Se pueden obtener entradas gratis de un día para la Smart City Expo 2012 y el evento registrándose aquí

Smart City Expo 2012 acogerá el 15 de noviembre la Open Cities App Challenge, que es parte de Open Cities project, un proyecto coordinado por ESADE que está explorando cómo el crowdsourcing, open data, la instalación de fibra en los hogares y los open sensor networks pueden utilizarse para mejorar la vida en siete grandes ciudades europeas: Ámsterdam, Barcelona, Berlín, Bolonia, Helsinki, París y Roma.

Las principales ciudades del mundo se enfrentan a un crecimiento de población, las personas que las habitan necesitan aumentar la eficiencia y reducir sus gastos y, a su vez, es necesario asegurar una buena calidad de vida para el conjunto de los ciudadanos.

Una nueva generación de aplicaciones móviles está usando open data para transformar cómo interactuamos con las ciudades en las que vivimos

Para hacer frente a estos retos, Open Cities Project ha invitado a los desarrolladores a enviar sus aplicaciones para las ciudades, con la opción de participar en la Open Cities App Challenge en Smart City Expo 2012. El ganador recibirá un premio de 3.000 euros.

Las apps finalistas proceden de Europa e incluyen soluciones para mejorar la movilidad urbana, compartir información entre ciudadanos y el gobierno local, ayudar a personas ciegas a encontrar su camino en la ciudad o localizar los aseos públicos.

Nice City Passport (España)

ComunicaPA (Italia)

Huellasolar (España)

Toilet Map Vienna (Austria)

BikeCityGuide (Austria)

BlindSquare (Finlandia)

Eureka (Italia)

PayPark (España)

Hogenood (Países Bajos)

Wheelmap.org (Alemania)

La Open Cities App Challenge tendrá la forma de un evento AppCircus, donde cada participante tendrá tres minutos para presentar su aplicación ante un jurado de expertos. Además del premio en efectivo, la aplicación ganadora tendrá la oportunidad de participar en los Mobile Premier Awards, considerados los premios de referencia del sector de las aplicaciones móviles, que se celebrarán en Barcelona durante el Mobile World Congress.

También tendrán protagonismo en el evento los tres finalistas de Urban Lab Challenge, que pretende convertir las ciudades en laboratorios urbanos para facilitar el uso de espacios públicos para probar programas piloto de productos y servicios con un impacto urbano. Para este evento, se ha pedido a los desarrolladores que encuentren tecnologías de generación, almacenamiento y distribución de energía para los edificios con el fin de reducir su huella en la emisión de carbono.

Los visitantes de la Smart City Expo 2012 pueden asistir a AppCircus Open Cities App Challenge el 15 de noviembre, de las 15.00 a las 18.30 horas en la Sala 5, Módulo 2, en la Fira de Barcelona, Recinto Gran Vía.

The Open Cities App Challenge was designed to put the power of open source information and app innovation to solving the real problems that we face as citizens in everyday urban life. Now, after months of competition, the ten best ideas from around Europe have been selected:

Nice City Passport (Spain). This app, which won the popular online vote, improves urban mobility by providing realtime info on every parking and transport system available, from free parking spots to public transportation and bike rentals.

ComunicaPA (Italy) Is a smart app that uses open information to let citizens and businesses speak directly to Italian public administrations, improving information and quality of life.

Huellasolar (Spain) is an innovative app that gives us a ‘solar cartography’ of Spanish cities. Using this app, users can identify areas with insufficient sunlight or check annual radiation levels.

Toilet Map Vienna (Austria). Need to find a toilet? Use this app, which has open data from the city of Vienna for public toilets (including information about accessibility) and displays this info to the users via augmented-reality.

BikeCityGuide (Austria) If you’re getting on your bike, take this app with you. It offers a complete navigation system, specified for cyclists in cities.

BlindSquare (Finland) BlindSquare is a new solution that combines the latest technology to help the daily life of blind people in the city. BlindSquare uses unique algorithms to decide what information is the most relevant and then speak it with high-quality speech synthesis.

