NYC BigApps

NYC BigApps
Name	NYC BigApps
Location	New York City, New York, United States
Founded	2010
Organizer	New York City Mayor's Office

NYC BigApps NYC BigApps is a technology and civic innovation competition held in New York City that convenes developers, entrepreneurs, journalists, designers, and policy advocates to build applications using municipal data. The contest has attracted participation from a wide range of actors across the technology, media, philanthropy, and public sectors, fostering collaborations among startups, universities, nonprofits, and agencies.

Overview

NYC BigApps brings together participants from institutions such as the New York City Mayor's Office, New York City Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications, The New York Public Library, New York University, Columbia University, Brooklyn College, and City University of New York campuses to use datasets from agencies including the New York City Police Department, Metropolitan Transportation Authority, New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, New York City Department of Education, and New York City Department of Sanitation. The competition has been associated with civic technology movements exemplified by organizations like Code for America, Open Data Institute, Sunlight Foundation, Knight Foundation, Mozilla Foundation, and Mozilla fellows, and has intersected with events such as SXSW, TechCrunch Disrupt, NY Tech Meetup, and Web Summit. Sponsors and partners have included entities like Google, Microsoft, Amazon Web Services, IBM, Facebook, Twitter, Esri, Tableau Software, Mapbox, DataKind, Omidyar Network, Ford Foundation, Bloomberg Philanthropies, Cisco Systems, Accenture, PwC, KPMG, EY, and Deloitte.

History

The initiative launched during the tenure of Mayor Michael Bloomberg in 2010, in the context of open data advocacy promoted by leaders such as Stephen Goldsmith and influenced by datasets released under the Freedom of Information Act debates and open-data pioneers like Tim Berners-Lee and Aaron Swartz. Early editions featured judges and mentors from Mayor's Office of Data Analytics, NYCEDC, BetaNYC, General Assembly, Flatiron School, NYC Media Lab, and media partners such as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Wired (magazine), Bloomberg L.P., The Verge, and Fast Company. Over time the competition evolved alongside civic tech programs at CitizenLab, Civic Hall, OpenGov, GovLab, and international initiatives like London Datastore and Data.gov.

Competition Format and Categories

The contest typically features open calls, hackathon-style build periods, mentorship from representatives of IBM Research, Microsoft Research, Google Cloud, Amazon Web Services, Facebook AI Research, and panels of judges from Mayor's Office, NYC Department of Transportation, New York Police Department, Health + Hospitals (NYC Health) and sponsors including Bloomberg Philanthropies and Knight Foundation. Categories have varied, reflecting priorities such as transportation, public safety, health, education, housing, and environment, with parallels to competitions like HHS Innovates, DARPA Grand Challenge, XPRIZE, Regeneron Science Talent Search, and NHS Hack Day. Prizes have included cash awards, in-kind support from accelerators such as Techstars, Y Combinator, 500 Startups, and incubation from organizations like NYCEDC, Civic Hall, New Lab, and Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corporation.

Impact and Outcomes

Projects emerging from the competition have informed policymaking at agencies including NYC Mayor's Office of Operations, New York City Department of Transportation, Human Resources Administration (New York), and Department of Housing Preservation and Development. Outcomes have included new startups that interacted with accelerators like MassChallenge, ERA (Entrepreneurs Roundtable Accelerator), Entrepreneurship Development Corporation of New York, and investors from Union Square Ventures, Founders Fund, Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, Greylock Partners, Index Ventures, and First Round Capital. The program influenced civic tech curricula at Columbia Journalism School, NYU Tandon School of Engineering, CUNY Graduate Center, and public-sector data efforts like Mayor's Office of Data Analytics (MODA), NYC Open Data, and international open-data efforts such as Open Data Charter.

Notable Winners and Projects

Winners and notable projects have included applications addressing transit gaps, public safety analytics, health services navigation, and open-data journalism, with participants from groups like The New York Times R&D Lab, ProPublica, Gothamist, DNAinfo, The Atlantic, Vox Media, Quartz (publication), The Guardian, Associated Press, Reuters, and Politico. Successful teams often partnered with incubators and funders such as Social Finance, Ashoka, Skoll Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, Carnegie Corporation of New York, and MacArthur Foundation.

Organization and Partnerships

The administration of the competition has involved city agencies, philanthropic funders, technology companies, academic partners, and media outlets including Bloomberg Philanthropies, Knight Foundation, Ford Foundation, Open Society Foundations, Robin Hood Foundation, NYC Mayor's Office, NYCEDC, NYPL Labs, Columbia University, NYU Tandon School of Engineering, CUNY, Hunter College, Baruch College, Pratt Institute, Cooper Union, Cornell Tech, Mozilla Foundation, Code for America', Data Arts NYC, Blackstone Charitable Foundation, Google.org, and event platforms like Eventbrite.

Criticism and Challenges

Critics and commentators from outlets such as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Wired (magazine), The Verge, and civic groups like BetaNYC, Open Data Institute, Sunlight Foundation, and Demand Progress have raised concerns about sustainability, equity, procurement, vendor relationships, and the long-term deployment of prototypes into city services. Challenges cited include data quality issues linked to legacy systems like Accela, integration obstacles with platforms used by Health + Hospitals (NYC Health), procurement rules under New York City Procurement Policy Board, and the scalability of apps beyond pilot funding. Debates have involved stakeholders such as City Council of New York, Comptroller of New York City, Controller of New York, Public Advocate (New York City), and advocacy groups including Make the Road New York and Communities United for Police Reform.

Category:Civic technology