NYC App Contest Loads Up On Friendly Competition
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Some of the city's most creative minds are duking it out to see who can create the best mobile apps for getting around and enjoying the Big Apple. NY1's Adam Balkin filed the following report.It makes perfect sense that New York City would want apps - and lots of them - to make living in, working in, or visiting the Big Apple easier and more convenient. But why spend loads of taxpayer dollars on it when you have among the most creative communities in the world willing to do it for you? As part of the NYC BigApps competition, now in its third year, the city just makes available piles of data to developers and pits them against each other to see who can use that data in the most interesting ways.
"It's a combination of all different platforms. The idea here is really for us to put the data out there and then to allow the app developer to figure out the best platform to use," said NYC Economic Development Corporation President Seth Pinsky.
There were nearly 100 finalists this year. Winners include everything from apps like the Funday Genie that help you spend a day in the city without spending a dime to one called Scene Near Me that'll alert you when you're standing near a spot where a famous movie scene was filmed.
Winners will receive a share of $50,000 worth of prize money, but developers say that cash is only a small part of why they're in this competition.
"Grand Prize Winner it basically validates that moment back in October when I decided to quit my job. The validation will allows us to power forward and execute those plans and hopefully by next year we'll be in a position to really make making apps all these things in New York much, much easier," said Joel Natividad of NYC Facets.
"Yeah it's never really about the prize money that's nice and we'll have a nice party for people to hopefully help promote it some but it's more the motivation and knowing everyone is working really hard and kinda boosts your work ethic and gets you to try that much harder," said Steven Baughman of Work+.
To check out all the submissions from games to utilities, head over to www.NYCBigApps.com.