Best Data Journalism Hack (NZ)

GrocerFree is an Android and Windows 8.1 app created to help reduce food cost and food waste, by connecting people to local and seasonal produce. Traditions of sharing within communities and neighbourhoods has decreased, and GrocerFree aims to provide locations of locally grown produce available for urban foraging and harvest.

The project we have built is called 'Cemetery Search Information New Zealand(CSI NZ)'.  CSI provides a way to search the cemetery records of all regions in New Zealand that have published their cemetery data online. 
People using this application will have a fast, easy way to find out where relatives are buried, and information about the grave plot - this includes things like viewing the gravestone, finding the location of the grave in the cemetery, identifying the neighbouring plots, etc.

The problem we focused on was inequality. This was a meaty area to dig into, so we focused our attention on the general public's perceptions about poverty in New Zealand. We wanted to create empathy and understanding around what depravation means for someone's life, and turn data back into stories.

We created a simulator for people to compare two lives. Users select two regions and are introduced to two young characters. The game then rolls through their lifetime and presents statistically likely events based on data mapped back to their geographical area unit. 

Crime Sheep aims to make New Zealand crime statistics much more interesting and accessible for the general public. We believe that by raising awareness around crime statistics we will be challenging people to rise above what may be expected of them or their peers and beat the odds.

Our target users are young people between the ages of 15-19 because they are generally tech savvy and are in a more impressionable position in society as they are moving from adolescence into young adulthood. We believe that because of this they are more likely to be positively influenced our project.

The project we have created is an app which allows users to view general statistics on the New Zealand flag submissions. Our app displays the flag designs as submitted by the public, as well as key statistics; such as common colours, shapes and trends used.

Climate change - what can I do to help?  What can we do collectively as a community?

We have prototyped a clear, interactive data visualisation which shows the effects consumer and investment choices will have on greenhouse gas emissions.

What happens if we ramp up electric car or public transport take-up?  What's the cost and benefit of installing solar panels?

The actions of one person are a drop in the bucket. What happens if we all make the effort to change? What are New Zealand's carbon emissions going to be in the future?

Are government appointments and honours given as rewards for political donations and candidates? We took appointments and honours data and matched it against selected donations and candidacy data, and found a few connections.

Problem Statement

There are two major aspects to our problem statement:

During an emergency:

1)       There is no single platform where an individual can seek information.

2)      There is lack of community collaboration and people helping each other.

Solution

A mobile application that combines data from different sources like social media (Facebook, Twitter) and publicly available data like locations of community centres, water resources, traffic and weather feeds.

You're part of a family, you're a student, you're a young professional....and you're new to the city. Where do you live? What area best meets your needs so that you can walk to work, get to your gym classes on time and catch up with mates without worrying about bus timetables or parking limits?

Wellington is a capital city on the move. In the next 30 years the population is set to grow by about 42,000 people - that’s more than 20 per cent.

For people wanting to put down roots this means the suburb they live in today could look entirely different in 30 years time as household types, population breakdown, and the number of dwellings, shift to reflect projected changes.

If you’re looking to start a family, which suburb will have the most households like yours?