Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) Undersecretary for E-Government David Almirol has issued a public statement reviewing the first eGovHackathon. He addressed operational delays and outlining the next phase of evaluation for participating teams.
The event, held at the SMX Convention Center Aura in Taguig City, drew more than 1,500 registrants across 250 teams. According to Almirol, nine government application programming interfaces (APIs) were exposed to participants during the competition.
Evaluation Process and Top Teams
Organizers identified the top 10 teams at the end of the event, with the top 30 teams set to be announced next week.
Almirol stated that he will conduct individual technical meetings with each of the top 30 teams and personally evaluate their entries to select the top five winners.
Administrative and Procurement Issues
In his statement, Almirol outlined several operational difficulties during the hackathon, including manual registration requirements mandated by government accounting and audit rules.
He also cited government procurement delays that finalized event preparations one week prior, as well as a three-hour judging window that led evaluators to review presentation decks instead of source code.
To address these limitations, Almirol proposed a revised structure for future hackathons, featuring a one-week development period and a one-week evaluation phase.
Event Budget and Prize Pool
The hackathon lacked a dedicated line-item budget and operated on more than ₱3 million allocated from DICT savings, alongside ₱100,000 from sponsors primarily in merchandise and gift certificates.
The event’s cash prize funding comprised ₱1 million provided personally by Almirol, while First Lady Liza Araneta-Marcos contributed an additional ₱1 million during the event.
Almirol noted that the agency has requested a ₱100 million budget allocation for the following year to support local developers, integrators, and technology startups.
This article is published on BitPinas: DICT Usec Addresses Operational Issues in First eGovHackathon, Outlines Evaluation Process
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