty of statistics from the ABS. And that's just the tip of the iceberg! Now, technically the Dictionary of Sydney is an NGO, but as we draw upon many great government cultural institutions for our content, and in the spirit of open data, creative commons and Vivid Sydney, we were a welcome and enthusiastic contributor of data. To create some interest around the Dictionary's data, we offered a local prize for "Most Enthusiastic Use of Dictionary of Sydney Data". Three local teams utilised Dictionary of Sydney data and applied for our prize. The projects are: Sydney Lexicographer, UniBurb and When will my house be underwater? We encourage our followers to check them out and consider voting in the People's Choice Award over the next couple of days. All of the projects created around the nation over the weekend are available for viewing and you can vote for your favourites for the People's Choice Award. There are some inspiring projects and it's a great introduction to the benefits of open government data - to see how open data facilitates access to information, supports digital dissemination of information and encourages community outreach and engagement. And that aside, there are just some cool digital projects playing with data and showcasing the potential of the digital humanities. The winners of the national and local prizes of GovHack2013 will be announced later in the week and we will also announce the winner of "Most Enthusiastic Use of Dictionary of Sydney Data" here on our blog. So stay tuned ...