The Together We Open Data competition rewards the best apps based on open data. The purpose of the competition is to support the emergence of new services for the general public and to make the social and economic potential of open data and open-source technologies more visible. The award goes to applications that contribute to greater public involvement in public affairs, help people in everyday life, bring transparency to the functioning of public administration, combine the use of open data and open-source resources, or highlight a major societal issue.

The competition is open to Interested members of the general public, non-profit organizations, public institutions, students and companies. Each winner will receive a financial reward for the further development of their app. The competition includes several categories, with 1 app being chosen as the winner in each category.

Why digitization is important:

In the Western world, digitization has become an integral part of the relationship that functions between local government and the public in solving societal problems and increasing the community’s economic potential. By opening data on education, the drug market, or launching an open portal on public procurement in cooperation with the non-governmental sector, Ukraine injected about $700 million into its economy last year. In England, the opening of healthcare data has reduced the number of patients dying from heart surgery by 1,000 a year. In the Czech Republic, however, digitization has remained merely about the conversion of existing paper processes into an electronic form, and the opportunity for greater transparency and open governance is untapped. We want this to change.

Why we hold the competition:

We want the Czech Republic to have an independent community pushing for a public administration by 2021, which:

• is open, publishes open data and allows anyone to work with its digital footprint
• is accountable, provides citizens with information about its functioning and decision-making processes, and thanks to digitization they can control it from anywhere
• is interactive, and therefore promotes both civic participation and the simplest possible communication within the state-citizen relationship (tools such as electronic voting, the ability to arrange for things from home, gain access to information about yourself)

The Together We Open Data competition helps us increase pressure from the outside for systemic change. We want to increase the number of citizens, civic initiatives, non-profit organizations and businesses that are actively using the digital footprint of the state for watchdog purposes and for the development of services for the general public. They must have a grasp of and provide inspiration about the economic and social benefits of working with the digital footprint.

Rules of the Competition (Czech only)

Last Year’s Winners