Bigapps NYC

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Annual civic technology competition launched by New York City to encourage developers to create applications addressing urban challenges using publicly available government data.
What are the main aims and objectives?

The primary aim of BigApps NYC is to spur innovation in civic technology by providing access to government data and challenging developers to create solutions addressing New York City's most pressing challenges; to increase government transparency and accountability by making public data accessible; to encourage entrepreneurship and startup development in the civic technology sector; to recognize and support top civic technology innovations through competitive prizes and business incubation; and to foster collaboration between technologists, entrepreneurs, city government, and the private sector to address urban problems. More specifically, BigApps aims to create an open, accessible platform enabling developers to leverage public data for public benefit; to demonstrate that government transparency through open data can stimulate innovation and economic opportunity; to build New York City's profile as a leading technology and innovation center; to create employment and economic activity through supporting startups emerging from competition; to improve city services and quality of life for New Yorkers by developing applications addressing transportation, housing, health, education, employment, and other critical civic issues; to model civic technology innovation for other cities and governments globally; and to establish precedent that government innovation need not come exclusively from within government agencies but can leverage broader technological talent pools through open competitions.

How does the program work?

BigApps NYC operates as an annual competitive competition providing access to government data, prizes, and business support to developers creating civic technology applications.

Data Access and Competition Scope:

Participants have access to more than 1,000 raw data sets from New York City agencies (and from 2014 onward, also approved Federal, State, and private sector data sets) through the NYC Open Data portal, covering topics including weekly traffic updates, schedules of citywide events, property sales records, restaurant inspection catalogs, school and voting district geographic data, transit information, and countless other public datasets. Applications must be original software applications solely owned by entrants, use at least one NYC government data set or API, be broadly available to the public (web, mobile, SMS, or other platform), and address civic issues affecting New York City.

Eligibility and Participation:

The competition is open to U.S. residents ages 16 and over, as well as legally registered organizations (typically with fewer than 25-50 employees depending on year) domiciled in the U.S. Participants can compete individually or as teams, with diverse participation including individual developers, startup teams, established companies, non-profits, and civic organizations.

Competition Structure and Tracks:

Starting in 2014, BigApps introduced "BigIdea Challenges"—more than 30 specific civic challenges created in partnership with NYC agencies and nonprofit organizations, targeting solutions to identified problems in areas including jobs and workforce mobility, healthy living, lifelong learning, cleanweb energy and environment, affordable housing, zero waste, and civic engagement. Submissions are evaluated on quality of idea, implementation quality, and potential impact.

Prize Structure and Business Support:

Cash prizes have increased over program iterations: 2009 offered $20,000 total; 2010 offered $50,000; 2011 and 2013 offered $50,000-$150,000; 2014-2015 offered $230,000 total to 16 winners. Winners receive cash prizes, office space provision, professional services support (legal, accounting, marketing), business incubation through the Founders' Network, and networking opportunities with investors and technology leaders.

Events and Community Engagement:

BigApps produces multiple events including opening hackathons (weekend-long intensive coding events attracting 100+ participants), BigApps Block Party (public showcase attracting 1,000+ attendees), and awards ceremonies.

What is the overall cost?

Over program history (2009-2019), BigApps has awarded over $500,000+ in total prize money to civic technology developers and startups.

How was it implemented?

BigApps NYC was created in response to Mayor Michael Bloomberg's strategic commitment to position New York City as a global technology and innovation leader and to increase government transparency through open data initiatives. The timing coincided with broader "open government" movement gaining international momentum, with governments beginning to recognize potential of public data access and civic innovation.

In October 2009, Mayor Bloomberg officially announced the BigApps Challenge, inviting developers to build applications using open government data to improve city services and quality of life. The announcement positioned BigApps as New York City's entry into the open government movement and a novel approach to civic problem-solving. The first competition was operated by ChallengePost, a crowdsourcing platform specializing in developer competitions.

The inaugural BigApps 1.0 competition ran from October 6 to December 8, 2009, attracting 85 applications from developers. Ten winners were selected, including notable applications like WayFinder NYC (transit information), Taxihack (taxi coordination), and Trees Near You (environmental education). The competition demonstrated robust developer interest and diverse civic problem-solving approaches.

