The ChallengePost Blog

Whose IP is it anyway? How to handle intellectual property rights in app contests.

meganarend — Wed, 22 May 2013 11:20:00 -0400

This is the second in a series of posts for stakeholders and organizations interested in running software challenges. If you’re a software developer who’s looking to enter an app contest, check out our latest challenges, and sign up to get notified when new competitions launch.

Nowadays, software contests run the gamut — from hackathons to several-month-long challenges to bi-monthly app jams, companies have come up with a variety of ways to set up their challenges. But whatever the case, there’s one critical component that always needs careful consideration: the matter of intellectual property (IP) rights for submissions. Our advice? See our top three pointers below.

If you’re going to run an open innovation contest, it’s simple: don’t claim ownership of participants’ IP.

Why? There are several compelling reasons, but namely, you risk alienating the very group of people you’re trying to pull into your ecosystem.

If you’ve spent any time at all with developers, you’ll know that “hacker culture” or “hacker ethos” celebrates openness and freedom, among other things. Forcing developers to sign over their IP rights clearly runs counter to that and can end up being a PR nightmare.

Your job as a sponsor is to provide incentives for building software and to encourage developers to get involved. By clamping down on the spirit of openness, some developers may find it less compelling to form ties with your organization.

The developer community is vast, but it’s also small — word spreads like wildfire and the slightest whiff of a foul experience could leave you with very few developers in your corner.

When in doubt, leave the decision to the developers.

If your organization is uncomfortable declining IP rights altogether, at least offer a choice. Don’t make participation contingent upon a forfeiture of IP.

Also consider that when you acquire a developer’s IP, you need to be prepared to improve or maintain his or her project. If your company hasn’t devoted a team to take on that work, the project likely won’t see the light of day again.

Think there’s nothing in it for you? Think again.

Often, software competitions spur ideas that last beyond the actual challenge. Whether those ideas are pursued by challenge participants or by others, your brand will benefit from continued awareness.

And don’t forget — even it’s not your business, a new business that became successful through your event is a good thing. You don’t need to own the developers’ IP to be a part of that story.

For more ideas on getting developers to join your ecosystem, be sure to read our “Five Essentials for Building a Developer Community Base”.

Ready to get started with your own app contest? Shoot us an email at post@challengepost.com, or check out what we do.

By Brian

Don’t miss the first-ever book publishing hackathon in NYC this weekend!

samanthabtse — Fri, 17 May 2013 14:47:00 -0400

Books aren’t dead… but book discovery could use some innovation. That’s why we’re excited to announce the first-ever book publishing hackathon this weekend, May 18–19! It’s an event where bibliophiles and technologists can come together to help the world discover great books. What’s more, an impressive roster of judges and mentors from the publishing and tech worlds will be on hand to provide feedback.

On May 31, three to four finalists will have the opportunity to demo their hacks at BookExpo America, the largest and most prestigious book publishing event in the US. This gives finalists two weeks between the hackathon and the expo to fine-tune their hacks. (Side note: it’s refreshing to see more hackathons extending hacking beyond the weekend. Our recent 30-hour MTA AT&T App Quest Hackathon is now a three-month long global challenge.)

The winning team gets $10,000 and a meeting to pitch their idea to Ari Emanuel, Co-CEO of William Morris Endeavor.

For full details, go to PublishingHackathon.com. Space is limited, so register now!

Want to run an apps contest for your organization? Points to help you build your business case.

meganarend — Wed, 15 May 2013 15:17:00 -0400

This is the first in a series of posts for stakeholders & organizations interested in running software challenges. If you’re a software developer who’s looking to enter an apps contest, check out our latest challenges, and sign up to get notified when new ones launch.

Running a successful developer competition is an investment of time and resources, so it’s important to get internal buy-in for the necessary budgetary and personnel commitments. Thinking of running one? Below are some quick points that can help you build the business case for running app contests (or “challenges” as we like to call them) with ChallengePost.

Value created far exceeds costs
If you total all the time spent on procurement and contracting, corporations can easily spend over $50,000 to have an app built. Multiply that amount by every app submitted to a challenge, and the value of your investment will far outweigh the cost of prizes you provide to contest winners.

When a participant wins, you win
Challenge winners often go on to form companies, get funding, or continue to build upon existing businesses. We frequently hold competitions where winners progress to raise capital and gain multi-million dollar valuations. Success stories like these not only increase traffic and exposure for your platform, but also showcase the community you’re building.

Buzz is good for business
Challenges are fantastic fodder for social media mentions, blogs, and media outlets. They get headlines because they combine three hot topics: innovation, crowdsourcing, and app development.

Your ecosystem grows
Every submission to your challenge means another app on your platform. Building your developer ecosystem expands the capabilities of your product and services, and makes your platform indispensable.

