Public voting is now open for NYC BigApps 3.0! We received nearly 100 submissions this year, a new record. Browse the gallery to see the submissions and vote daily through Wednesday, March 8th for your favorite app to win the Popular Choice award.

As part of the City’s ongoing efforts to increase transparency in government, and to improve the quality of life for New Yorkers and visitors, BigApps 3.0 made more than 230 new datasets available from more than 60 City agencies, commissions, and business improvement districts, for a total of nearly 750 data sets for developers, available at NYC Open Data.

Thirteen prizes will be awarded in total, including two Popular Choice Application winners. Winners will receive cash prizes totaling $50,000. We’re also giving away two NY Tech Meetup demo slots, two TechStars finalist spots, and membership in the first BigApps Founders Network, to provide mentorship, networking, and business support services to help the winners get their startup businesses off the ground.

For more info, visit www.nycbigapps.com. Don’t forget to vote!

nycedc:

Check out photos of NYU-Poly’s new DUMBO Incubator for digital media and tech startups, part of the City’s network of affordable workspaces, where they held an open house last week. Located at 20 Jay Street, the DUMBO Incubator offers more than 30 dedicated work stations and an equal number of flexible access work stations, as well as networking and mentoring opportunities and business assistance for entrepreneurs. Featured speakers at the event included Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz, NYCEDC President Seth Pinsky, NYU-Poly President Jerry Hultin, DUMBO Improvement District Executive Director Alexandria Sica, and Two Trees Management Director of Leasing Caroline Pardo.

Read more about the growth of tech startups in DUMBO, Brooklyn in the Wall Street Journal: “DUMBO is Jumbo with Tech”

via nycedc:

CEO Jack Dorsey announced that New York City has more Twitter users than any other city in the world and the second most Twitter developers. The first part of the news comes at no surprise to most New Yorkers, a city of 8 million with one of the highest concentrations of smartphone addicts in the world. But it is surprising that New York City has the world’s second highest number of Twitter developers. Mayor Bloomberg’s vision for New York City to be the tech hub of the world may not be that far off. (via New York City has more Twitter users than any other city - The Next Web)

thenextweb:

Yesterday, the City of New York unveiled exciting programs as part of its contract renewals with Time Warner Cable and Cablevision. These include:

• Bringing Wi-Fi to over 30 parks and public spaces across the five boroughs (through $10 million dollars of investment).
• Creating 40 public computing centers and improving broadband in public libraries.
•  A $2 million annual investment in broadband technology Brooklyn Naval Yard and other business areas.

Click here for more information

via nycdigital:

CUNY Institute for Sustainable Cities Blog » Got a Minute? Give a Minute!

And post your idea on how to make NYC’s neighborhoods greener…in May.

Give a Minute is a web based civil engagement application that allows people to submit ideas about a certain topic.  It acts as a huge digital white board where all ideas are posted on virtual post-its.  Viewers can see these ideas, share them on Facebook, and even organize into virtual ‘action groups’ that allow communities to actually implement some of the suggestions.  If a neighborhood on Staten Island wanted to get a rain barrel system going, they can start planning through these action groups.

Sounds like a good idea?  Mayor Bloomberg certainly thinks so: he’s sponsored Give a Minute as part of his PlaNYC 2030 program which will be released in May.  ”This kind of open call for ideas – or ‘crowdsourcing,’ as it’s called – has helped cutting-edge companies like Facebook and Netflix improve services and save money.  And with more than 8.4 million people in our crowd, imagine what we can come up with.”  In fact, if Mayor Bloomberg sees an idea on the virtual board that he likes, he can even endorse that idea and potentially contact the person(s) who suggested it.

Give a Minute was created its first virtual suggestion board in Chicago.  Local Projects, the group that created and streamlined this web application, asked for suggestions on ways to encourage use of public transit in Chicago.  To date, there have been at least 2,000 responses, ideas, and suggestions on how best to address the transit issue in Chicago.

When Give A Minute’s online suggestion box opens to New York this coming May, the question is “Hey NYC, what can we do to green our neighborhoods?”

You can be sure that New Yorkers will have a lot of answers.