Eureka! (Italy) This app aims to create a strong bond between citizens and public administrations by taking open data from public administrations and giving it back as a geolocalized index of life quality, putting it on a map.

PayPark (Spain) This handy app allows the user to pay in the restricted parking areas (blue zones, etc). The platform uses a prepay system that allows users to pay the parking at the moment without coins or credit card.

Hogenood (Netherlands) When you’re getting a bit desperate, this app can help you by quickly locating the nearest restroom. It also includes user comments and ratings.

Wheelmap.org (Germany) An online map for wheelchair-accessible places. As with Wikipedia, everyone can participate by tagging public places according to their accessibility.

Congratulations to all these apps for making it to the final at the Smart City Expo, 2012 in Barcelona.

Join the AppCircus - the travelling showcase of apps! See the winners of latest AppCircus events! Check out up and coming events! Exciting days ahead for app developers engaging with the AppCircus brand. Check out this week's fresh news!

• Last days to register your app at AppCircus @ Campus London
• Few spots left to attend AppCircus Developer Day
• AppCircus Lisbon finalists
• 77 BONUS days to submit your app at the OpenCities App Challenge
• Meffys Awards deadline approaching
• WebVisions coming to Barcelona

AppCircus @ Google Campus London deadline June 21.

Last days to register your app to pitch at AppCircus @ Google Campus on July 4. Registration deadline is June 21.
The event is set to be of another great reference for the London-based app developers to showcase their talent and for the local app ecosystem players to learn about new the business opportunities in this exciting and fast-moving space. Check out the jury to select the apps and who will be judging the apps on stage at Google Campus on July 4th.
The event is free; you only need to register here to attend.

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We are pleased to announce the extension of the OpenCities App Challenge deadline to September 15!

This will present a unique opportunity for alignment between this first pan-European app competition and some of the major open data app competitions running locally in Europe:

• Apps for Amsterdam (launched last June 15 and running until October 19)
• Apps4Finland (launching on August 1st and running until October 28)

It also presents a great opportunity for developers to participate with one app to several competitions at the same time, given the similarities in requirements and the themes covered.

The OpenCities App Challenge is a free entry competition, and your chance to create and make your mark within the city you live. Every day, governments and government agencies, publish more data on the Internet than anyone else – use their information for FREE! Your app can be seen and used by millions of European citizens and the best bit is -it remains all yours! Make money from your app idea!

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The first edition of the Apps4bcn contest has been a huge success, gathering a total of 86 mobile applications. Several topics were covered by the participating apps: from geolocation-based solutions to improve urban mobility, to those that focus on leisure and culture, gastronomy and sports apps, apps that provide information to citizens and tourists, apps that encourage public participation using mobile devices, etc. The engagement of tech entrepreneurs can contribute significantly to the creation and improvement of services for citizens.

From this selection of finalists, the jury will choose the 4 winning apps, which will be announced at the Awards ceremony to be held next June 14 2012 at 12h during the BizBarcelona event (Room 4 - Palau 5).

The jury evaluated the 86 submitted apps and given the high quality of all apps deliberation was difficult.  Yet 10 finalists were selected, as announced below:

* Aparkarma - by Corkfun

* By-Taxi - by Techideas (A special mention goes also for this app, which has received the most online votes)

* CasualJobs - by OnaDevice

* Enllaç - by Aer Studio

* Fesedit - by Easy INNOVA S.L

* Firenze Virtual History - by Mondadori

* Labtrip Guias de viaje - by Labtrip

* Ofertia - by Ofertia

* OnTheBus - by OnTheBus group

* QRPager - by Car Acerting Tech

* TrashOut - by TrashOut

Selection was made as per the following criteria: app fills a need or solves a real problem; originality, creativity and innovative component; user experience; technical and operational feasibility; use of Open Data sources.

Check the full list of participants in this link.