2012 NYC BigApps

Vote now for your favorite apps that use NYC data to make the City stronger. Submissions for NYC BigApps 3.0 are now closed. 

NYC BigApps 3.0 is a contest open to individual developers, as well companies and non-profits with fewer than 50 employees. Official competition rules, as well as additional information and updates can be found on the competition website: www.NYCBigApps.com.

BigApps Winners and Highlights

Winning applications for BigApps 3.0 will receive cash prizes totaling $50,000, in addition to several non-monetary prizes. A total of 13 cash prizes will be awarded this year, in addition to non-monetary prizes, and winners will be announced at an awards ceremony in the spring of 2012. Non-monetary prizes include two NY Tech Meetup demo slots, two TechStars finalist spots, and membership in the inaugural BigApps Founders Network, which will provide mentorship, networking and business support services to help winners launch or build their startups. In addition, the winner of the Best NYC Mashup will get a meeting with a representative of the startup whose API the winner used.

NYCEDC and the NYC Department of Information Technology and Telecommunication have worked with 63 City agencies, Commissions, and Business Improvement Districts across the City to provide the 237 new data sets available on the recently updated NYC Open Data site, formerly known as the NYC Data Mine. The information will be available for download at NYC Open Data at www.nyc.gov/data. In addition, as part of the City's ongoing efforts to increase transparency in City government, the data will remain accessible to the public after the completion of the BigApps 3.0 Competition.

The Mayor made the announcement at the October 2011 New York Tech Meetup - a monthly meeting of tech entrepreneurs featuring live demonstrations of new technologies from companies and developers - where he was joined by New York City Economic Development Corporation President Seth W. Pinsky, Chief Digital Officer Rachel Sterne and representatives from the Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications.

This year's NYC BigApps competition is once again being launched in partnership with BMW iVentures, along with Challenge Post, an NYC start-up that enables competitive public problem-solving, who will administer the competition for the third consecutive year. In addition to the categories created in previous years, there are also five new categories, including:

• Best Green App
• Best Health App
• Best Education App
• Best Mobility App
• Best NYC Mashup App

The companies providing new data this year will include:

• Aviary
• bit.ly
• DonorsChoose.Org
• Etsy
• Foursquare
• Tumblr
• Hunch
• Meetup
• GetGlue
• Magma
• Min.us
• NewsBlur
• Readability
• Yipit
• RecordSetter

This year, in order to provide additional platforms for creativity and development, a BigApps 3.0 Hackathon was held at Pivotal Labs on November 11 through 13, 2011, bringing together developers and other members of the tech community.

2011 NYC BigApps Ideas Challenge

New York City challenged the public to share ideas for apps for residents, businesses, and visitors.

There were over 600 ideas submitted to the NYC BigApps Ideas Challenge and over 1,600 votes were cast for people’s favorite ideas. The top 25 application ideas with the most votes were named as finalists, and each was awarded $100. The 25 finalists were then evaluated by a panel of judges, who selected the ten best overall ideas, each of which will receive an additional $250 for their winning idea.

The ten winning ideas include NYC apps that (name of submitter in parentheses):

• Let you 'like' or rate any street or block in the 5 boroughs (Carlos J. Gomez de Llarena)
• Create networks of citizens who can chime in about their borough, district and neighborhood issues with local government (Carlos J. Gomez de Llarena)
• Provide an open API to all MTA transit information, schedules, delays, and current locations of trains and buses
• Aggregate bike accident data to make/help petition for safer bike routes (Trev Eld)
• Allow residents to rate their building's owner, management co., landlord, even brokers and lets interested renters browse those ratings (Bud Caddell)
• Aggregate all the volunteer initiatives available, its cause and allows someone to register/participate (Christopher Bian)
• Tell someone when the next subway car is to arrive at their station, before they go underground (Stephen Mellert)
• Has a visual, color coded map of all street parking rules, regulations and street cleaning schedules (Will Turnage)
• For each borough gives the location of nearest public restrooms with A, B, C, D type ratings for their cleanliness and the level of safety (Sheryl Commodore)
• Tells someone their options during an emergency based on where they are and what their status is (Kelly Thompson)

2010 NYC BigApps

On March 31, 2011, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg announced the winners of the NYC BigApps 2.0 Competition, the second annual contest that allows software developers and members of the public to create web and mobile applications using City data. Fourteen winning applications were selected from a pool of 58 submissions.

The winning applications are:

Best Overall Application:

• Grand Prize: Roadify iPhone App – alerts users to the latest subway, bus, or driving conditions by adding real-time updates from commuters on top of official transit data. Roadify was also selected for “Popular Choice” Second Prize. Team members: Dylan Goelz, Nick Nyhan, Scott Kolber, Dan Robinson, Brian Bush, and Amy Janzen.
• Second Prize: Sportaneous – harnesses location-based technology to organize sports games at any time, providing lists of nearby public sports facilities and ways to join games that suit the user’s schedule, location, and skill level. Sportaneous was also selected for “Popular Choice” Grand Prize. Team members: Aaron Royston and Omar Haroun.
• Third Prize: Parking Finder (BestParking.com) – takes the hassle out of finding parking in Manhattan and Downtown Brooklyn by providing interactive maps of free, metered, and prohibited on-street parking during specified times, as well as entrance locations and calculated price of every off-street parking garage and lot, and the ability to make reservations. Parking Finder was also selected for the “Investor’s Choice” Award. Team members: Benjamin Sann and Alexander Sann.
• Honorable Mentions: DontEat.at, Appetition, CultureNOW: A Guidebook, NextStop, and Weeels.

Popular Choice Awards:

• Grand Prize: Sportaneous
• Second Prize: Roadify iPhone App

2009 NYC BigApps

The first NYC BigApps Competition launched on October 6, 2009. Winners were announced at an awards ceremony on February 4, 2010. BigApps received 85 eligible submissions in December and the winners were determined in January by public voting and a panel of distinguished judges. View all of the submissions and the winning apps. 

• Best Overall Application - Grand Prize: WayFinder NYC
• Best Overall Application - Second Prize: Taxihack
• Best Overall Application - Third Prize: Big Apple Ed
• Best Overall Application - Honorable Mention: Actuatr, NYC Way, PushpinWeb, Trees Near You, UpNext 3D NYC
• Investor's Choice Award: NYC Way
• Data Visualization Award: WayFinder NYC
• City Talent Award: New York City Parks and Recreation Online
• Popular Choice Award - Grand Prize: NYC Way
• Popular Choice Award - Second Prize: Bookze