Following the success of the annual NYC BigApps competition, the New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) and the New York City Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications (DoITT) in partnership with Challenge Post, launches the NYC BigAppsApps Ideas Challenge, a competition for the public to submit new ideas for web, desktop, or mobile applications that would benefit New York City residents, businesses, and visitors.

Primarily, the Ideas Challenge will support the next NYC BigApps competition to launch in the fall next year. The winner of the competition will get a total of $5,000 in combined prize money for their ideas, and will be given a chance to contribute for the next NYC BigApps. The competition will run till July 28.

“Consistent feedback and insight – from developers and the general public alike – is at the heart of New York City’s open government efforts,” said Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications Commissioner Carole Post. “The Ideas Challenge should ensure our City’s vibrant tech marketplace, and the great minds that keep it running, are primed for NYC BigApps 3.0 Competition and beyond.”

Among the submissions, the 25 best application ideas submissions will be determined through public votes and the winners will get $100 each. A panel of six judges including Dawn Barber, Co-founder, New York Tech Meetup; Alex Diehl, Managing Director BMW i Ventures; Charlie O’Donnell, Principal at First Round Capital; Carole Post, DoITT Commissioner; Clay Shirky, Associate Arts Professor, ITP and Distinguished Writer in Residence, Journalism Department at NYU; and Steven Strauss, Managing Director of the Center for Economic Transformation at NYCEDC will then choose the top 10 best ideas to be announced on August 11, 2012. The winners will get an additional $250.

The first NYC BigApps competition was original launched in 2009 by Mayor Bloomberg, making available 170 official City data sets as basis for application development.

Other initiatives going on to help developers and cities both include the World Bank’s App for Development.  The competition participated by 100 young developers and garnering an accumulated 10,000 vote, hailed Australia’s StatPlanet World Bank as first placer. France’s Development Timelines came out second and Germany’s Yourtopia third. We also have “Young Developer App Competition” facilitated by the Bermuda Government, as well as UN’s “Green App” awards.

Tackling the medical sector, Elsevier, a publisher of scientific, technical and medical information products and services, held the App for Science competition to enhance information search and discovery for researchers. It was participated by developers from the U.S, U.K, Australia, Germany, India, Japan and the Netherlands.

Moving forward, Citrix announced an investment on mobile tech company Core Mobile Networks this week as part of its Startup Accelerator, an initiative launched back in December 2010, rooted in Silicon Valley. Core Mobile Networks  correlates information from enterprise IT systems with content in the cloud, and delivers it to mobile devices. For example, data from the iPhone and Android are delivered to carriers AT&T and Verizon, and other networks. The process is done instantaneously.