You get to tap into a community
ChallengePost is a robust platform that 380,000+ users know and trust as the place for software competitions. When a new challenge launches, we tell our whole network, which means your web presence isn’t limited to a blog post or a hacked-together landing page that nobody sees.

Relationships last more than a weekend
After they’re introduced to new developers, some companies struggle to stay in touch. Challenges give you the context to continue the conversation. Hackathon participants, for example, can continue polishing their weekend’s work for a chance at better rewards a few months later. Likewise, conference attendees can engage with a project long after the keynotes are over. Projects that may otherwise lose momentum can actually be propelled by long-term app competitions.

Challenge marketing is long term
Unlike other marketing efforts, the challenge site we build for you lives on to serve as a long-term marketing piece that sponsors and participants are proud to display (e.g. “Look how we rallied and rewarded developers!” and “Check out how we won/entered this awesome competition”).

We do the heavy lifting
As anybody who has worked with software can attest, building a new website or platform from scratch always costs twice as much and takes much longer than originally anticipated. With ChallengePost, our team does the heavy-lifting and ensures a smooth challenge with minimal effort on your end.

To see how ChallengePost has powered successful app competitions, check out our case studies.

By Brian

Win $20,000 & a trip to Hawaii in the Kii Cloud App Challenge

samanthabtse — Wed, 08 May 2013 13:20:35 -0400

Building a mobile app is hard work. But building a mobile app with a scalable backend, all the while managing user acquisition and retention, marketing, and distribution can seem like scaling Mount Everest without any equipment.

That’s where Kii Cloud comes in, to save the day and give you a backpack full of hiking gear in the form of cloud technology and distribution services. That way, you can focus on what you do best — building a killer mobile app.

Kii Cloud’s new challenge for mobile developers is to introduce apps that best illustrate the capabilities and breadth of features offered by Kii Cloud and its partners. If you win the challenge, your app could be distributed to China and to over 260 million end users that are part of the Kii partners’ network.

Oh — and did we mention the winners get a trip to Hawaii? Forget the chill of Mount Everest and get ready to pack that surf board and sunscreen. Register now for the Kii Cloud App Challenge!

Like software competitions? Discover more, and sign up to hear about the latest ones at ChallengePost.com.

New Yorkers: five reasons you shouldn't miss MTA's hackathon this weekend

samanthabtse — Fri, 03 May 2013 14:14:00 -0400

It’s going to be a glorious spring weekend in New York City. But instead of playing ping pong in Bryant Park or stuffing my face with tortilla chips at Guactacular, you’re going to find me at the MTA AT&T App Quest Hackathon instead.

If you’re a software developer, designer, UX expert, or transit enthusiast, you should join me too! Here’s why:

Hundreds of the city’s best and brightest developers and transit experts will be there to hack the transit app of the future.
The hacking doesn’t end with the weekend. You can continue working on your apps virtually as part of a multi-month global challenge.
Expanded availability of real-time transit data. As of 4/25, MTA has switched on wireless connectivity in 30 underground subway stations around Manhattan, with 40 stations in Midtown and Queens expected to receive wireless service in the first quarter of 2014.
The amazing judging panel featuring NYC Chief Digital Officer Rachel Haot, Columbia University Chief Digital Officer Sree Sreenivasan, NY Tech Meetup Chairman Andrew Rasiej, and others.
$50,000 in prizes: $10,000 to be awarded to winners at the hackathon, plus an additional $40,000 for winners of the virtual challenge.

The iOS app Embark, which won the Grand Prize in last year’s MTA App Quest, has since routed 40 million trips, earned 100,000 downloads, and attracted BMW as an investor. You might have seen them in this subway ad. This could be you in the very near future.

So call off that barbecue in Prospect Park and join us this weekend. RSVP to get on the wait list at http://hackmta.eventbrite.com. I look forward to seeing you at the opening reception at NYU Poly tonight!

By Samantha

ChallengePost brings software makers and organizations together for online challenges and in-person hackathons that build awareness, solve problems, and spur innovation. Sign up to hear about our latest software competitions at ChallengePost.com.

Building startups to better government? Apply now for the Code for America Accelerator

samanthabtse — Thu, 02 May 2013 08:00:00 -0400

Guest post by Alex Tran, Accelerator Coordinator at Code for America Accelerator:Code for America brings coders, designers, and product managers together to build meaningful apps and services for the civic space, which is why we’re very excited ChallengePost is creating even more opportunities for civic technology through their Apps for Working Government Challenge.

For those of you who are interested in taking your web app to the next level, Code for America’s application for the 2013 class of the Accelerator program is accepting applications now through May 31. Apply now.

About the Accelerator
The Code for America Accelerator provides select civic startups $25k in seed funding and opportunities to:

amplify market awareness of their product
access a wealth of business training and advice
be introduced to a broad network of potential investors and civic leaders

The first class of the Accelerator received mentorship advice from the likes of Tim O’Reilly, introductions to top VCs in the Bay Area like Kapor Capital, and access to government leaders like Jay Nath, CIO of San Francisco. We are at a turning point in the history of government where the scale and ease of implementing modern web technology in the public sector is unprecedented. We look forward to you joining us in making a government that is truly by the people, for the people that works in the 21st century.

