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Sunlight Labs Offers $25,000 For Data.gov Apps
Andurin writes "With the launch of Data.gov, Sunlight Labs is offering $25,000 in prize money for developers who create apps that use newly-released federal government data. Data.gov is paving the way for citizens to become more engaged with their government, by providing for the first-time a clearinghouse of federal data in developer-friendly formats. The Apps for America 2 contest aims to find the best applications that rely on Data.gov, whether it be a client application, an iPhone app, or data visualization. Also, the first, second and third prize winners will receive airfare and hotel placement for a trip to Washington DC. While in Washington, DC, they'll attend an awards ceremony at the Gov2.0 Summit by O'Reilly Media and TechWeb."
"Wanna find the targets in the US most vulnerable to terrorist attack? There's an app for that!"
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
It's a contest not a job.
...'FBI Most Wanted' Concentration. Pretty clever!
The Army reading list
You're competing for the visibility and publicity, not prize money.
Do the former make development worth one's while in this case? Beats me.
Simple Unexpected Concrete Credible Emotional Stories
If there's a prize for best tinfoil hat theory of the month, I'll writing you in for it.
Have you been touched by his noodly appendage?
Wow these are some amazing data sets . http://www.data.gov/catalog#raw
It is limited to geological, environmental, and weather datasets. Ohh yea, and the usability of the website is about as good as you'd expect from the government.
There is divorce data. There is also birthday data. The astrologists also tell us which zodiac signs go together. This'd be a prime way to statistically prove or disprove their claims: see if divorce rates are higher between mismatched zodiacs.
Don't just look at China. Getting tax-payer funded data out of any government in Australia is impossible. Each government department just protects their own interest.
I applaud this effort as well. Credit where credit is due.
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When Resolver Systems started their $25,000 competition for the best spreadsheet examples for Resolver One, I saw it as a great opportunity to learn IronPython and play around with a new program that looked interesting. I spent some free time having fun coding in a new language, and the Texas Holdem Monte Carlo Hand Evaluator worksheet that I made ended up being pretty useful. Oh... and it won one of the rounds, so I see it as time very well spent :-P
Now this competition is a bit more structured and has much less of a "fun" factor, but it still is a good incentive to look at the data that is available and try and think of new ways to visualize or use it.
IOW great idea but we don't have the money for it.
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