#EUdatathon 2020: innovating for Europe with EU Open Data

The fourth edition of EU Datathon, the open data competition, has been launched on 19 February. This is your chance to demonstrate the potential that open data present in today’s society and, of course, your creativity and talent! It is also your chance to claim your share of the total prize fund amounting to EUR 100 000.

To take part, you should propose the development of an application that links and uses open datasets, of which at least one from the thousands made available by the EU institutions, agencies and bodies. For more detailed information, see the rules of the competition.

Your application is expected to showcase opportunities for concrete business models or social enterprises. It is also expected to find suitable new approaches and solutions to help Europe achieve important goals set by the European Commission through the use of open data. Therefore, it should fit into one of the following thematic challenges:

Challenge 1: ‘A European Green Deal’
Challenge 2: ‘An economy that works for people’
Challenge 3: ‘A new push for European democracy’
Challenge 4: ‘A Europe fit for the digital age’

Submit your proposal with a short description by 3 May. 

Twelve winning teams (i.e. three teams per challenge) will be shortlisted. If you are among them, you will be invited to develop your application and present it on 13-15 October during the 18th European Week of Regions and Cities in Brussels, an event that attracts more than 9 000 participants. [+]

Music played an important role in World War One. In a time when there was no radio or television, and recordings were still a rare phenomenon, music was mostly experienced live. For the armed forces, it wasn’t just something to march to, it influenced morale. It was also during the war that the use of music as propaganda became more important. 

When the war was over, composers reflected on their own experiences, devising compositions that often tried to find new ways to express horror and sorrow, thus bringing an end to late Romanticism and Symbolism. Popular music, as we now know it, has its roots in World War One.

Drawing on archive material from Europeana, in particular, its 1914-1918 and music collections, The Sound of the Trenches examines the importance of music during World War One, before, during and after the battle.  The hero image above is of bagpipes being played in the Gare du Nord, Paris, in 1916. This image is taken from a glass negative and so the picture quality is very high: the expressions of the players - as they watch each other, breathe and play - can be clearly seen. [+]