Glimworm IT BV wins the top prize for the Open Data Hackathon event at at Picnic Festival 2011 (with a little help from Webster).
Amsterdam, the Netherlands - September 27, 2011 – The international, creative community at Picnic 2011 held in Amsterdam this year (Sept. 14-16) saw top developers and designers face a difficult challenge – to create an original app using open data provided by ICE Amsterdam, Cition and the City of Amsterdam in less than 50 hours. The winning team was lead by Jonathan Carter, CTO and co-founder of Glimworm IT BV and included Webster Leiden adjunct professor, Paul Manwaring (co-founder and creative director at Glimworm) and project manager and designer Naser Mutawi. Mr. Mutawi is a Webster Leiden alumnus and is the first Leiden student to graduate from the Media Communications Department.
Picnic 2011, the largest European festival on creativity and innovation, attracted over 5000 visitors from 33 countries including visitors from across Europe, the UK and North America, plus representatives from as far as Australia, Brazil, Hong Kong, Nigeria, Peru and South Africa. Held this year at Amsterdam’s NDSM Werf, the festival’s main theme was Urban Futures with five sub-themes: Infrastructure, Sustainability, Society, Design and Media.
This years Open Data Hackathon took place at Appsterdam HQ. A collaborative effort among several organisations including Picnic 2011, Appsterdam, ICE Amsterdam, Sanoma Media, Cition and the City of Amsterdam; the event brought together 50 app developers who formed teams to compete in a spirit of community to explore unconventional ways of using open data from the City of Amsterdam. The common goal: using that data, to create a killer app in less time than it would normally take to get over a bad hangover.
Specifically, the challenge called for developers to go beyond concept all the way to a working app using the available data. Difficult indeed! and as you can imagine not all the participants were able to complete their projects on time. In the end, there were only five teams that went through to present their work to a crowd full of creative professionals expecting some serious results.
What the judges were looking for in the winning app was:
- Working Demo and Proof of Concept
- Use of Data
- Usefullness
- Original/Unique
- Business Potential
- Design
After the presentations and deliberation, the judges found Glimworm’s Park Shark app the winner, adding they were all very impressed considering the time given. “We all live in Amsterdam” said Appsterdam’s Paul Darcy (referring to the judges), “and we were hoping for a helpful parking app and Park Shark really impressed all of us.” During the presentation ceremony he asked Paul Manwaring how they did it in such a short amount of time; Mr. Manwaring’s answer was simply that- “we have been working together a long time and are used to putting their heads together under pressure.”
When you look at what they accomplished, you can see why the judges awarded the honor to the Glimworm team. The Park Shark app they developed takes your current location and asks you to fill in where you want to park in Amsterdam, how you want to pay (ie, cash, pin or credit card), exactly when you plan on parking and for how long. Using the data provided by the city, the app quickly displays a map showing where you want to park and all the parking meters in the immediate area. But what makes it interesting is that it shows you how much it will cost you; look closer and little stars indicate less expensive meters near by with one indicating the cheapest price. When you touch the parking icons the app shows you all the details and payment options. Park Shark has an additional feature in the form of a button that reads – “Help Keep Amsterdam Green”. Click it and you see information about public transportation, the Carbon footprint you would be making if you drove and a “donate” button to help the environment.
Since the win at Picnic 2011, Glimworm IT has been in touch with managers at Cition and ICE Amsterdam about making more data available as well as adding features that would help solve some of the City’s parking and congestion problems. Glimworm also plans to meet soon with the City of Amsterdam about finishing Park Shark and making it available to the public for free. If talks go well, Glimworm hopes to have the first version of Park Shark ready for release within a month or two.
Some helpful links:
http://www.glimworm.com/glimworm-wint-het-picnic-2011-open-data-hackathon-evenement.shtml
http://www.picnicnetwork.org/news
http://www.picnicnetwork.org/conference_sessions/201
http://www.picnicnetwork.org/appsterdam-the-hackathon-and-an-interview-with-klaas-speller
http://www.dutchcowboys.nl/events/23114
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