Air your grievances!
Four governmental agencies. Over 175 data sets. $50,000 in awards. Real time technical assistance. Connecting communities with software developers.
That’s how "The Apps for Metro Chicago, Illinois" describes its #opengov software challenge.
The judges are looking for apps that are built with the input and support of not-for-profits, community organizations and businesses. Any and all software applications are eligible, as long as they’re for a platform widely available to the public like the interwebs, smart phones, and SMS.
The key to winning this contest, according to the competition website, is to demonstrate the creation of something useful for the community. The goal is to increase government transparency through the building of software applications that are creative, useful, and designed for long-term impact.
Two personal favorites listed on the website:
Local
“The idea I had in mind was mainly something that would resemble the way which the layar app works, giving you a listing of nearby places (restaurants, movies, cafes, etc.) but improve it with the addition of reviews of people who went through the metra/or even just live in those areas and went to nearby places with the family or any type of outing...”
"I have an idea for an app but don't know how to develop it. The app would report bad taxi drivers: ones that blantantly disobey traffic rules, are driving dangerously, or any other violations or complaints. This could incorporate GPS and picture uploads, fill in the taxi #, company, automatically date/time stamp, submit GPS location, and submit the info to the City of Chicago as a complaint."
List your complaints about Chicago and ways to improve our urban lifestyles by joining the contest.
Submissions are due for the “transportation round” on August 19 and public voting closes on August 25. SocialDevCamp, where you learn to develop your idea, begins the following day.
Head to AppsForMetroChicago.org
for more info about the contest.
