A 24hr hackathon in celebration of local data in Lancaster.
Explore, interpret and make using newly released local archaeological, historical and social data.

Your City Needs You!

Coders and
Makers
Mad
Scientists
Local
Historians
Digital
Innovators
Designers and
Artists
We are seeking creative individuals and teams to invent ways of exploring the past and the future.

Themes

Heritage &
Archaeology

Unlock the past with new interpretations of Lancaster's history.

Health &
Activity

Enhance Lancaster Castle and the surrounding park for leisure and exercise.

Games &
Play

Enable creativity through play with games, experiments and fun things.

Art &
Science

Find ways to make data engaging and beautiful for everyone.

Available Data

Urban Archaeological Database

English Heritage
  • Historical Mapping
  • Buildings and Structures
  • Drawing and Documents
  • Artefacts and Finds
  • Past Excavations
  • Historical Imagery

Geophysical Survey Data

Oxford Archaeology
  • Magnetometry
  • Ground Penetrating Radar
  • Resistivity

MARIO

Lancashire County Council
  • Transport Infrastructure
  • Crime and Census Data
  • Public Services

Social Data

Online
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Flickr

Awards

Most Innovative Hack

Awarded for the most novel use of existing technologies and platforms with local data.

Most Beautiful Data

Awarded for the best representation of local data, or for the best visual design.

History in the Present

Awarded for making historical data about Lancaster relevant to its citizens today.
A prize of £400 will accompany each of the 3 main awards, plus additional prizes of gadgets and geek toys for the runners up.

Event Details

Saturday 29th Nov

10am Arrival
Noon Start of Hacking
1pm Data Orientation & Ideation
2pm New Team Formation (as required)
7pm Dinner
10pm Pizza Hour (by NICE Restaurant)
Midnight Half way prizes

Sunday 30th Nov

3am The 3am Challenge
6am High Energy Breakfast
11am Team Presentations
Noon End of Hacking & Awards Ceremony
The hackathon takes place over 24 hours in A-wing, Lancaster Castle.
Food, drink, clean 240v power and broadband with redundancy provided.
Register on EventBrite

Public Exhibition

In parallel with Hack Lancaster, a public exhibition of archaeological data is being held in A-wing at the weekend. There will also be a maker workshop for families running on Sunday.
More details are available at beyondthecastle.org

Partners

Beyond the Castle

Beyond the Castle aims to improve the urban green space around Lancaster Castle down to the quayside, and enhance connections across the site and through to the City Centre.
In 2014 with support from the Heritage Lottery Fund we are focusing on the historic importance of the site with events aimed at preserving and understanding archaeology.

The Creative Exchange

Hack Lancaster event is supported by The Creative Exchange, an AHRC-funded Knowledge Exchange project based out of ImaginationLancaster, at Lancaster University. CX is aimed at exploring the idea of Digital Public Space and unlocking closed public data for everyone to benefit from.