It’s been a busy month in tech for NYC Mayor Bill De Blasio. He made an appearance at the NY Tech Meetup last week to announce that the city has its first-ever CTO: Minerva Tantoco. This week, he was in Brooklyn to announce the winners of the NYC Big Apps competition. It was the biggest Big Apps competition ever, with over 2000 innovators from New York City and beyond competing across four categories: Live, Learn, Work and Play.
“Technology is critical to New York’s place as a 21st century city,” said the city’s 109th Mayor. “Successful cities have always thrived on innovation, and New York has kept its position as a global leader by embracing technological and economic advances. This is a big year for Big Apps. Five years after its launch, what began as an open data competition has evolved into a showcase of how (New York can) better serve its citizen.”
It seems that NY might have yet another tech-friendly mayor after all, and a lot of credit for all of the hard work that goes on behind the scenes of the competition goes to NYCEDC and its seemingly tireless president, Kyle Kimball, and to HR&A Advisors. Good work, guys, and producing initiatives like this are what make New York the greatest city in the world to Live, Work, Learn and Play in technology.
Without further ado, click here to see this year’s winners…
Heat Seek (Live Category)
Heat Seek NYC is tapping the Internet of Things to empower tenants, landlords, community organizations, and the justice system to tackle our city’s heating crisis. And helping to keep the heat on because come winter, it gets cold out there, baby.
(The company also won the day at the September NY Tech meetup.)
Course Kicker (Learn Category)
CourseKicker is an online collaboration network for K-12 teachers where they can connect and build a professional learning network, share best practices and ideas, and save time. CourseKicker’s lesson discovery engine helps them quickly find and share great lessons recommended by their peers.
NYC Hired (Work Category)
NYCHired uses data visualizations to display growth, availability, and salary potential in various fields using the City’s labor statistics. Read all about them here – Meet NYC Hired: A NYC BigApps Finalist
Explore NYC Parks (Play Category)
Explore NYC Parks makes it easy to, of course, explore NYC’s many parks using this mobile-friendly web app that enables users to find information on parks closest to them, filter parks by offered amenities, find upcoming events and get suggestions for park adventures. So, where do you want to go today and did you know that the city has more than 1,700 parks, playgrounds, and recreation facilities across the five boroughs, and each and every one offers something different?) Read all about them here – This NYC BigApps Finalist Helps You Make Sense of the NYC Park System and its 1700 Parks