BigApps 2.0 (2010) attracted 57 applications and introduced new sponsorships including BMW partnership, with winners including Roadify (transit information), Parking Finder (parking location service), and MyCityWay (comprehensive city services directory), which received $300,000 in city investment and subsequently raised venture capital from FirstMark Capital and IA Ventures. BigApps 3.0 (2011) attracted 96 applications with expanded sector categories (green, health, education, mobility) and winners including Embark (mass transit app later acquired by Apple in 2013).

In 2014, HR&A Advisors was selected to administer BigApps, implementing major program redesign including development of 30+ "BigIdea Challenges" addressing specific municipal priorities, introduction of four high-impact challenge areas (Affordable Housing, Zero Waste, Connected Cities, Civic Engagement), expanded data access, and increased prize pool to $230,000. The BigApps Block Party public event was introduced, attracting 1,000+ participants.

What impact has been measured?

The program has helped launch nearly 500 applications over its history, with documented civic utility including real-time transit alerts, parking space finders, healthy eating finders, housing information systems, and countless other solutions addressing transportation, health, education, employment, housing, and environmental challenges.

What lessons can be learned?
  • Open data access stimulates distributed innovation: BigApps demonstrated that providing structured access to previously inaccessible government data directly enabled developers to identify problems and create technology solutions, validating open data as innovation catalyst and justifying government transparency investments.
  • Competitions attract diverse developer participation: The 85-118 applications across competition years demonstrated that well-designed competitions with clear prizes, timelines, and support attract participation from diverse developers (individuals, teams, nonprofits, companies), creating opportunity for distributed innovation not dependent on centralized government capacity.
  • Civic technology attracts venture capital and corporate investment: Success stories including Embark (Apple acquisition), MyCityWay (venture capital), and Heat Seek (incubator acceptance) demonstrated that civic-focused applications can create attractive investment opportunities and business models, validating civic technology as legitimate startup category and entrepreneurship pathway.
  • Events drive engagement and community building: BigApps events (hackathons attracting 100+ participants, Block Party attracting 1,000+) demonstrated that large-scale public events combined with competition create powerful engagement mechanisms for civic-minded technologists and the broader public.
  • Government-business partnerships enable resource mobilization: BigApps' partnership model with corporate sponsors (eBay, BMW, FirstMark Capital) and private platforms (ChallengePost, CollabFinder) enabled resource mobilization beyond direct government budget, suggesting public-private partnership models can sustain civic innovation programs.
  • Problem-focused competition tracks improve solution relevance: The 2014 introduction of 30+ "BigIdea Challenges" addressing specific municipal priorities resulted in 117 submissions (highest in program history), suggesting that targeted problem framing attracts more relevant submissions than open-ended challenges.
  • Data accessibility scales innovation opportunity: The evolution from limited datasets (2009) to 1,000+ datasets (2014+) directly enabled more diverse application development, suggesting that data accessibility scales innovation opportunity and reduces barriers to civic problem-solving.
  • Limited app sustainability presents ongoing challenge: While many BigApps-launched applications demonstrated initial success, comprehensive data on long-term survival rates and ongoing maintenance suggests that not all competition winners developed into sustainable businesses, indicating post-competition support needs.
  • Model replication demonstrates policy success: BigApps' adoption as model by numerous other cities and governments globally demonstrates that the competition approach gained legitimacy and perceived effectiveness, though specific documentation of replication outcomes is limited.
  • Comprehensive evaluation gaps constrain optimization: The absence of published comprehensive evaluation documenting survival rates, employment outcomes, economic impact, or comparative effectiveness limits evidence-based program improvement and prevents systematic learning about which program elements drive success.
  • Open data as public good transforms government role: BigApps contributed to recognition that government data constitutes public good and that making data openly accessible creates broader social and economic value than restricting access, influencing open data policy globally and redefining government's role in innovation ecosystem.

CURATED BY

Chris Haley

Head of Research
United Kingdom