Mark Pack

This is an impressive sounding initiative from New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg:

Bloomberg, making good on a promise of increased civic transparency for New Yorkers, initiated an annual contest this morning awarding cash prizes to Web developers that create innovative Internet and mobile applications using city data…

The amount of data coming out of New York City agencies is fairly tremendous, so there’s a lot of creative room for developers to play with possibilities. Developers have already created apps that provide transit maps and service updates for NYC trains and buses. But what about interactive maps that keep drivers up to date on street/lane closures and repairs or quick statistical snapshots of taxation and property values in different neighborhoods around the city? Or perhaps real time traffic data that syncs with Google maps? Or, to use Bloomberg’s example, what about a mobile app that taps into the report cards the health department keeps on city restaurants? That could come in handy for the grand-prize winner, who has been promised a dinner on the town with Bloomberg himself. (From FastCompany via a MySociety email list)