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An iPhone app is one of the leaders so far (EDC website)
The New York City Economic Development Corporation announced that 112 applications were submitted for the inaugural NYC BigApps Competition, the largest number of applications submitted to an open government initiative nationwide.
The NYC BigApps Competition was launched in October.
Over 170 City datasets were made available to software developers to create new digital applications for New York City residents and visitors.
The competition was open to individuals, start-up companies, and non-profit organizations with the restriction that they employ fewer than 50 people.
Thirteen winners will be selected, including two Popular Choice Application winners who will be chosen by public vote at the competition’s web site.
Voting for the Popular Choice Application continues until January 7.
Applications were submitted by software developers nationwide.
Information provided to the developers included city-wide tree census data, dog runs, property records and sales, graffiti locations, WiFi hotspots, current taxi medallion drivers, and restaurant inspection data.
Applications will be judged on criteria including benefit to residents, visitors, and city government; originality; visual appeal; effectiveness in increasing data accessibility and government transparency; and potential commercial value.
The judging panel is comprised of a select group of technology entrepreneurs and representatives of technology-focused venture capital firms.
Judges will determine the Best Overall Application (Grand Prize, Second Prize, Third Prize, and five honorable mentions), Investor’s Choice Application, Data Visualization Application, and a City Talent Award.
Winners will be selected and announced at an awards ceremony in February 2010 and will receive a total of $20,000 in cash prizes.
The 112 entries include applications relating to walking, bicycling, parking, rent, property values, restaurants, and neighborhood profiles.
MyPrecinct: New York City provides heat maps illustrating where in NYC crimes like murder, rape, assault, larceny, robbery, and burglary are committed most and least.
AntiBullying Color is an interactive website which allows students and adults to write reports on the topic and provides a 'panic button' for students in jeopardy to report abuse.
Bookzee is a location-based library book search. Enter a book title or author and Bookzee will find a library near you that has it.
Govbe enables constituents and elected officials to connect with each other.
ParkShark is a parking space sharing app which allows uses to share spots and search and reserve those shared spots
There are a number of iPhone applications, including NYC Way, which provides over 30 city-oriented apps.
Many of the applications are outstanding and almost all of them deserve at least a glance.
Click here to link to the EDC website devoted to the contest
Descriptions of four of the applications follow (they were selected randomly):
OMB Executive Dashboard (EDC website)
OMB Executive Dashboard
Developer's pitch:
Graphical display of New York City's Office of Management and Budget (OMB) data relating to over 80 City agencies and covered organizations such as the Transit Authority, Health and Hospitals Corporation, and the Housing Authority.
How it works:
The landing page of this application provides a host of NYC government links, but that's just window-dressing--the real functionality lies in the wealth of information it provides about NYC government expenses, revenues, and capital fund allocations.
Click and view...
Result:
State-of-the-art pie charts, bar charts, and histograms...presented on a city-wide and agency level...most over a 10-yr-period of time.
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Graffiti Snapshot prior to activation (EDC website)
Graffiti Snapshot
Developer's pitch:
This application helps users explore graffiti trends in New York City. It animates the growth of graffiti incidents over time on custom maps of New York City.
How it works:
You are presented with a colorful map of the five boroughs of NYC.
Click...
Result:
The map springs into life as reported graffiti incidents are presented as pinpoints of light.
Double-click on any area of the map and you can zoom-in on individual incidents almost to street-level.
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Make My Day (EDC website)
Make My Day
Developer's pitch:
Have you ever felt overwhelmed by the number of things you can do in NYC? Or have you felt like you've seen it all? Make My Day is an application that helps local residents and tourists experience all that this city has to offer by introducing an element of adventure and excitement into their schedule.
How it works:
You input a start time and an end time.
Select a price range ($0-$10, $10-$20, $20-$50, $50+).
Select one or more of the following parameters: I have kids; I enjoy outdoor athletic activities; I enjoy indoor athletic activities; I would like to learn more about NYC; I have a dog.
Click enter...
Result:
You're presented with a NYC itinerary which fills the hours you specified with activities you can afford.
Travel times are included.
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Community Mixer (EDC)
NYC Community Mixer
Developer's pitch:
The NYC Community Mixer combines various data sets and displays them in the form of a heat map of New York City broken down by community districts.
Users can combine multiple categories of data to generate the map using a mixer-like control.
How it works:
Preferences can be selected from several mixer components. The sliders on the components can be set to indicate the importance of the various selections.
The selections are the heart of the application.
They include age, gender, property values, monthly rental rates, and race
When the Submit button is clicked...
Result:
The application calculates a score for each community district and displays it as a shade of red on the map.
Districts that more closely match the selections you made will be darkest.
Hovering over the community district will display the score, the data used to calculate the score, and the rank of the selected district as compared to others.
The following slideshow contains artwork and descriptions of some the other applications (again chosen randomly):
The EDC voting website is interactive and enables a test-run of any of the 112 applications entered in the competition:
www.nycbigapps.com/application
John Signoriello can be contacted by email at siexaminer@yahoo.com
Comments
If you're a bicyclist, check out the Ride the City application.
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