Have questions? Contact accelerator@codeforamerica.org with questions or to sign up for a webinar or drink-up event near you to learn more. We’ll be hosting a get-together in San Francisco on May 9th and one in New York (TBA) for companies to talk with our Accelerator Director Ron Bouganim and Chief of Programs Bob Sofman on how the program works.

Code for America (CfA) is a non-profit that’s trying to make government work more like the internet: more open, more efficient, and more collaborative. The CfA Accelerator is an early stage seed startup accelerator that helps early-stage civic startups get the financial, strategic, and operational support they need to succeed.

Hacking for good: how a former UNESCO fellow turned his coding hobby into a real business

meganarend — Wed, 01 May 2013 16:14:00 -0400

Participating in a challenge can really open up doors and new opportunities, regardless of the outcome. And when you win, it’s like icing on an already delicious cake. I recently caught up with former UNESCO Resident Fellow and winner of the World Bank’s Apps for Development Challenge, Frank van Cappelle. His life has been a whirlwind since winning the competition, but he stayed up very late to chat with us from Melbourne, where he’s currently based.

Frank van Cappelle, winner of the Apps for Development Challenge, with Robert Zoellick, President of the World Bank. Photo credit: the World Bank.

First things first: Frank, tell us about your winning app.
My app was called StatPlanet World Bank. It’s basically a tool that makes it easier for educational planners and policy-makers to visualize and interact with massive amounts of data — in other words, to make data user-friendly. I’m not a statistician, so I was looking to build something that would help make it easier for people like myself to understand the data.

So how has life changed for you since winning the challenge?
Prior to winning the challenge, building apps was more of a hobby. But now it’s become a proper job for me. I created my company StatSilk, and now produce different kinds of software, like StatTrends and several different versions of StatPlanet to cater to different needs. But the real long-lasting benefit was having the recognition of an organization like the World Bank behind my app, and that type of recognition will never lose its value. I’ve gotten some great clients through that exposure, like the Asian Development Bank and various UN and government agencies, which I think is largely due to that exposure.

How did you find the overall experience of participating in the challenge?
I thought it was great! When I first found out about the challenge, it sounded like just the sort of thing I was interested in. I was impressed by how sophisticated the API was and inspired by the scope of The World Bank’s database which participants had access to. To be honest, this challenge was the first time I worked with an API. So it was a challenge for me on a few different fronts, and working with the API was something I wanted to try.

Wait a minute. That was your first time working with an API?!
Yeah!

Wow. So what sort of advice would you have for others competing in challenges?
Know your limitations but be ambitious! Don’t just think of what’s possible or what you’re capable of, but try to think about the greatest app you’d want to build. Even if you can’t build it, you can always learn, and even if you don’t win, it’s still a learning experience. I learned Flash that way — through a previous competition. I didn’t win, but it was an excellent experience because I learned how to use that software, as well as a lot of other things — like how to develop under time pressure. If I hadn’t gone through that experience, I probably wouldn’t have won Apps for Development.

Would you consider entering more software competitions?
Definitely! But, a side effect of winning the Apps for Development Challenge is that I have a lot less free time because I’m so busy working on my app — which I suppose is a good problem to have.

Well, we’re excited to see how your company develops. Good luck to you!
Thanks very much!

Interested in entering a software challenge? Discover fun and rewarding competitions at ChallengePost.com. Also, check us out on Facebook and Twitter, and join the conversation.

By Richard

Nine reasons NY Tech Day rocked

samanthabtse — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 14:05:00 -0400

Here at ChallengePost, we’ve seen first-hand the remarkable energy and passion that the New York City tech community brings — from designers and engineers working together to develop new products that help revitalize NYC’s industrial sector in New York’s Next Top Makers, to software developers and edtech enthusiasts joining forces to create apps that improve NYC middle schools in NYC School’s Gap App Challenge, and more.

So we approached exhibiting at last week’s NY Tech Day with high hopes. The event far surpassed all reasonable expectations. Here are nine reasons why:

