Open Data HackDays on March 14./15. 2025
What are the HackDays?
The Open Data Day is an annual international event that highlights the importance of open data worldwide. Local groups organize their own events everywhere — including in Karlsruhe!
Here, the HackDays: Open Data for Urban Future will take place. Together, we aim to develop innovative solutions for urban challenges using open data.
Impressions from 2024 can be found here on YouTube.
The overarching theme for 2025:
“Open Data to Tackle the Polycrisis”
Who can participate?
The Open Data Hack Day is not just for hackers or IT professionals! We follow Wikipedia’s definition of “hacking” — it’s about finding solutions to challenges using creative methods.
Everyone can participate — whether beginner or expert, regardless of age or technical experience!
We are looking for:
Innovative thinkers with creative ideas
Data enthusiasts who enjoy working with numbers
Programmers who want to contribute their knowledge
Designers & creatives who want to create user-friendly solutions
Event Details at a Glance
Location:
House of Living Labs at FZI, Haid-und-Neu Str 5a City Map
Times:
- Friday: 5:00 PM - 9:00 PM
- Saturday: 10:00 AM - 8:00 PM
Catering:
- Drinks, fruit, and snacks will be available on both days.
- Saturday: Additionally, breakfast and lunch for all participants.
Free registration: Register now
Please bring your own 
laptop and
USB stick! If you need a device, let us know in advance.
The Data
We have tapped into various data sources:
- Open Data Portals:
-
Karlsruhe/Regional/Baden-Württemberg
- Transparency Portal Karlsruhe
- Statistics Portal Karlsruhe
- Re@di Open Data Portal, covering Baden-Baden, Bretten, Bruchsal, Ettlingen, Rastatt, Rheinstetten, Stutensee
- Open Data BW
- Regional Statistics
-
Nationwide
- GovData including “High Value Datasets”
- Destatis
- Selection from State Statistics: Accident Atlas
-
Besides these dedicated data portals, there are other interesting sources, including administration, (citizen) science, and research. These often come in special formats and may need conversion.
- Karlsruhe Council Information System
- 3D Data Karlsruhe - accessible via the Transparency Portal, sometimes requiring conversion. Also relevant for the Mini-City project (see Workshops).
- IDEAL Household Energy Dataset from FZI, containing energy use data from 255 households in the UK.
- Next-Bike Station Data — historical data set available, as online data is only temporarily accessible.
- Autonomous Driving Data: Mobility data, trajectory data at a research intersection – the TAF-BW dataset.
- City Cycling 2023/2024 – routes data from Karlsruhe cyclists.
- ZKM Visitor Movement Data: special mobility data from the Renaissance 3.0 exhibition at ZKM — great for visualizations.
- Karlsruhe’s Climate Protection Concept offers data on planned measures. There’s a prototype dashboard for visualizing this and other datasets.
All datasets (and metadata where available) have been downloaded. The data is on a shared drive and can be copied to your laptops. Data abstracts with links
The Workshops
Not common for a hackathon, but maybe a good idea: For those with limited time, our “hands-on” sessions offer practical insights into data topics. Each session lasts a maximum of one hour. Just drop by and join!
| Time | Duration | Title | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sat 10:30 | 0:45 | CKAN + Open Data Apps – from portal to application | CKAN |
| Sat 11:30 | 0:45 | Power for open data with PowerBI or other DataTools | Power |
| Sat 12:30 | 0:30 | Tour of House of Living Labs | HoLL |
| Sat 14:30 | 0:45 | Data analysis with cryptographic methods without cryptographic expertise | Crypto |
| Sat 15:30 | 0:45 | Blueprint | VR |
| Sat 16:30 | 0:45 | Mini-City | MiniCity |
Program Overview
The 2025 program is below:
| Time | Duration | Title | Short Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fri 16:00 | 1:00 | Check-In | Space is open |
| Fri 17:00 | 0:10 | Welcome | On time |
| Fri 17:10 | 1:00 | Pitch | “Mentors” present data/ideas/suggestions |
| Fri 18:10 | 0:30 | Check | “Walkaround” for more info from mentors |
| Fri 18:40 | 0:30 | Team | Forming teams based on shared interests |
| Fri 19:10 | 0:20 | Snacks | Refreshments |
| Fri 19:30 | 0:30 | Topics | Teams present their projects |
| Fri 20:00 | 1:00 | Hack | Let’s get started… |
| Fri 21:00 | — | Sleep, sleep (rest time) | |
| Sat 10:00 | 0:30 | Check-in | Quick round of updates and planning |
| Sat 10:30 | 2:30 | Hack | Continue hacking… and parallel workshops |
| Sat 13:00 | 1:00 | Lunch | |
| Sat 14:00 | 3:00 | Hack | Keep going… |
| Sat 17:00 | 0:30 | Finalize | Summarize results and ideas for continuation. Submit slides |
| Sat 17:30 | 0:30 | Snack | Refreshments |
| Sat 18:00 | 2:00 | Show | Present and discuss results |
| Sat 20:00 | — | End |
Note: Last-minute changes possible — check back before the event!
Partners
Open Data Hack Day Karlsruhe is supported by:
OK Lab Karlsruhe,
City of Karlsruhe,
karlsruhe.digital,
Karlsruhe University of Applied Sciences,
FZI | Research Center for Information Technology,
CycleSense,
EDIH AICS,
Studio Blaupause
Follow-up Events: “DatenCafe”
Projects from the HackDays can be further developed! 
At ZKM-USEUM on:
- Sat, April 5, 2025, 1–4 PM https://zkm.de/en/2025/04/datencafe-useum
- Sat, May 3, 2025, 1–4 PM https://zkm.de/en/2025/05/datencafe-useum
- Sun, May 25, 2025, 1–4 PM https://zkm.de/en/2025/05/datencafe-useum-0
Free entry, registration here | Bring your laptops