Digiriigi Häkaton 2.0 is a follow-up to a hackathon series that got started by the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications. As the name suggests, it was the second one in a row and Garage48 has been delighted and proud to organize both of these events - together with the strong support of the Ministry of course. 

The #digigov hackathon series main aim is to boost the cooperation between the public and private sector and to produce new and creative solutions that would help our country to run even smoother.

Digiriigi Häkaton 2.0 was not a regular 48h weekend event - 13 company teams worked from Wednesday to Friday (seriously messing up our sense of time as it constantly felt like our regular Friday-Saturday-Sunday flow) and the 17 challenges presented on the stage on Wednesday night were handpicked months before the hack.

The most “burning” problems presented by different government institutions that also got picked by the company teams and entered the hackathon competition were the following:

Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications - how to share personalized messages on events, cultural experiences happening in your neighbourhood through digiTV - chosen by Elisa and Solita+Microsoft mixed team.

Ministry of Justice was trying to find a one-stop platform for the domestic abuse victim.

A place where the person in need could read about different options for help, store evidence and get immediate help for. This challenge attracted two teams - CGI and Guardtime.

The Police and Border Guard Board - how to get more volunteers involved in rescuing and helping process and how to manage these volunteers better. Challenge got chosen by Montonio and Nortal.

HITSA - how to create comprehensive curriculums for schools that are also machine readable. This complex task got tackled by Progmatic.

The Office of the President of the Republic of Estonia - an event planning solution that would minimize the effort that is put into planning the seating, schedule, menu and many other details of the big events. The problem got almost solved by Codeborne - a team of bright minds that made an exceptionally strong technical progress during the 48 hours.

Estonian Health Insurance Fund - an app which would gather comprehensive information about the drug and its effect on the user. Challenge was undertaken by EcoLog.

Republic of Estonia Road Administration - how to build a system that would predict the accidents. Creditinfo team engaged in solving the task.

National Institute for Health Development - an application, which would provide more detailed info on the illegal substances. The issue was confronted by Testreel. 

Estonian Culture Capital - how to navigate between all the support that has been given out for different causes and how to make smarter decisions based on that. This challenge got an initial solution thanks to the support of the challenge providers and a strong will of a single man called Erkki Märss.

Ministry of Social Affairs - IT solution that would connect the research writers with better research topics. The solution was created by Reach-U.

The dedication, hard work, and passion that all the teams put into solving the real-life problems was on another level and even though the jury was only able to choose a couple of the teams as  winners, we hope that most of the teams continue working on the prototypes after the end of the hackathon as well.  Finals had a surprise visitor, whose presence brought an ear to ear smile to everyone’s face - our beloved President paid a visit to the hackathon finals and gave out the top 3 prizes.

Here they are -  the teams which were recognised to bring utmost impact and change to the Digital Country of Estonia.  

1st place Guardtime - 7000€

Guardtime built a solution that would enable a domestic violence victim to submit evidence (videos, pictures, sound recordings)  on their phones into the cloud without leaving any trace of the information on their devices. All the information is blockchain stamped and therefore treated as real evidence once the victim has gathered enough strength, courage, and information to fight back. Guardtime made us all tear up when they announced that all the money won is donated to the victims of domestic violence. 

The winning money got an equal split between these support centres for women:
MTÜ Pärnu Naiste Tugikeskus
MTÜ Naiste Tugi- ja Teabekeskus (Tartu and Põlva)
MTÜ Tallinna Naiste Kriisikodu 
MTÜ Saaremaa Naiste Tugikeskus 

Thank you Guardtime for the hard work and big heart

2nd place Codeborne - 3500€

Codeborne developed an interactive and visual event planning platform that would minimize the effort and dealing with the copious amount of data that is put into planning the seating, schedule, menu and many other details of the big events.

3rd place Nortal - 3500€

Nortal created a platform where you can send a notification to all rescue operations volunteers and manage them simply and interactively through the platform. The solution included a volunteer side application as well to make the flow of information about the search status faster and hassle-free.

Special prizes were given out in the to the following teams:

Future Hope - Montonio and Testreel

Best Design and Favourite of the Audience - Elisa Eesti

Best Technical Solution - Codeborne

Biggest Enthusiasm - Erkki Märss

Digiriigi Häkaton 2.0 was a beautiful way to end our hackathon season of SPRING 2019. We had more than 130 talented participants & passionate challenge providers plus prototypes that were providing a solution to difficult, real-life problems. Or as our host, Priit Salumaa put it: “We stand here today and we see how 100% professional teams from different companies solve the real problems Estonia. I am deeply thankful and super proud not just as a co-founder of Garage48 but as an Estonian citizen - I truly believe that our country is able to adapt and change as the world changes and keep up with the global society. I hope that the result of this hackathon will be the continuation of real cooperation between the public institutions and the private companies”

Allan Allmere, one of the main organizers from the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications added: ”Even though there’s a public procurement law which complicates the purchase of the prototypes that were built during the hackathon- we believe that this is a great initiative that  teaches the challenge providers from the government side how to prepare the tenders better and the teams how to serve the public institution’s needs better from the grassroots level. We will definitely keep on organizing hackathons on digital solutions for better e-Estonia and hopefully figure out a better solution for the tenders in the process as well”.

Time to stay tuned, step aside, enjoy the warm summer sun and hope for a brighter, easier and more digital future!