The venue was awesome: Most tech conferences are hosted in soulless expo centers or drab hotel ballrooms. Pier 92 captured the dichotomy of grit and glitz that makes the Big Apple the greatest city in the world. With wrap-around windows, 10,000+ attendees and 400+ companies were bathed in natural light and inspiring views of skyscrapers rising from the banks of the Hudson. It was a welcome change of scenery for screen-fatigued eyes.
Logistics were smooth: Check-in was a breeze, well-organized and well-staffed. “What’s your name? Here’s your wristband. Next.” (Side note: Is there anything worse than arm hair + crooked paper bracelet?) The reasonable limit of one free Wi-Fi device was granted to all exhibitors, and it worked well throughout the day. No-frills extension cords were easily accessible and shared by neighboring booths, adding to the sense of community. Everybody seemed to clean up their mess and get out quickly. In my experience, exhibiting is rarely this painless.
All booths were the same size: No absurdly expensive or gaudy monstrosities hogged the limelight. Pre-launch, bootstrapped startups and the hottest, well-funded powerhouses all got the same thing: one standard table to do with what they please.
No distracting presentations: The entire event was focused on learning about exhibiting startups. No pompous key notes, no glitzy product releases, and no awkwardly tentative Q&A sessions. Just good ol’ “Hi, tell me about your company.”
(Almost) every company had a revenue model: The old joke goes something like this: “A thousand people show up to a bar in Silicon Valley. Nobody buys anything. It’s deemed a wild success.” Not in New York! With very few exceptions, the companies at NY Tech Day had built-in revenue models. Curating goods that match personal tastes was a common theme, as were crowdfunding platforms and healthy living tools. Forget the traction-first approach… we’ve got rent to pay!
Food was quick and fresh: Eating on trade show floors normally means waiting 20 minutes in line for styrofoam pizza. During prime lunch time at NY Tech Day, I waited four minutes to order a crisp salad and pressed sandwich that didn’t make me feel like a lethargic slob immediately afterwards. Bonus points for giving half-off coupons to exhibitors.
Startup-friendly rates: Fees for exhibiting at high profile tech expos typically exceed the yearly marketing budgets for seed-stage startups. A booth at NY Tech Day cost a few hundred bucks, lowering the barrier to entry to where just about anybody could participate.
Investors approaching startups… in person!: Early stage investors are notoriously squeamish (and for good reason) about putting themselves in the midst of clamoring masses begging to pitch their startup. I must have spoken with 50 investors yesterday who approached our table with genuine interest in our business and financial needs. Investors approaching blindly never happens. Something about the tone of communications leading up to NY Tech Day and the energy of the event itself made investors feel comfortable pinning a target on their lapel (e.g. “Investor” tag) and diving into the shooting gallery.
Measurable results for all departments: It’s rare that everyone feels they got value from a conference. Usually I’m satisfied with a fist full of business cards for our deal pipeline. I certainly walked away with that, but our marketing team also got over a hundred new developers signed up to participate in in-person hackathons and online app contests, while our community and product teams got valuable feedback from past participants. Plus, a few recent challenge winners came by to express gratitude for the learning, recognition and monetary rewards that came with their ChallengePost experience. Wins all around. (O, and one more thing… our friends over at Twilio stopped by to let us play with the highly coveted Google Glass computer eyewear.)

I know that not all conferences can be about “community.” Big companies need big conferences to trade big dollars. But it was nice to see that a conference intended to celebrate and showcase the New York tech scene did exactly that. We’ll be back next year.

By Brian

ChallengePost brings software makers and organizations together for online challenges and in-person hackathons that build awareness, solve problems, and spur innovation. Check out our latest software competitions at ChallengePost.com.

Build cool TV companion apps with Viggle

meganarend — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 09:30:00 -0400

We all have them — those guilty pleasure TV shows we pretend not to watch but loyally tune in to every week in our Star Wars pajamas (if you were thinking Glee, Family Guy or Dexter, we’re right there with you). But instead of just indulging, wouldn’t it be great if you were rewarded for your, ahem, excellent taste in TV? Innovative mobile app Viggle does just that, giving you points for watching and interacting with TV shows that you can later redeem for rewards. And now, Viggle challenges you to make the TV-watching experience even better.

Wait, make watching Dexter even better?
Exactly. Viggle is calling on developers to create TV companion apps in the Viggle App Jam! Apps can be anything from simple, static content experiences, like video playlists or photo slideshows, to fully immersive games where users can interact with one another and earn Viggle points.

And I can win prizes?
You’re getting the hang of this. Up to $50,000 in prizes will be awarded for a variety of categories, including Best Overall App, Best Social TV App and Popular Choice.

So put down that remote and get hackin’! Register now at http://appjam.viggle.com.

Got a favorite guilty pleasure TV show? Share it in the comments!

Your car is keeping secrets from you. Help free them in the Ford Personalized Fuel-Efficiency App Challenge!

meganarend — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 13:27:00 -0400

What kind of gas mileage does your car really get? Why was your gas bill so much higher last month? How much money are you saving by going on the freeway instead of around town? Your car has data that could answer all these questions, but it’s not telling.

Enter Ford’s OpenXC platform, an API to your car. It’s built from the ground up to be open source and to give insight into vehicles — everything from wheel speed to the angle of your steering wheel. There’s even proper hardware isolation so that you can’t “brick” your car. It’s as easy to program as your smartphone. And it runs on a combination of Arduino and Android.

