The District of Columbia is launching a developers challenge, Apps for Democracy. It will see what kind of cool apps and widgets that developers can build using DC public data.
DC is front $20,000 in cash prizes, with the biggest prize being $2,000.
I think this is really cool. Soooo many of us have been working hard to put DC on the Web 2.0 map as a center of entrepreneurship and innovation. It rocks that the Distrct is jumping into the community with both feet.
Actually, this is probably a really easy way for DC to get cheap labor. It’d cost a ton of money for them to attract a developer to come work for them that could do all the work that the community is going to do for them. Plus, they’re getting boat loads of positive vibes and street cred from the local folks.
Interactive strategist Peter Corbett has been one of the main organizers with the District in this awesome endeavor. I hope that they’ll be doing many more things together.
I’d love to see other organizations do stuff like this. How about the Library of Congress or GPO? They have boat loads of public data riches that could be mined and done amazing things with.
So… what kind of app are you going to develop for the Apps for Democracy contest?
Oatmeal Stout - Justin Thorp's blog 
Peter is all over this city!