CNT Urban Sustainability Apps Competition

Smart Chicago
Guests are seated for the discussion at Reinventing Chicago

Guests are seated for the discussion at Reinventing Chicago, Photo by CNT

On October 18th, the Center for Neighborhood Technologies will be hosting it’s 2nd annual Urban Sustainability Apps Hackathon in the offices of TechNexus. The competition hopes to spur civic apps that promote more sustainable neighborhoods.  Join us at tonight’s OpenGov Hack Night to learn more about the event.

For the event, there will be a number of new data sets being released including The Housing + Transportation (H+T) Affordability Index, The Abogo Transportation Cost API, and The Transit-Oriented Development Database.

Instead of the normal hackathon prizes, the winning team will receive four consultations to help their app idea make it a marketable enterprise. These include:

  • Design Consultation: Two hours with Greater Good Studio: Design experts from Greater Good Studio’s award-winning team will work with you to get your app more effective, more intuitive and have more impact. They will help your app get more user-centric, look great and work even better.
  • Crowdfunding Consultation:  Patty Morrissey, Head of Social Innovation at Groupon, launched their signature philanthropic program Groupon Grassroots. Since the launch in July 2010 the program has collectively raised over $6.5 million for over 1400 campaigns. Patty will offer offer coaching on how to successfully run a crowdfunding campaign from start to finish – project identification and how to build and promote a campaign.
  • User Testing Consultation:  Smart Chicago Collaborative offers a custom CUTGroup session. The Civic User Testing Group is a set of regular Chicago residents who get paid to test civic apps. Smart Chicago will design a test, recruit relevant testers, and implement the test in a public computer center in Chicago.
  • Capital Consultation: Justin Massa, founder and CEO of Food Genius, has the unique experience of raising venture capital and angel funding for a for-profit venture as well as corporate and foundation grants for non-profit organizations. Justin will offer a 2-3 hour session that will focus on exploring both corporate structures (non-profit, for profit, and social ventures), funding options, and business models with an eye towards sustaining the winner as a viable, long-term business or organization.

You can register for the event by visiting the CNT Urban Sustainability App home page. 

 

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