MaaS webinar & Toronto apps competition?

[Neil McEvoy]

 

Hey folks

 

Last week we ran our first 'MaaS' webinar - Municipality as a Service.

 

This introduced how cities can move to an IT as a Service model via Cloud providers, including options for Open Data portals, web 2.0 integrations, etc. Slide decks are @ http://MunicipalCloud.biz

 

One of the topics we covered was how New York City and Edmonton have used apps competitions to encourage more involvement in creating open data apps. Has Toronto done this? Is there appetite to organize a similar initiative?

 

This is the kind of thing I'd like to help organize as our follow on activities - Shout out if you're interested in joining in..

 

cheers,

 

---
Neil McEvoy
Founder and President
Level 5 Consulting
http://L5Consulting.net
neil....@l5consulting.net

[Brian Sutherland]

Hi, Neil:

I think this came up before and the direction was for something more like a 'Hackathon' to foster cooperation and the sharing of methods and technology.

Competition is fun, too, though provided you get at what people really want in the judging.

When I read there was an app in Toronto for reporting graffiti my first thought was that it was a tool for finding works of street art. 

Regards,


Brian Sutherland
Biomedical Communications
University of Toronto

--

[James McKinney]

I'm not sure how interesting an app contest would be. There have been many articles questioning their usefulness over the last year:

http://radar.oreilly.com/2011/08/app-contests-sustainability-usability.html

http://www.informationdiet.com/blog/read/build-communities-not-contests

http://blog.programmableweb.com/2011/05/20/the-pros-and-cons-of-government-app-contests/

In the Canadian context, there is already a decently-sized community of app developers in Toronto. Does it need an app contest? What will the app contest contribute? Montreal didn't have an app contest, but generated dozens of apps and a vibrant developer community regularly holding events, including hackathons, but also public meetings and workshops. Edmonton, on the other hand, had an app contest, but has been less successful in creating a community, as far as I can tell.

On 2012-02-13, at 7:15 PM, Neil McEvoy wrote:

 

Hey folks

 

Last week we ran our first 'MaaS' webinar - Municipality as a Service.

 

This introduced how cities can move to an IT as a Service model via Cloud providers, including options for Open Data portals, web 2.0 integrations, etc. Slide decks are @http://MunicipalCloud.biz

[James McKinney]

I'm not sure how interesting an app contest would be. There have been
many articles questioning their usefulness over the last year:

http://radar.oreilly.com/2011/08/app-contests-sustainability-usability.html
http://www.informationdiet.com/blog/read/build-communities-not-contests
http://blog.programmableweb.com/2011/05/20/the-pros-and-cons-of-government-app-contests/

In the Canadian context, there is already a decently-sized community
of app developers in Toronto. Does it need an app contest? What will
the app contest contribute? Montreal didn't have an app contest, but
generated dozens of apps and a vibrant developer community regularly
holding events, including hackathons, but also public meetings and
workshops. Edmonton, on the other hand, had an app contest, but has
been less successful in creating a community, as far as I can tell.

On Feb 13, 9:31 pm, Brian Sutherland <bksutherl...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi, Neil:
>
> I think this came up before and the direction was for something more like a
> 'Hackathon' to foster cooperation and the sharing of methods and technology.
>
> Competition is fun, too, though provided you get at what people really want
> in the judging.
>
> When I read there was an app in Toronto for reporting graffiti my first
> thought was that it was a tool for finding works of street art.
>
> Regards,
>
> Brian Sutherland
> Biomedical Communications
> University of Toronto
>
> On Mon, Feb 13, 2012 at 7:15 PM, Neil McEvoy

> <neil.mce...@l5consulting.net>wrote:
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> > **

>
> > Hey folks
>
> > Last week we ran our first 'MaaS' webinar - Municipality as a Service.
>
> > This introduced how cities can move to an IT as a Service model via Cloud
> > providers, including options for Open Data portals, web 2.0 integrations,

> > etc. Slide decks are @http://MunicipalCloud.biz

>
> > One of the topics we covered was how New York City and Edmonton have used
> > apps competitions to encourage more involvement in creating open data apps.
> > Has Toronto done this? Is there appetite to organize a similar initiative?
>
> > This is the kind of thing I'd like to help organize as our follow on
> > activities - Shout out if you're interested in joining in..
>
> > cheers,
>
> > ---
> > Neil McEvoy
> > Founder and President
> > Level 5 Consulting
> >http://L5Consulting.net

> > neil.mce...@l5consulting.net
>
> --

[Neil McEvoy]

I think an app contest, or any campaign, can be as interesting and
successful as you want to make it.

but sure I get the point, it's not the only method and the main point of
this message is brainstorming. the main event format I am planning is simply
to showcase, any one who wants to present even just an idea as well as apps
and ultimately new ventures, can do so to an audience that will help move it
along. it's going to be the continuation of this simple beer + business
event 'Accelerator Workshop' I've started :

http://canadacloud.biz/2012/02/09/accelerator-workshop-1-dominion-on-queen/

my core main goal is to help launch startups, helping with raising
financing, sales etc. and in that regard I believe New York has been
particularly successful. they claim to have attracted $6m new VC for their
open data startups as a result of this type of campaign, so I'm looking for
similar goals.

cheers, Neil.

[Neil McEvoy]

 

Yeah great Brian.

 

The idea I had was a "business plan hackathon" - Ie. entrepreneurs leave with a fast-tracked business plan achieved by the same type of group brainstorming. The first event was a small affair but it blew me away the depth of expertise that was there was to call upon in this regard, from VC financing through to international expansion. Indeed there was much more of that than there was new entrepreneurs, and the open data developer community would seem to be a great area to look to for that...

 

Here's the next event with all this in mind:

 

http://accelerator-2.eventbrite.com/

 

Cheers, Neil.

[James McKinney]

>
> my core main goal is to help launch startups, helping with raising financing, sales etc. and in that regard I believe New York has been particularly successful. they claim to have attracted $6m new VC for their open data startups as a result of this type of campaign, so I'm looking for similar goals.

Don't MaRS DD, Centre for Social Innovation and others do this? I expect it would be fruitful to try and work with them on any event whose goal is to help launch startups.