Berlin is one of seven European cities partaking in the challenge Berlin is one of seven European cities partaking in the challenge
The Open Cities App Challenge is part of the Open Cities project, which is exploring how crowdsourcing, open data, fibre to the home and open sensor networks can be used to enhance life in seven major European cities: Amsterdam, Barcelona, Berlin, Bologna, Helsinki, Paris and Rome.
Developers are invited to submit their ‘smart city’ apps, finalists will present at the Smart City Expo 2012 in Barcelona, and the winner will receive a prize of €3,000. Participating cities are providing open access to public information such as urban transport, demographic and labour force databases.
Examples of smart apps would be a location aware app that allows traffic and public transport planners to find out where and when the greatest concentration of commuters are at any one time, or an app to show city drivers where the nearest free parking space is. The project, which is part funded by the EU, aims to jump-start a dynamic of private and public-private services triggered by opening up common resources such as data and networks to developers.
An example of one the problems the challenge aims to solve is Amsterdam’s bike storage issue. If you’re a developer who has built an app to enhance life in any of the participating cities, you have until 30 June to submit your entry. You can access the public data from all seven cities here.
