The NYC BigApps competition is in its third year running, and this time the stakes are higher than ever with nearly 100 teams fighting for a piece of the hefty $50,000 cash prize. All the apps have been submitted and starting today, anyone can vote for the winner on the BigApps website.
All of the apps uniquely tap into nearly 750 data sets from more than 60 city agencies, commissions and business improvement districts. The city decided to release this data to increase transparency and to improve the quality of life for New Yorkers and visitors. As you can probably tell, NY is data rich, but needs the tech scene to make sense of it all.
Only two apps will win the popular choice award, and voting lasts for one month. The rest of the awards will be handed out by the judges, including best overall app, investor’s choice, best green app, best education app, best health app and so forth. From Seth W. Pinsky, President of the New York City Economic Development Corporation:
With a record number of submissions received, BigApps 3.0 is once again demonstrating the type of talent that exists here in our City. Starting today, I urge all New Yorkers to vote for these incredibly creative ideas, which are certain to play an important role in shaping the future of New York City as well as its economy
Winning apps will receive cash prizes totaling to $50,000, in addition to the following:
- 2 NY Tech Meetup demo slots
- 2 TechStars finalist spots
- Membership in the inaugural BigApps Founders Network
- Best NYC Mashup winner will get a meeting with a representative of the startup whose API the winner used
The voting session comes hot on the heels of Social Media Week, which was officially recognized this morning by NY Mayor Mike Bloomberg.
➤ BigApps
The competition has been fantastic so far- there was a Hackathon back in November along with a developer day in January, and it seems like a "BigApps community" has grown around the whole competition. The public voting is a relatively harsh process, but it's only one small part of the overall competition, so I hope no-one gets too discouraged.
That said, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention my own entry! It's called Taxonomy, and it's a taxi traveling "assistant"- letting you find street intersections, track your journey and split the cost with friends. I'd love to hear some feedback on the app, as it was only released just before the deadline:
http://2011.nycbigapps.com/submissions/5832-taxonomy
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LikeAwesome article Harrison! Would love your feedback on how we can make our submission, Voterfriendly better. http://2011.nycbigapps.com/submissions/5805-voterfriendly
Voterfriendly is a voter education app that shows you who is in Congress, how they have voted, and allows you to weigh in with a Yay or Nay vote on the same items that have appeared before your reps. It shows you how often you agree with your representatives, and which members of Congress you agree with the most.
We're looking forward to gamefying it, and making legislation comprehensible for lay people. Please let us know what you think and spread the word! :)
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