About the Hackathon

The hackathon is a form of co-creation, resulting in a shared view of community problems and innovative solutions to them. Community members are provided with a shared time and space to work on bottlenecks and solutions.

The work is done in teams having gathered together within the framework of a common problem. The hackathon brings together the views of the citizen, official, entrepreneur, and expert. Through the backgrounds and experience of different people, (new) stronger networks, more solid ground for the problem, and solutions developed by the team are born. The result is a service/product that is tailored to the interests of the people in the area, and that they themselves have contributed to creating. One of the main benefits of the hackathon for local people is the creation of new and stronger networking ties.

The hackathon can also be referred to as a social hackathon, as the original idea comes from the world of technology, digital, and IT.

The first Vunki Mano! hackathon in Võru County took place in 2018. The example of Võru County has spread to other regions, and the format of the hackathon has been used as inspiration, for example, in Jõgeva County, the City of Pärnu, and the City of Tartu.

The path of development of the hackathon has been supported through various projects over the years.
This time, the hackathon is supported by the ‘Access Routes’ project.

The aim of the project is to develop the accessibility of tourist sites in South Estonia and to develop cross-border accessible tourist routes, which will be presented on the shared online platform mapeirons.eu.

At the hackathon we will also be developing ideas and topics related to increasing access, doing so in cooperation with our partner organisations from Latvia.

More information on the project: https://vorumaa.ee/projekt/turismimarsruutide-ligipaasetavuse-arendamine/

The aim of the project was to update the methods of civic engagement and the knowledge of these methods, so that they better meet today’s needs, expectations, and opportunities.

Project activities included hackathons held in 2022 and 2023, where the nature of the hackathons was understood as being one of the main tools available for the involvement of local governments.

More information on the project: https://vorumaa.ee/projekt/euarenas/ and https://www.euarenas.eu/

Two hackathons were held: at the Vastseliina Gymnasium, Kuldre School, and Värska Gymnasium.

The hackathons were financed with funds from the Development Centre of Võrumaa project ‘Vunki Mano! Hackathon’ (Võrumaa Partnership Council LEADER programme measure 1.2 – Community development through joint cooperation).

The main objectives of the CoSIE project were: 1) development of services in line with the priorities of the end-users and their informal support networks, and 2) involvement in the co-creation of common public services, in particular the ‘hard-to-involve’ citizens.

The project was implemented by 24 partners from 10 countries.

The format of the Vunki Mano hackathon was developed within the framework of the project, detailed instructional materials were outlined, and the hackathon was analysed by researchers as a method of co-creation.

More information on the project: https://cosie.turkuamk.fi/arkisto/index.html