Hundreds of State Government data sets will be made available to the public next month via the government’s Unleashed competition.

Despite initial trepidation from within the public service, the competition will run for a second year in a row.

Already more than 260 government data sets – accessible at data.sa.gov.au – have been released.

On July 11-13, entrepreneurs, researchers and designers will compete to develop mobile apps and web tools aimed at solving community problems using the data.

Last year, data from Unleashed enabled InDaily to reveal:

• The number of pubs running live music in South Australia has dropped, while the total number of pubs in the state has increased,
• Federal money in South Australia flows disproportionately to military and defence contractors
• We charted every baby name in South Australia from the 1940s (peak ‘Jay’ was in 1982)
• And we mapped every earthquake on record in SA

Minister for Innovation Susan Close said the competition was a win for transparency in government, and would reap “limitless” benefits for the community and the economy.

“This released data can often be used in exciting and sometimes unpredictable ways,” she said.

Chief Information Officer Bret Morris said the competition was a step towards ensuring government data was open by default.

“State government agencies don’t own data; they are purely the custodians, which is why we’re turning our attention to making more of it publicly available,” Morris said.

“Unleashed provides an opportunity for us to rethink how we solve problems and collaborate across all levels of government, industry and our community to support the next generation of entrepreneurs.”

The competition will be hosted simultaneously in Adelaide and Mount Gambier.

Last year’s $40,000 first prize went to a website allowing individuals and organisations to add ‘What’s on in Adelaide?’ activities to a central source – SocialActive.

Entrants into this year’s competition can register here.