Mayor Bloomberg Announces Big Apps Winners

Tonight at the IAC headquarters building in NYC, Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced the winners of the Big Apps competition. Below is a list of the winners. We covered the Big Apps competition extensively here on CN so you may already be familiar with the winners. Congrats to the winners and to all of the developers who participated. It was simply awesome to see all of the creative ideas using the city’s data feeds.

Best Overall Application:

• Grand Prize: WayFinder NYC – an application that allows users to find the nearest and best directions to New York City subway and New Jersey PATH stations on Android phones. It was also selected as the Grand Prize winner for the “Data Visualization Award.” Team members: Victor Sima and Steven Lao.
• Second Prize: Taxihack – an application that allows users to post live comments on New York City taxis and their drivers via email (alert@taxihack.com) or Twitter (@taxihack). Users send messages to the system, which are then posted on the appropriate pages for public viewing. Team members: Randy Meech and Sam Cole.
• Third Prize: Big Apple Ed – an education application that provide residents with an easy-to-use guide to schools in the City, including school searches, top ten lists, analyses, comparison charts, and detailed school profiles. Team members: Adda Birnir, Jonathan Soma, and Kate Reyes.
• Five Honorable Mentions were also awarded for Best Overall Application including: Actuatr, UpNext 3D NYC, Trees Near You, PushPin Web, and NYC Way.

Investor’s Choice Award for the application with the highest potential for commercialization:

• NYC Way – an iPhone application that bundles more than 30 New York City resources and provides information sorted by the user’s current location. NYC Way was also selected as the “Popular Choice Award” Grand Prize winner. Team members: Puneet Mehta, Archana Patchirajan, Sonpreet Bhatia, Arun Arunachalam, Vivek Mehta, and Shariq Siddiqui.

Data Visualization Award for the most visually appealing and user-friendly application:

• WayFinder NYC

Popular Choice Awards:

• Grand Prize: NYC Way
• Second Prize: Bookzee – a library book search application that allows users to enter a book title or author to find the nearest library currently holding it. Team members: Mike Cavaliere, Veronica De la Pena, Timothy Murry, Michael Boski, Will Schenk, and Fernando Guillen.

City Talent Award for employees of the City, the New York City Economic Development Corporation or their families:

• New York Parks and Recreation Online (NYCPRO) – an application that allows users to search for parks and recreational opportunities in New York City by neighborhood and by certain recreational activities. It can also be used to locate bike shops, restaurants, hospitals, landmarks, and multi-use trails.