Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow

Team Name

DataOpener

Team Members

Project Description

DataOpener is a platform that organizes open data, and allows government and the public to get a better picture of what is happening in their local area, and helps people make decisions for their future, and helps inform government decisions for a better future.

Using a combination of data sources, DataOpener builds regional profiles and geographical visualizations to help people gain key information about the region at a glance.

Data Story

The ACT is undergoing a continuous growth in its population, and its infrastructure has to continuously change to grow with it. In the next 10 years Canberra's population is expected to reach over 500,000.

To support this increase in population, the ACT government needs to have plans for the future of the infrastructure in areas such as transport, housing, health care, and education to ensure that the ACT thrives as the population grows.

Our team has developed DataOpener to help with this complex issue, and begin a journey towards better understanding the needs of the region. Using open data sets from a number of government departments, DataOpener provides visualizations of what the situation of the region is from the past to the present, and of our direction into the future. This is expected to assist the ACT Government in finding areas that need to be developed for the future, and how to prioritise what will have the largest impact. To help with highlighting these areas, our team uses Machine Learning models that identify likely gaps that are likely to become issues in the near future.

This in turn allows decision makers to identify gaps in Transport, Housing, Business and Environmental planning that should be accounted for in future planning.

DataOpener can also be used by members of the community. For example, if Alex is wishing to move to a new suburb with her family, using our platform she is able to view the new suburbs and parks for her family to play at, how many bus stops are near her house, how safe is the suburb is, and how the population of the suburbs will grow and develop as she raises her child.

Another use case is using the information in the present and the past to inform members of the public during travelling. For example Steve is driving to a suburb in Canberra he has not been before. Using our map Steve views area’s where historically car crashes have occurred. He is now able to understand places to potentially avoid or to be extra cautious when driving through.

Through DataOpener, our team hopes to build a future of the ACT that is more inclusive, resilient and prepared for the future as we discover new opportunities from data to build a better future.