1. NYC BigApps: Advice from past winner Abby Suckle

    Reblog from the New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC):

    Making progress on your BigApps submission? The deadline for NYC BigApps 3.0 is January 25th! For inspiration, we checked in with previous BigApps winners for words of wisdom for this year’s competitors. Read on for insights from Abby Suckle, President of CultureNOW, whose Museum Without Walls app took Honorable Mention last year. The app allows users to experience public art and architecture in Downtown Manhattan using location maps, self-guided tours, and podcasts.

    Abby displays CultureNOW’s map of Manhattan after accepting award from Mayor Bloomberg.

    What advice would you give new BigApps applicants?
    Have big goals. It’s not enough to just make another transit app. Instead teams need to focus on exploring NYC’s rich, diverse facets to create really interesting, useful apps.

    How has your app, company, or career evolved since winning BigApps?
    CultureNOW has worked closely with the City and other cultural/academic partners to greatly expand our app content. We’ve also become an increasingly national platform for cultural guide information in many cities throughout the US. Additionally, we’ve released an Android version of our app.

    What are your future goals for your app, company, or self?
    CultureNOW plans to continue to improve our app and grow our user base. As a non-profit with a strong mission, we are always looking for ideas on how to take our app to a new level.

    What are the most important aspects of winning BigApps for you?
    BigApps was a coming of age for CultureNOW and a great way to meet people. But, we’re still waiting on BMW to give us a car!

    Jan 11
    NYC BigApps,  inspiration,  winners,  advice,  tips,  apps,  
    Comments

  2. NYC BigApps: Advice from past winner Aaron Royston

    Reminder: Spots still open for NYC BigApps 3.0 Developer Day this Saturday, January 7! Free registration here. Come work on your app, meet the NYC Open Data team, and collaborate with other developers and designers!

    Reblog from the New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC):

    How’s your app coming along? The deadline for NYC BigApps 3.0 submissions is coming up January 25th. For inspiration, we checked in with previous BigApps winners for words of wisdom for this year’s competitors. Read on for insights from Aaron Royston of Sportaneous, which is a location-based online and iPhone application that allows users to find fellow athletes to play games with at nearby public facilities.

    What were the most important aspects of winning BigApps for you?
    Sportaneous won the Popular Choice award and 2nd Overall Grand Prize, and we received a lot of publicity following the event. Our app requires a strong network effect to be effective, so therefore this PR helped a lot in building our user base.

    How has your app, company, or career evolved since winning BigApps?
    From the BigApps recognition we received, co-founder Omar Haroun and I were invited to the White House to receive the Champions of Change award in Technology and Innovation, which was a great honor.

    What are your future goals for your app, company, or self?
    Sportaneous is evolving into a discovery tool beyond just pick-up sports, and we are developing a proprietary algorithm to help suggest activities that our users will enjoy. The new edition should be released in the spring.

    What advice would you give new BigApps applicants?
    The user interface is a key component to making an app compelling and attractive. It is not simply about the idea, but the execution is critical.

    Jan 5 Comments

  3. NYC BigApps: Advice from past winner Judy Wong

    We love hearing success stories from past NYC BigApps winners! Check out Judy’s new iPhone app that helps tourists and residents explore the Lower East Side.

    Reblog from the New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC):

    The deadline for NYC BigApps 3.0 submissions is less than one month away. For inspiration, we checked in with previous BigApps winners for words of wisdom for this year’s competitors. Read on for insights from Judy Wong of NYC Plan It, which won the NYC BigApps 2.0 City Talent Award. NYCPlanIt serves as a personal tour guide for visitors in New York City.

    What were the most important aspects of winning BigApps for you?

    It was a joy for us to create NYC Plan It, which would help NYC’s major tourism and travel industry by supporting local businesses like restaurants and shops. Using technology to practically help people around us—travelers, locals and also industry folks—meant a lot for us working in technology. Many times there is a disconnect between business and charity, and business and the real lives of people.

    How has your app, company, or career evolved since winning BigApps?

    Since the competition, we have been developing our app across platforms in iOS for iPhone as well as other platforms such as Blackberry. We’ve also listened to our users and have redesigned the pages to be more modern and contemporary. The users have given us a lot of kudos for the concept of NYC Plan It and now we have caught on to their need to cover more mobile markets and make the UI friendlier. We’ve also had chances to develop more apps for Android and iPhone. Check out our iPhone app for the Lower East Side Tourism Center.

    What are your future goals for your app, company, or self? 

    We hope to continue to develop our product within this niche local NYC market. We hope to help build up businesses during such hard economic times. After 9/11 it was hard, but with this economy it’s continued to be difficult. Maybe our app can help things improve for consumers, travelers, locals, and businesses alike.

    What advice would you give new BigApps applicants?

    Keep up the good work. Creativity really helps to drive technology and connect users, our world around us and the emerging technology market. It’s also great to be part of the Big Apple; if your app can make it here, it can make it anywhere.

    Excluding your own, what’s your favorite BigApps app?

    Our team felt that the winners all had wonderful apps. We need the parking space finder since it’s so useful. DontEat.at was also really great. We love food and eating and find that helpful as we go to different restaurants. It’s absolutely the favorite of our friends, too.

    Dec 30 Comments

  4. Three tips when naming your challenge

    I asked our CEO, Brandon for three tips when naming your challenge. Here are some general rules:

    1. Shorter is better  
    2. While keeping it short, make it descriptive. Instead of “USDA Health Challenge,” for example, call it “Recipes for Healthy Kids”  
    3. Pick a short URL that reinforces the name (like nycbigapps.com)
    Mar 31
    tips,  
    Comments

  5. ChallengePost judging, in simple english.

    We spend our days making it easier to run challenges. Recently, we created two documents about judging submissions to a challenge on ChallengePost. One explains how the judging process works if you’re running the challenge. The other is a hand out for people judging submissions. Download them or read them online.

    If you’d like more concepts explained in simple english, please let us know: support@challengepost.com

    Feb 25
    tips,  judging,  howto,  
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