Nowadays, cars are like rolling computers without a monitor. Help change that by creating apps that “talk” to a car’s sensors and show drivers how they’re really doing.

Ford Personalized Fuel-Efficiency App Challenge
Create apps that help drivers optimize their personal fuel-economy performance using the OpenXC platform.

$50,000 in cash & prizes
Deadline: July 24, 2013

Interested? Register for the challenge and join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter.

Like software challenges? Discover more like these on ChallengePost.com.

By Samantha

How to create a great submission in an apps contest

samanthabtse — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 08:35:00 -0400

Software developers participating in ChallengePost competitions often ask our team for tips on creating winning apps. “What are the judges looking for?” or “Will I have a better chance of winning if I did X?”, and the most popular one, “Can you take a look at what I have so far, and give me feedback?”

The first question is easy: we ask participants to read the judging criteria carefully. The other questions, in all fairness, aren’t ones we can answer. Since we serve as administrators of the competitions on our platform, we aim to keep a level playing field. i.e. We don’t comment on the actual apps themselves during the submission period.

What we can offer, however, is advice on how to create an eligible submission — one that is eligible to be awarded prizes — and how to make it great. (You can’t win if you get disqualified!) They may sound simple, but you’d be surprised to see how many apps don’t make it because participants didn’t heed our reminders. So here goes…

Top five tips for creating a ~~winning~~ great submission:

Read the official rules & submission requirements thoroughly. The most common reason submissions are declared ineligible is that the app doesn’t use the data/API/SDK specified in the rules, or the submission is missing a required item (e.g. a video, screenshots of the app, etc.)
Start and submit as early as possible. Starting early will give you more time to review code, fix major bugs, and perfect your submission. Also, our team reviews submissions on a rolling basis, so depending on how early you submit, we can tell you if anything is missing so that you have the opportunity to fix it before the deadline.
Craft the perfect video. This is often one of the first things that judges and voters look at. Don’t worry about going all fancy with special effects; while a polished video is great, the story behind your product is more compelling.
Ask others to test your app. A fresh set of eyes on your product never hurts, in case you missed any bugs or usability issues.
Since most of us are creatures of procrastination, see #2 again.

Want more proof? Check out our recent interview with three-time ChallengePost winner Aaron Coleman, who talked about what it takes to win an apps competition, and how he founded his own software company Small Steps Labs after winning awards in the AT&T San Diego Apps Challenge and Apps for Healthy Kids.

Interested in entering a software challenge? Discover fun and rewarding ones at ChallengePost.com. Also, check us out on Facebook and Twitter, and join the conversation.

By Samantha

Apps challenge tips from three-time ChallengePost winner Aaron Coleman

samanthabtse — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 10:41:00 -0400

What does it take to win an apps contest? Hear from Aaron Coleman, who took home the $25,000 “Best Overall App Grand Prize” and the City of San Diego “Best Innovation App” in the AT&T San Diego Apps Challenge with his iOS app Street Report. Aaron also had the opportunity to meet former U.S. Chief Technology Officer Aneesh Chopra at the White House after his team’s Food Buster game won “Popular Choice Award for Best Game” in Apps for Healthy Kids — a competition by First Lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move! initiative.

He has since founded his own software company, Small Steps Labs. We sat down with Aaron recently to catch up.

Congrats again on your wins, Aaron! What advice do you have for software competition participants when it comes to crafting a great submission?
Start early. The things you’ll sacrifice by waiting are some of the most important parts of the submission.

Like what?
People who wait until the end of the submission period to submit might not have a nice UI, a good video that tells a story, or the time to get beta feedback.

Tell us more about having a nice UI.
My 6th grade history teacher, Clarence Hall at DeMille Middle School, taught me a valuable lesson I keep to this day. I handed him a history paper I had worked hard on, he looked at it, looked at me, and handed it back. “This is a B paper, max.” Astonished, I asked, “How is that? You haven’t even read it yet?” Mr. Hall responded, “You have no cover, no title page, and you stapled it. It looks like you didn’t put your all into this. Take it home and make it look nice and I’ll read it tomorrow.”

The same is true for your app — if you nailed it on functionality, take a little pride to add some graphics, make an icon, play with subtle colors and gradients (no “programmer art”).

What’s your secret behind making a good video?
A good video tells a story. It’s not the story of how you made your app, it’s the story of how users will use your app and their lives will be better for it. Shoot some footage, and mix that in between your app screens. Also, don’t do all footage without a demo of your app — it feels like your idea didn’t come together so you’re glossing over it with good video. One-third footage and two-thirds app demo intermingled feels right.

How much time did you dedicate to beta testing your ChallengePost submissions?
Both of my apps were done with beta testing one month prior to the deadline. While there isn’t time for lots of re-dos, some beta testing revealed a couple of small tweaks that made a world of difference.

