1st Edition of the EUhackathon: Hack4Transparency [8-9 Nov, 2011]

The 1st edition of the EUhackathon revolved around two tracks, namely an Internet Quality Track, that focused on allowing users to better understand the quality of Internet they are getting from their fixed or mobile operator on the one hand, and Global Transparency Track, that focused on better visualising the accessibility of information on the Internet on the other hand, and took place on 8-9 November 2011 in Brussels, Belgium. After 23 hours of intense (and for some teams – all-night) coding, it was time for our 54 coders of 17 nationalities to hear from the jury who had won the first prize for the challenge.  This was done in the European Parliament, where they first heard presentation by MEPs Petru Luhan (EPP – Romania) and Christian Engström (Pirate Party – Sweden) giving their views on the need for an open Internet in Europe, followed by a panel bringing together Peter Hustinx (European Data Protection Supervisor), the young but very convincing Amira Yahyaoui (Tunisian blogger and human right activist), and technical presentations from representatives from Measurement Lab, the Google Transparency Report, Herdict (a Harvard project) and TOR (the network offering anonymous surfing notably in challenging countries such as Syria). Finally, Vice-President Kroes also gave a speech to express all her admiration for the hackers and her support to this Hack4Transparency event. For more details on the winners visit the archived website of the 1st edition here.