#nycbigapps

Hack, Polish, and Learn! One day to explore NYC’s civic technology community. RSVP here!

Join us for NYC BigApps CityCamp and Demo Night, part of America’s National Day of Civic Hacking. At NYC’s first CityCamp, you will have one day explore NYC’s civic technology community.

CityCamp: From 10 am - 5 pm, will we unconference, beta test civic apps, and learn from each other. If you are working on a BigApp, this is your chance to get intimate feedback from subject matter experts, and have your apps beta tested by experts and members of the public. If you are a member of the public, this your chance to see NYC BigApps teams working on their apps, to hear from thought leaders in the technology, and learn from each other.

NYC BigApps Demo Night: Before teams submit their final apps, watch them compete for cash, a chance to visit the White House, attend Code for America’s Annual Summit, and MORE!

NYC BigApp projects that wish to demo must submit a fully functional demo to by 4 pm, 1 June. Arrive early so you can meet this deadline. Email [email protected] if you have questions about demoing. Keep in mind that those selected to demo have no advantage or disadvantage in the overall NYC BigApps competition.

Judges will select the top three apps to win:

First Place*

$1,500 Cash Prize

An opportunity to attend the White House’s Champions of Change event in Washington DC.

Tickets to Code for America’s Annual Civic Innovation Summit.

Second Place*

$1,000 Cash Prize

Tickets to Code for America’s Annual Civic Innovation Summit.

Third Place*

Tickets to Personal Democracy Forum 2013 Conference.

A private dinner of civic technology and civic startup leaders hosted by Code for America.

*All winners will receive tickets to Personal Democracy Forum 2013 Conference and be invited to a private dinner for civic technology and civic startup leaders hosted by Code for America.

Day Program

10:00 am - Doors open for coffee and light breakfast.

10:30 am - Kick off with introduction from NYC EDC, Collabfinder, Code for America, and NY Law School.

11:00 am - 4:00 pm - Office Hours, Unconference-styled sessions, Beta Testing, and Hacking.

4:00 pm - Competition submissions are Due

Demo Night / Evening Program

4:00 pm - Demo Night Doors open with a Happy Hour.

5:00 pm - Evening program begins.

7:00 pm - Awards ceremony with a Happy Hour.

This year’s NYC BigApps is well underway and according to CollabFinder, more than 277 people are participating. Many hackathons and panels have already taken place, and there are more scheduled! Data enthusiasts, developers, designers, students, civic innovators, and technologists are coming together every week to discuss BigIssues: jobs and economic mobility, cleanweb, lifelong learning, and healthy living.

Some highlights from NYC BigApps events held to date:

Jobs & Economic Mobility Hackathon: 4/20-4/21

ChildCareDesk won first place at this weekend’s Jobs & Economic Mobility Hackathon. Some popular NYC OpenData sets included: Workforce 1 Career Center Locations, Mayor's Office Directory of Programs for the Young Men's Initiative and the Center for Economic Opportunity, and NYC Day Care Center Locations.

(Pro tip: if you’re looking for data that connect with the challenges’ BigIssues, check out the metatags on the NYC OpenData portal.)

 NYC BigApps Data Visualization Evening: 4/10

Alex Chen, Creative Director at Google’s Creative Lab, spoke about MTA.me, his subway music + data visualization

Lauren Talbot, Chief Programmer at the Mayor’s Office of Analytics of the City of New York, shared details about her work involving predictive analytics and data sharing among City agencies to improve policy and planning

NYC BigApps Expo and Hackathon Weekend: 4/6-4/7

Watch DoITT’s vine video of the Big Apps Expo and Hackathon Weekend

One breakout session focused on how to build a civic app and fostered idea-sharing about designing and developing civic technology with Volkan Unsal and Jeff Ferzoco.

Stay tuned for more BigApps news – the contest runs through June 7th, 2013!

Join us tonight for a Cleanweb NYC Meetup featuring Andy Frank of Sealed Homes, and going over the project briefs for the NYC BigApps Competition.

Check out my post on Cleanweb "Big Issues" as a key track of New York City's Big Apps competition.

We're excited to announce the addition of Joel Natividad to the Open Tech NYC agenda. Joel will be presenting on Open Data and Open Source: The Wonder Twins of Civic Hacking.

New York City aims to be the "Digital City of the Future". And it's well on its way! Having just celebrated the first anniversary of its landmark, groundbreaking Open Data Law, DataGotham is once again setting the pace in urban innovation by mandating that all city agencies release their data to the public. This is a veritable treasure trove for the open source community. Joel will give an overview of the City’s Open Data Initiative, including a short history of how the Open Data Law came about, how it powers NYCBigApps, and how the data is being used for all kinds of innovations - by the City, by Civic Hackers and the private sector to improve the lives of New Yorkers and to create new businesses. He will also preview the Linked Data Commons that Ontodia is building and launching summer of 2013.

When we heard New York City was hosting the NYC BigApps competition this year, we knew we couldn't pass up a chance to help make the city more accessible to New Yorkers. Since we're all about SMS for websites, we thought we would keep things simple, yet useful, and create a DOTGO site for NYC.gov.

To access the site, text "nyc" to DOTGOV (368468) and from there you can navigate to news from the city, information on alternate side parking, garbage and recycling collection, and more. Try it!

We hope you all find this useful, and would greatly appreciate your support in the form of a vote for our submission: VOTE HERE.

You can also access our submission from the simulator.

Thanks!