The idea behind our Hack was the idea of fun and free things to do around the city of Darwin, which is where we got our name: FreeLunch.tech. The Hack itself is also free for users and created using open software!
We've created a web-based application that is designed to be used on the go to find points of interest, such as playgrounds and public barbeques, mapped out across the city. Another beneficial feature is showing users where the nearest facilities are in instances where time can be essential, such as public toilets and baby changing rooms.
For those who are after a not-so-free lunch, locations and opening times of street food vendors can be found easily as well.
The inner workings of the Hack involve using the R programming language to manipulate open data sets from the web; the application is future-proofed as the input data is automatically taken directly from relevant websites, so when their data is updated so is ours! The script runs on a Linux server where it imports the data, separates the data sets into the different facilities with there locations, operating hours and other details. The manipulated data sets are then read into LeafletJS to create our interactive maps showing our POIs. The maps and other information can be found on our website http://freelunch.tech/, which was created and is hosted using Wordpress.
We focused on using data only for the city of Darwin and surrounds in order to create a functional product. From here, adding POI's and expanding the geographical area would be a simple process in the future.