Any advice on how to come up with “the big idea”?
Think about big problems with simple solutions for end users. A simple to use app doesn’t mean there is less to do, it usually means there is more to do. With Street Report, the idea was that by stopwatch, a user could snap a photo of a pothole, graffiti, or any other street issue and in 10 seconds or less have a real preliminary work order submitted to the city. Anything more involved wouldn’t realistically work.

Figure out something you can do that no one else likely can. In my case, the first thing I did was that I fired up an HTTP composer and figured out how the existing HTML form for the city street issues worked, and built the entire app around the discovery that I could mimic that. It wasn’t documented anywhere, nor is that always possible or known, it just happened to work. There were 5 other similar looking street apps, none submitted directly into the City of San Diego Street Division, but instead composed an email that city officials would likely put on the back burner before opening and transcribing it into an official work request.

Any other tips for software developers thinking about entering a ChallengePost competition?
Sometimes the prize isn’t the prize, it’s the publicity. Expect that just entering your app might give you publicity for something else you do or want to do. Be ready to capitalize on that. I had job offers, freelance app gigs, and people asking me to sign NDAs (on new projects) for more than a month after both contests ended. I started my company, Small Steps Labs that same year. As a software company, having won two competitions and a trip to the White House has been an assurance to clients that I can execute. I didn’t capitalize on the second as much as I could have, but lesson learned!

Interested in entering a software challenge? Find fun and rewarding ones at ChallengePost.com. Also, check us out on Facebook and Twitter, and join the conversation.

By Samantha

Not your ordinary hackathon

samanthabtse — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 03:00:33 -0400

Any software developers in London in the house? The Yahoo Developer Network (YDN) is inviting the brightest developers to build out ideas they’re passionate about at Yahoo! Hack Europe: London. This isn’t going be your ordinary hackathon. (There are going to be games and puzzles!) Hack in an environment where you’ll be both challenged and inspired — collaborate, learn, and innovate using the world’s top technologies from YDN and its tech partners.

When & where

April 27-28, 2013 at Covent Garden in London, UK

What to expect

Two full days of hacking, with plenty of food, drinks, snacks, and caffeine
Panel debates on emerging technology trends
Skills workshops ranging from tricks of the trade to geeky crafts
Hacking with world-class developers
A variety of fun and engaging puzzles to stimulate your mind
Large-scale interactive games to fuel your creativity
Prizes and surprises

Apply now — limited slots available!

Sign up for a “2-Day Hacker” ticket or “Tech Talks ONLY” ticket here. The more details you can share about your technical background and abilities, the better the chance you’ll be selected to participate. Applications will be processed on a rolling basis. You’ll get an invitation via email if you’re selected.

In the meantime, check out this video from a Yahoo! Hack Day in India to get a taste of what you’re in for.

Share this with an awesome developer, get a free t-shirt

We’re new to London, and would love your help in spreading the word! To the first five software developers who reblog this post: we’ll be in touch to send you a ChallengePost t-shirt.

Discover fun and rewarding software challenges on ChallengePost.com.

By Samantha

Hack the transit app of the future with MTA and AT&T

samanthabtse — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 18:42:00 -0400

Attention software developers, designers, UX experts, and commuters: New York’s MTA (Metropolitan Transportation Authority) and AT&T are teaming up to kick off this year’s MTA App Quest with a weekend hackathon!

Come and join transit pros to develop new technologies using MTA’s public data and APIs. We’d love to see apps that help riders improve their daily commute, as well as apps that can help the MTA visualize customer trends so that they can better serve riders.

Spaces are first come, first served. Sign up before spots run out!

MTA and AT&T Present: App Quest Hackathon

What: Create next-generation apps that enhance the transit experience of MTA’s 8.5 million daily riders.

Where: NYU Poly, 6 Metrotech Center, Brooklyn, NY

When: Saturday, May 4, 2013 at 10 AM – Sunday, May 5, 2013 at 5 PM

Prizes: $10,000

Bonus: All hacks will be entered into MTA App Quest, a multi-month, virtual app challenge, where an additional $40,000 in prizes will be awarded. (More details to come.)

Judges: NYC Chief Digital Officer Rachel Haot, General Assembly Co-Founder Matt Brimer, and NY Tech Meetup Chairman Andrew Rasiej

Registration: hackmta.eventbrite.com

Share this with an awesome developer, get a free t-shirt

To the first five software developers who reblog this post: we’d like to say thanks by sending you a ChallengePost t-shirt! Just hit the reblog icon on the top right, and we’ll be in touch.

Like software challenges? Discover more on ChallengePost.com.
P.S. We’re now powering hackathons for free.

By Samantha

Holla back to HackLolla ‘12: Mobile app Falcon, one year later

meganarend — Fri, 05 Apr 2013 14:28:00 -0400

About this time last year, ChallengePost ran HackLolla 2012, a competition from the organizers of Lollapalooza that challenged developers to create software apps to help music fans get the most out the Lollapalooza experience.

