Oz government hacks reality TV model to help a startup. Just one

Policy-by-hack has well and truly taken hold in Canberra, with the federal government launching startup-inspired thought bubbles faster than startups can complain the government doesn't pay them enough attention.

Following on from notable successes last week (foreign minister Julie Bishop elevating the “cloud passport” from “dumb idea that won a prize” to “dumb idea that won a prize and is now the subject of international negotiations; and health minister Sussan Ley musing that individuals' health data could be sold to private entities to improve their ability to make apps), the government over the weekend announced it's working with startup bed-and-breakfast Pollenizer.

The DataStart program is going to “create opportunities for Australian tech startups to develop sustainable businesses through access to open government data” (which is about as exciting as your prose can get when it has to get departmental, ministerial and legal sign-off before it hits the Internet).

It'll create these businesses (plural) by anointing one team (singular) to take a desk in Pollenizer, some money (from Pollenizer and Right Click Capital), and government assistance with “customer discovery, technical support and access to government data”.

The data offered through the program is already notionally accessible to anybody who has the downtime to search data.gov.au for it; the program's looking for code-jockeys that can “apply innovation and creativity” to some nugget buried in the nation's 7,500 data sets.

The suitably-agile timetable for the program kicks off with a national roadshow of information sessions this month, and applications due by December 11.

The twenty lucky contestants who survive the reality show's elimination round will get a five-day coaching program before the 18 January pitch event.

After the winner has been announced, Pollenizer and Right Click Capital will then fund the winner with AU$200,000 of seed capital – if they both agree the idea's worth the money. Otherwise the winner gets a warm inner glow and a nice smile.

However, The Register is pleased to note that Pollenizer partner Daniel Ringrose says there are no IP nasties lurking about in the program.

Those that develop IP for the program – whether successful or not – won't be asked to sign that over to anyone else; and the IP of the winners will be owned by the company that's set up under the seed program. ®