The Digital Breakthrough hackathon is a competition where 98 software developers work on IT solutions – mobile applications, games, and websites – for 48 hours straight, with only short breaks for sleep.
“Digital Breakthrough is the coolest hackathon in Russia and the largest in terms of regions, teams, and participants involved. The number of solutions they come up with is always surprising. Participating in the Digital Breakthrough will greatly benefit the region,” Novgorod Region Minister of Digital Development and ICT Andrei Mayorov noted.
“In addition to a lot of interesting ideas that we get and product prototypes we are ready to introduce, the entire country learns about the tales and legends of the Novgorod Land,” Mayorov continued. “Now even the Krasnodar Territory knows who Avdoshka is. We will try to get our cases accepted and used again. I would also like to call our IT students to take part in it.”
It is noteworthy that the Creative Industries: Communications and Content hackathon broke its own Digital Breakthrough record for the deployment of IT hubs. For example, the competition’s offline platforms were working in 19 Russian regions: in Veliky Novgorod, the Trust creative space was such a platform.
The Novgorod Region designed a case for the first time. It was to create an interactive folklore map. The Nov.legend case proved to be the most popular among those presented in the Creative Industries: Communications and Content track: 100 percent, or 98 participants from 23 teams from all across Russia, registered for it. The participants had to complete the case, which involved creating an interactive map of Novgorod Region folklore, in 48 hours.
The Novgorod Region Ministry of Digital Development and ICT, the Novgorod Region Ministry of Culture and Novgorodian Rus took part in designing the case. Information was collected on 38 unique examples of oral folklore (legends, traditions, fairy tales, epics) and 59 unique landmarks (lakes, springs, stones, and more) that are associated with legends.
The projects were presented on 22 August. The Nov.legend case of the Novgorod Region was won by AVM technology, a team from Nizhny Novgorod. They developed a mobile app prototype: an interactive 3D map of Novgorod Land landmarks and folklore incorporating elements of AR.