The ANU Software Innovation Institute and the Canberra Innovation Network (CBRIN), with support from the Open Data Institute, are co-hosting the Solid 2026 Hackathon — a multi-day event bringing together technologists, designers, legal professionals, and data advocates to build the next generation of privacy-first, user-controlled web applications. The event runs from 14 to 16 July 2026 at the Canberra Innovation Network hub in the heart of the city.
Participants gain practical skills that are rapidly becoming essential as governments
and organisations move toward integrated, user-controlled data ecosystems.
Over $2,000 in prizes - with prizes for leading, runner up, First Nations and
women's/non-binary teams. We also intend to provide post hackathon innovation support services.
Each participant will also receive a $25 credit with Claude for the duration of the hackathon,
giving teams AI assistance for coding, design, and rapid prototyping.
The hackathon centres on the Solid protocol — an open W3C standard that enables individuals to store their personal data in decentralised Personal Online Datastores (PODs), choosing which applications and people may access it. As governments and organisations increasingly grapple with questions of data sovereignty and digital trust, events like this hackathon play a critical role in building a community of practitioners fluent in privacy engineering at a practical level.
The event is intentionally multidisciplinary. Software engineers and data scientists will work alongside data privacy specialists, legal professionals, and designers to prototype applications that put users back in control of their own data. Participants will receive mentorship from researchers and practitioners actively working with Solid-based systems, as well as access to the Solid server infrastructure maintained by solidcommunity.au. Prizes will be awarded to outstanding projects across a range of categories.
Whether you are an experienced developer already building on the decentralised web, or someone new to the Solid protocol looking to understand what privacy-respecting software can look like in practice, the Solid 2026 Hackathon offers a hands-on environment to learn, collaborate, and ship something meaningful. Tickets are available now through Eventbrite.