We followed up with one of the challenge participants, the team behind mobile app Falcon, to see what they’ve been up to since then.

Hello Falcon team! It’s been a while. Tell our readers — what exactly is Falcon?

Ali/Matt: Falcon is a navigation app for festivals and events. It’s great for college campuses, outdoor experiences — pretty much any type of event where walking is the main way of traveling.

How does Falcon differ from say — using Google Maps?

Ali/Matt: The biggest differentiator is that you don’t need cell service to navigate with Falcon. Of course, you’ll need to have cell service to connect with your friends, or even access the Google Maps API, but the basic navigation function works without coverage. That’s because we rely on GPS coordinates, not cell data. That’s the primary reason we went with compass navigation as opposed to an overhead view.

Falcon just uses your geographical location, so as long as your phone has identified the GPS location of your friend, stage or tent, it can tell you which direction you need to go. You can get there even if service is spotty or nonexistent, which is the case at a lot of these huge music festivals. I mean, Burning Man is literally in the middle of a desert.

How did your participation in HackLolla help you on your journey?

Ali/Matt: It pushed us to set a deadline for building our app and meet it. It also pushed us to take the initial prototype we had developed for Coachella, improve on it and get the next version out before Lollapalooza 2012.

Any advice for future ChallengePost participants?

Ali/Matt: Just go for it. You have nothing to lose. Just set your sights on something you want to create and that you feel passionate about and go out there and find out all the information you can to make it happen — scour the Internet, call people up, struggle through it and you’ll find an answer. As long as you don’t quit, you’ll get to where your goal is.

That’s a great quote.

Ali/Matt: It is, isn’t it? We’d also suggest submitting your app early. It’s kind of a trade off, because you want to have the best version of your app up there, but submitting early definitely has its advantages. You just need to find the sweet spot.

So what’s next for you guys?

Ali/Matt: The next big thing in the pipeline is enabling Bluetooth. So if your phone is transmitting a Bluetooth signal, it broadcasts a unique ID that’s registered to your phone. Your phone’s Bluetooth would pick up any Bluetooth signal by you, but Falcon would filter out everyone but your Facebook friends. That way, users can find their friends and share things with them without relying on the overcrowded cell networks at festivals.

Aside from that, we’d like to start bringing in some revenue and as soon as we have the opportunity to fundraise, develop an Android version of the app.

Oh, and we’ll be submitting to HackSummerStage, of course!
————————

Well, we’re excited to see where Falcon will be one year from today. We wish the Falcon team all the best!

Check out more challenges like Hacklolla at www.challengepost.com/discover.

nycedc: Monday, we announced the six finalists of New York’s...

meganarend — Thu, 04 Apr 2013 11:51:41 -0400

nycedc:

Monday, we announced the six finalists of New York’s Next Top Makers, a competition to promote innovation in New York City. Next Top Makers is designed to act as a business accelerator for New York City-based product entrepreneurs, inventors and makers, where finalists will receive assistance on the path to commercialization in the form of studio space, business support and mentorship from industry experts, including Adafruit Industries founder Limor Fried (recently named Entrepreneur Magazine’s 2012 Entrepreneur of the Year) and representatives from Siemens and Honeybee Robotics.

New York’s Next Top Makers finalists are:

Nautilus Bowl

The Power Clip

MYBELL

Tangeez

Bonus Table

Slide Table

The six finalists were chosen by a panel of judges and by a public, online vote. The finalists will spend the next five months working in studio space in Long Island City provided by NYDesigns, receiving technical support, workshops, a prototyping budget, materials, access to equipment and mentorship.

Read more on the NYCEDC blog

Software developers & policy enthusiasts unite! Suggest data and create apps to get government to stop fighting, start fixing.

samanthabtse — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 16:50:00 -0400

We’re thrilled to launch the Apps for Working Government Challenge to highlight innovative apps that make government more transparent and effective. Along with partners Sunlight Foundation, Personal Democracy Media, The Monkey Cage, and No Labels, we’re inviting software developers to enter new or existing applications that can help reduce partisan gridlock and increase legislative productivity at the federal, state, or local level.

Software developers, policy enthusiasts, technologists, as well as anyone invigorated by the potential of technology and the Internet are encouraged to join our discussion to share relevant data and solution ideas, and create web, mobile, or desktop apps in one of these two categories:

Educational tools: Apps that visualize or analyze data to illustrate the problem of partisan gridlock, legislative productivity or lack thereof), and/or related consequences.
Solutions & action tools: Apps that citizens can use to communicate with legislators or mobilize other citizens, or tools that legislators can use to advance collaboration.

Why are we holding the Apps for Working Government Challenge?

There are a lot of frustrated Americans who want their government to be more productive. They also want to be able to make informed decisions based on hard data rather than rhetoric or ideology. We’re excited to introduce this challenge as a way to empower regular citizens to enact change in their government. It really gets to the root of people using their talents and harnessing technology to make government better.

