The city of Poznań (Poland) on 20 and 21 June co-organised, a combination of a workshops and a hackathon aiming to deliver prototypes of smart phone applications for citizen participation. The city is funding the outcome of the hackathon; the development of an app to bring neighbours closer together.
On Saturday 20 June, a group of 25 participants came up with ideas on how mobile apps can help citizens to participate in Poznań’s public decision-making. “Thanks to the great variety of backgrounds, ages and levels of experiences in city administration, the first day resulted in five solid ideas as input for the hackathon”, explains Marcin Paradowski, one of the organisers of NeedApp Poznań.
On Sunday, six teams of software developers each picked an idea and started working on a prototype. All were professional code writers experienced in developing smart phone applications and working for ICT firms in the region. At the end of the day, the prototypes were rated by a jury, and the winner was awarded a contract to create a working application, and to make it available as open source software. “The winning application aims to increase contact between neighbours”, says Paradowski. “It lets small communities share ideas, manages lists of offers for help, and keep tabs on all that is involved in organising projects and events.”
The workshop took place at the Poznań University of Economics. The jury included three representatives from the city, a venture capitalist and a scientist.
And the winner is
The winner of NeedApp Poznań is mobile app development company Snowdog. The company now has 60 days to deliver a working application, Paradowksi says. “We hope to announce it in September, at an event to promoto Poznań’s NGOs.”
Paradowski is coordinator at ECDF mKlaster, a business incubator for mobile technology firms in the Wielkopolska region. The cluster has almost 30 companies, he says, mostly specialised in software development. Most have strong ties with the open source community.
More information:
NeedApp Poznan (in Polish)
NeedApp Poznan on Youtube (in Polish)
Github project page of one of the contesters