By Staff Writer

The Australian online community has been offered the chance to take government datasets and combine them in innovative ways.

Launched by the Government 2.0 Taskforce, the MasupAustralia contest seeks to encourage open access and use of public sector information.

The competition will be supported by a ‘mash up camp’ where Web 2.0 enthusiasts can collaborate on their ideas.

Federal Minister for Finance and Deregulation, Lindsay Tanner, said the contest would allow government to “tap into the wealth of ideas and experience in Australia’s online community”. 

“At the same time it provides an opportunity for innovators to showcase their ideas and potentially be rewarded for their efforts,” he said.

Prizes of up to $10,000 will be handed to the best mashups across a range of categories, including a people’s choice award and student prizes.

Tanner said the contest complements research projects recently commissioned by the Taskforce to provide information on key areas of interest, including: enhancing the discoverability and accessibility of government information; barriers within agencies to adopting Government 2.0; Australian Government Web 2.0 practices; copyright and intellectual property barriers to open data sharing; Semantic Web (tagging datasets to enable sharing and re-use of data); and the value of open access to public sector information held in cultural institutions.

The MashupAustralia contest is open until 6 November 2009.