About the NextGov Hackathon

Nextcloud is currently used by many public services in Europe (universities, governments, cities etc.) as an alternative to Big Tech solutions, keeping their documents and communication safe in Europe. The European Commission’s Open Source Programme Office is organising a hackathon to enhance Nextcloud with additional features so that more public administrations can include such solutions as part of their digitalisation journey.

Help us build and protect Europe’s digital sovereignty!

Registrations are now closed!

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How to participate

Get familiar with Nextcloud.

Check the resources section below and pick a challenge.

Form a team before the starting date or go solo.

Register for the hackathon!

Hack on and have fun!

Challenge Categories

Nextcloud is a platform with hundreds of apps, varying from core functionality like sharing and file access to apps that let you manage passwords, a cookbook, play music, do surveys, track your health and much more. To help schools, government offices and universities, a number of useful improvements would be:

Challenges – All you need to know

1 – Improvements to Deck

Deck is a basic Kanban-style project management tool, similar to, for example, Trello. We propose the following improvements:

Introduce dependencies

  • Deck currently has no concept of dependencies between tasks, which is important for many more complicated projects. There is an issue open for this: https://github.com/nextcloud/deck/issues/2848
  • It would need a proposal (how it is integrated into the database, how it visually should look) before execution.
  • Will require vue.js and PHP work

Gantt charts integration

  • Gantt charts are a way to visualize tasks with their dependencies and assignees in time, helping determine the status of a project.
  • A developer put together code that turns a deck board into a Gantt chart already, code which can be used for inspiration: https://github.com/jeobz/NxDeckGantt
  • The nicest outcome would allow toggling to Gantt view and moving deck cards in Gantt view, but a static view would already be great.
  • Will mostly require Vue.js work

Trello import

  • Deck does much of what Trello does. As Trello has an export feature, it seems sensible to help people and organizations move to Deck by enabling import from Trello boards into Deck.
  • Somebody already created a command line script which does this, but a user interface would be incredibly helpful. Along the way, perhaps some of the remaining and identified feature gaps for import could be dealt with too. https://github.com/mclang/nextcloud-deck-import-trello-json

References

Deck dev docs

 

2 – Improvements to Nextcloud Talk

Nextcloud Talk is an audio/video chat app for Nextcloud similar to MS Teams or a combination of Slack and Zoom. We propose the following improvements:

Introduce message reactions

  • Talk currently has no reactions feature and it’d be nice to introduce this. This should be similar to Signal or Telegram reactions, adding an emoji to a message. Even better if these come with a nice animation
  • Likely only needs vue.js

Introduce reactions in video calls

  • Talk allows you to raise a hand during a call, but that’s all at the moment. It would be nice if users could also applaud, laugh, etc. Even better if these come with a nice animation!

References

Talk dev docs – note that talk is at https://github.com/nextcloud/spreed (its old name)

 

3 – One-on-one appointments in Calendar

Nextcloud Calendar is an app that adds full calendaring functionality to Nextcloud. It recently introduced a ‘appointments’ feature. It lets you define a number of slots where others can book a meeting with you. But it is really for booking recurring things, like, sales demo calls.

It would be useful for a far wider group of users if you could create a one-time link that defines a number of possible meeting times. Then you send that link, the recipient books a meeting, and the link is then ‘used up’. So it is really for a single meeting.

Resources

Dev documentation for Calendar

4 – Improvements in the Photos app

Nextcloud Photos is a photo viewer. There are loads of good ideas in GitHub for improvements!

Wildcard

5 – Additional challenge

There are also a lot of good first issues that should be relatively easy to tackle listed on Github in different apps of Nextcloud! Participants are also welcome to submit their own ideas for an improvement to Nextcloud. 

CHECK THE AGENDA

Registration starts:

22 of March at 12.00 CET

Hackathon starts:

25 of April at 16:00 CET

First checkpoint session:

27of April at 16:00 CET

Second checkpoint session:

29 of April at 16:00 CET

Hackathon closing session:

2nd of May at 16:00 CET

Evaluation phase:

From 2 of May to 9 of May

Award ceremony:

10 of May at 16:00 CET

Prizes

€ 5 000

€ 3 500

€ 2 500

€ 1 500

€ 500

All you need to know

Submission Guidelines

  • Projects should be submitted on the platform. This entry will be used to review the submission.
  • Demonstration of your work allows us to evaluate the submission easily.
  • This often includes a brief video (screen capture with voice-over) that gives an overview of the project, its motivation, and how it works to achieve it.
  • We also encourage basic documentation with a screenshot of the solution in action, a list of features, and a development guide if applicable. We will give more details during the hackathon.

Winning submissions for cash prizes

    • Must meet the minimum scoring to qualify, the following criteria will be used to evaluate submissions:
    • Completeness of the submission, such as documentation and a polished user experience with few bugs;
    • Quality of all materials submitted;
    • Originality and uniqueness of ideas;
    • Sustainability in terms of code organisation and structure (well-written code);

    Anything submitted after the due date will not be evaluated, except for changes to documentation made by May 2nd, 2022, (16:00 CET).

     Participation Certificate and swag prizes

    To receive a participation certificate and a swag prize, you will need to: 

    • Fill in your profile page with all information required.
    • Be a solo or active member of a team and submit your meaningful work (you need to score a minimum of five points) by the end of the Hackathon on May 02, 2022, 16:00 CET.

    For more information about scoring please check article four of the Terms and Conditions.

     Rules

      • You can participate either as an individual or as part of a team. There is a limit of five members per team. If a team with more than one member wins a cash prize, the prize will be allocated equally to all members.
      • Contractors from Nextcloud and staff from the European Commission can participate but are not eligible for the cash prizes.
      • Your submission should be developed entirely during the Hackathon period (April 25th to May 2nd).
      • You can use php and JavaScript programming languages to develop your solution and you are encouraged to use open source libraries and other freely available systems/services.
      • Hackathon projects are submitted on the Hackathon platform. Follow the instructions above to submit your project.
      • Cash prize winners will need to submit a form with their contact information for tax purposes.
      • By participating in the Hackathon, you agree to the Terms and Conditions.

      DO YOU HAVE QUESTIONS?
      WE ARE HERE TO HELP

      Do I need to have any specific qualifications to be a participant in the Hackathon?

      We strongly recommend reviewing the Nextcloud resources before the hackathon. However, it’s not required, only recommended!

      How do I submit what I have made for the Hackathon?

      Please follow the submission guidelines described above.

      Does the entire idea have to work fully?

      No, it doesn’t need to be fully implemented. However, the submission should be functional so that the judges can evaluate it. Nevertheless, we prefer complete solutions.

      Do I need to give a presentation on my submission?

      There will be no live presentations. We encourage you to submit a small presentation or video that demonstrates your submission. However, it’s not mandatory. In case you are one of the winners, you might be invited to demo your solution at a virtual or write an article about it, details of which will be shared with sufficient advance notice. Such an invitation would not be mandatory to accept.

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