Daimler Launches Mobility App - ProQuest. Cities Share Data, Software Applications. Over the past few years, cities have put a fair amount of energy into open data initiatives, and, through app contests and “hackathon” events, they’ve encouraged citizens and businesses to create new software applications based on the information. But while cities have been good at promoting open data innovation, they haven’t been as good at coordinating their activities. Civic hackathon events in multiple cities often tackle the same problems and produce similar -- but incompatible -- applications. “We’re all trying to create the same applications over and over again,” says San Francisco CIO Jon Walton. “At some point, that doesn’t really make sense.” That’s about to change. Walton is part of an informal group of CIOs from seven of the nation’s largest cities.
The unified database means applications developed for one G7 city should work for all. Open data already has proven a powerful idea for city governments. And the idea may not be confined to the original seven cities for long. La RATP ouvre le coffre-fort de ses données pour améliorer l'information des voyageurs. City Gives Big Ups To These Big Apps. Embark NYC Wins MTA's Smartphone App Competition. Embark NYC in action. And we have a winner! The MTA's App Quest competition to find the best applications using MTA data has concluded and Embark NYC, a nifty trip planing app that also lets you know about service changes, is the big winner.
But Embark wasn't the only sweet app in the running, quite a few of them caught the eyes of the judges (which included our own Co-Founder Jen Chung). A total of 42 apps were submitted and judged "in terms of quality of the idea (including creativity and originality), implementation of the idea (including design), and potential impact on MTA riders.
" And that's not all! The grand prize winner got $5,000, a custom 5' subway sign, iMac and iPad cases, a free rug (no, really) and a subway T-Shirt.