1. Save the planet, one line of code at a time

    Want to change the world this coming weekend? Sign up for the Cleanweb Hackathon, which takes place Jan. 20–22 in NYC. Participants will build apps that tackle sustainability issues and resource constraints (issues related to energy, food, waste, water, and so on).

    Bonus: if your Cleanweb hack uses NYC Open Data, your app can also be eligible for NYC BigApps 3.0 (the deadline is Jan. 25)!

    Event: NYC Cleanweb Hackathon

    Date: Jan. 20–22 (Friday evening social followed by 2 days of hacking) 

    Location: NYU ITP, 721 Broadway, Fl. 4

    Who’s invited: Developers, designers, students — and anyone else who’s interested (registration categories include Business, Press, and Presentations only)

    More information: Cleanweb on Posterous

    Register now: cleanweb-nyc-eorg.eventbrite.com 

    Follow @NYCBigApps and @ChallengePost on Twitter, and join us on Facebook.

    Jan 16 Comments

  2. A full house at NYC BigApps 3.0 Developer Day

    Nearly 100 software developers, designers, and innovators joined us for NYC BigApps 3.0 Developer Day on Saturday, Jan. 7 at Pivotal Labs in Union Square.

    NYC BigApps 3.0 participants coded, met new teammates, chowed down, and had a blast. Some were just getting started on their BigApps submissions (due Jan. 25!), while others shot their submission videos. One developer showed up with 3 tablets for testing. Another told me “the next Mark Zuckerberg is in the room.” (And judging by past BigApps winners’ successes, he might be right about that!)

    Special thanks to Andrew Nicklin, Director of Enterprise Architecture at NYC DoITT, who gave a tour of NYC Open Data offerings and took questions and feedback throughout the day. And to API partners CartoDB, Etsy, The New York Times, and StreetEasy, who were on hand to answer questions.

    Dev Day coverage

    Follow @NYCBigApps and @ChallengePost on Twitter, and join us on Facebook. Use hashtag #NYCBigApps when you tweet.

    By Samantha

    Jan 11 Comments

  3. Hack the New York Times

    Software developers vying for the Best NYC Mashup Prize in NYC BigApps 3.0: join BigApps API partners Etsy, Foursquare, the New York Times, and Tumblr at the 2011 TimesOpen Hack Day this weekend (December 3)!

    Andrew Nicklin, Director of Enterprise Architecture at NYC DoITT (Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications), will be there to talk about New York City’s open data platform and its APIs.

    Spots are filling up quickly! Looks like spots have filled up, but register to be on the waitlist.

    Don’t forget to use NYC Open Data in your hack. Here’s the full list of NYC BigApps 3.0 Partner APIs if you’re feeling ambitious.

    By Samantha

    Related: How has open data changed journalism?

    Dec 2 Comments

  4. Awesome NYC BigApps hacks

    How was your weekend? If you were at the first-ever NYC BigApps Hackathon, it was pretty amazing! A diverse group of developers, designers, and visionaries collaborated on some incredibly innovative uses of NYC Open Data and APIs from participating companies. A stellar panel of judges ranked the submissions and awarded $2,500 in prizes.

    Here’s a list of all the demoed hacks, including the winners, all coded in just under 27 hours!

    • Can I Park Here? (Grand Prize; Hackers’ Choice) — Eric Rafaloff
      Helps you decipher confusing parking regulations and cryptic signs. Just touch one button to find out whether you can park here!
    • Scene Near Me (2nd Prize) — Luis Miranda, Avi Dabir, Dan Blumberg
      Every day, New Yorkers walk the same streets as the Ghostbusters, Annie Hall, and King Kong. Scene Near Me tells you exactly where your favorite actors, directors, and superheroes stood.
    • NYC Taxi Tracker (3rd Prize; Hackers’ Choice) — Alastair Coote
      Helps you gauge the performance of taxi drivers, comparing the average time for a given route to the actual time of your journey. Users can also rate driver politeness and taxi cleanliness.
    • Did It! Do It! — Holly Chen, Mark McCorkle, Jorge Martinez, Nigel DeFreitas, Corinne Tinacci, Jeffery To
      Helps you discover things to do in NYC right now, based on real-time social intelligence.
    • Game On — Tobias Wright, Jorene Rene, Rodney Cobb
      Shows you the 532 basketball courts within the 5 boroughs so you can invite potential players for a pick-up game.
    • Street Surfer — Sean Kean, Rob Eccardt, Jeremy Baron, Arthur Grau
      A mobile browser for the physical world of places, events, and actionable data — find out where everybody’s going, meeting, doing.
    • FDNY Building Inspections Done Right — Nate Kidwell
      Allows building owners to add building characteristics to city databases. Provides QR codes and bit.ly URLs for easy updating.
    • PacManNYC — Roger Pincombe
      Play Pac-Man in NYC.
    • Fourtron — Will Charczuk, Noah Lucas
      Enriches your Foursquare history with NYC data. Checking in is only the beginning.
    • NYC Hood — Arthur Grau, Chao Huang, Harshil Shah, Noah Smith, Jay Zalowitz
       Uses NYC Open Data to give every neighborhood in the city a personality profile. Invites users to log in via Foursquare to find the best neighborhood fit.

    Check back soon for more details, and skim the @NYCBigApps tweets to soak up some of that inspiring hackathon atmosphere. Thanks to everyone who participated — now go work on your submissions for NYC BigApps 3.0!

    Follow @NYCBigApps and @ChallengePost on Twitter, and like us on Facebook. Use hashtag #NYCBigApps when you tweet.

    By Marci

    Nov 14 Comments