Why apps?

With the U.S. federal government careening from one crisis to the next, citizens are increasingly frustrated with the government’s inability to get things done. We can’t solve this problem with software alone, but we can harness technology to educate and empower both citizens and lawmakers to make government more transparent or effective.

“People hate gridlock and want government to do something. But people also disagree about what exactly it’s supposed to do — which is precisely what creates gridlock,” said John Sides, Co-Founder and Contributor of ‘The Monkey Cage,’ a blog about political science and politics. “This competition offers an opportunity to address this fundamental tension and generate innovations that can educate and enlighten citizens.”

What’s in it for you?

$5,000 in cash prizes for the winning apps
Opportunity to brainstorm with policy and tech experts, and get feedback and improvement tips on your app if you submit it by May 1, 2013, the early submission deadline
Opportunity to get your app noticed and judged by a distinguished judging panel
Placement on the challenge website for all eligible apps

How can you get involved?

Register for the challenge.
Join the discussion: share relevant data, existing apps, and solution ideas.
Get inspired: explore data/APIs and app examples.
Create an app, or enter an already available one.
Share this meaningful competition with a friend.

Submissions are being accepted from now until June 19, 2013. For full challenge details, visit http://AppsForWorkingGov.ChallengePost.com.

We hope you’ll join our discussions and/or create an app that help get government working!

Like software challenges? Discover more on ChallengePost.com. We’d also like to invite you to join us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.

By Samantha

ChallengePost — Now for hackathons, too

meganarend — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 12:37:02 -0400

In the past, ChallengePost has been known for its online challenges — software competitions that often run the course of several months and focus on market-ready, fully-functioning apps. While we’re still committed to these challenges, we also realized that in-person developer events (in the form of hackathons, game jams, code fests, etc.) deserve attention, too. That’s why we’re offering our platform to hackathon organizers for free!

Why free hackathons?
We think hackathons are great places to get exposure — for both sponsors and developers — and can also help create momentum for longer competitions. Ultimately, we want to help grow the developer community.

How ChallengePost can make your hackathons run smoothly
Want a leg-up on the average hackathon? Check out some of the ways ChallengePost can make the experience better:

Maintain a compelling web presence. Give sponsors and participants a place to engage — not just during the event — but before and after as well.
Make registration easier. At well-attended hackathons, it’s hard to tell how many of your 500+ “participants” actually intend to build something. We make that transparent, and help you distinguish observers from actual hackers.
Tap into a vibrant community. A 380,000-strong community, at that. We want to help your developer network grow, and you’ll have access to our huge community of developers and open-innovation enthusiasts.
Encourage collaboration. What’s a hackathon without teamwork? Our discussion board serves as a great place for teambuilding, and lets both hackers and non-hackers contribute to idea generation.
Display hacks in a public gallery. After the hacking ends, all projects are hosted in one place. Use the public application gallery for live demos, and let winners’ hacks live on long after the pizza boxes are recycled.
Let the public weigh in. Implement a popular choice prize, and encourage attendees to vote on their favorites. It’s a fantastic way to spread the word about your event and showcase participants’ work.
Discover a better way to judge. Judging can all take place online, where scores can be seen by organizers (but not the participants themselves), including remote judges.

Sound pretty cool? Contact post@challengepost.com to get started with your free 1-2 day developer event. Happy hacking!

nycedc: Cast Your Vote for New York City’s Next Top Maker! If...

meganarend — Fri, 08 Mar 2013 16:04:44 -0500

nycedc:

Cast Your Vote for New York City’s Next Top Maker!

If you can make it in NYC…

Voting has opened for New York’s Next Top Makers, a competition to promote innovation in New York City. Vote for your favorite innovator for a spot among five other finalists. The finalists will receive assistance on the path to commercialization for their design, including studio space, business support and mentorship from industry experts.

Cast your vote before March 27!

“Rapid prototyping and 3-D printing have the potential to transform manufacturing in New York City. The winners of this competition will receive helpful resources to launch new and innovative products, and will receive access to critical mentorship opportunities, aiding them in their expansion plans.”

- NYCEDC President Seth Pinsky

Five best-practice guides on how to run a successful app contest and grow your developer community

samanthabtse — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 12:57:45 -0500

Interested in driving innovation and strengthening a developer community? Publicly challenging software developers to compete for prizes and recognition could be just the ticket.

Here at ChallengePost, we’ve run more successful app contests than anybody, and we’ve learned a great deal about developer outreach along the way. Since we believe sharing is caring, we’re releasing five new how-to guides about developer relations and app competition best practices.

Download and share them with any Developer Evangelists or platform marketing pros who may be interested. We know that rallying support for a new product or technology is not easy, and hope you’ll enjoy reading them as much as we enjoyed writing them and reflecting on our experiences.

By Brian