NYC's BigApps Challenge

Mayor Mike Bloomberg announced yesterday that New York City was joining the open government movement with a challenge to developers to build apps using open government data.

The challenge is called BigApps (a take on "Big Apple" in case anyone missed that). It will be run by NYC startup ChallengePost. Here's how it works:

Developers compete to build apps "in keeping with New York City's drive to become more transparent, accessible, and accountable and an easier place to live, work and play"

Prizes:

$ 20,000 in cash prizes.

Plus lunch with Mayor Bloomberg and tons of public appreciation.

Here's the timeline:

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

And here is the judging panel:

• 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)

I'm excited to be part of this. I've written about the opportunity to use the web and open data to redefine and reinvent government, particularly local government. This is just the start of an important movement.

If you are a developer who wants to compete, click here and get started.