A x application challenge in keeping with New York City's drive to become more transparent, accessible, and accountable. $ 20,000 in cash prizes * Plus lunch with Mayor Bloomberg and tons of public appreciation. *
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About the NYC BigApps Competition:

The City of New York is improving the way it provides information and transparency to citizens. But delivering great information requires great tools. The NYC BigApps Competition will reward the developers of the most useful, inventive, appealing, effective, and commercially viable applications for delivering information from the City of New York's NYC.gov Data Mine to interested users.

Important Dates

Competition Submission Period Begins:
5:00pm EST October 6, 2009

Competition Submission Period Ends:
5:00pm EST December 8, 2009

Public Voting Period Begins:
12:00pm EST December 15, 2009

Public Voting Period Ends:
5:00pm EST January 7, 2010

Judging Period:
December 15, 2009 - January 7, 2010

Awards Ceremony:
TBD date in January 2010

Judges

All qualified entries will be judged by the individuals listed below, based on five categories: usefulness, inventiveness, visual appeal, effectiveness, and commercial viability. These categories are weighted differently for each of the awards; complete details are found in the Official Rules.

Judges will determine winners for all awards except the Popular Choice competition which will be determined by public vote on this web site.

Our panel of judges includes:

  • Dawn Barber (NY Tech Meetup)
  • John Borthwick (Betaworks)
  • Jason Calacanis (Mahalo)
  • Paul Cosgrave (NYC Department of Information Technology & Telecommunications)*
  • Esther Dyson (EDVentures)
  • Lawrence Lenihan (FirstMark Capital)
  • Kevin Ryan (Gilt Groupe)
  • Danny Schultz (DFJ Gotham Ventures)
  • Fred Wilson (Union Square Ventures)

* Paul Cosgrave will not be voting on the City Talent Award

Prizes

  • Best Overall Application
    • Grand Prize: $5,000
    • Second Prize: $2,500
    • Third Prize: $1,000
    • Honorable Mention (5 awards): $500

  • Investor's Choice Award
    • Grand Prize: $2,500

  • Data Visualization Award
    • Grand Prize: $2,500

  • City Talent Award

  • Popular Choice Award
    • Grand Prize: $2,500
    • Second Prize: $1,500

All winners will receive an invitation to dinner with the current Mayor of New York City, Michael Bloomberg.

For further details, please see the Official Rules.

Abbreviated Rules

Interested developers should first register here and read the complete Official Rules. (This section is only a summary.)

1. NYC BigApps is open to U.S. residents 18 and over and small businesses and organizations domiciled in the U.S. Employees of the City of New York and NYCEDC and their immediate family can compete for a separate City Talent Award.

2. Developers may submit their original software applications starting at 5:00pm on October 6, 2009. All submissions must be received by 5:00 PM EST on December 8, 2009.

3. All software applications must utilize at least one data source available on the NYC.gov Data Mine (www.nyc.gov/data). The Applications may be designed for the web, mobile devices, desktop computers, or any software platform broadly available to the public. If the application can not be accessed for review purposes by the public and the judges via a web link, a link to video of all application features must be submitted. Judges may request that the developer provide access to the software through some reasonable, additional means, for verification purposes.

4. Submissions will be published on this web site on a rolling basis as they are received throughout the competition submission period.

5. Winners will be determined by our distinguished panel of judges, with the exception of the "Popular Choice" categories, which will be determined by an online vote, conducted through this site, between December 15th, 2009 and January 7th, 2010.

6. All applications submitted to NYC BigApps remain the intellectual property of the individuals or organizations that developed them, though the City will retain the right to use for non-commercial purposes and distribute all submissions to the public free of charge during the competition, and for a period of 12 months after the competition submission period ends.

No purchase necessary to enter to win.