Apps for Development Competition

Deadline: 10 January 2011
Open to: all individuals from member countries of the World Bank and/or companies with fewer than fifty employees
Prize: 1st: $15,000 USD; 2nd: $10,000 USD; 3rd: $5,000 USD; 5 Honorable Mentions $2,000 USD Each; and Popular Choice Award: $5,000 USD

The World Bank launched its Open Data Initiative in April, 2010. This initiative made an array of data sets, including the World Development Indicators, Africa Development Indicators, and Millennium Development Goal Indicators – free for all. The Apps for Development Competition aims to bring together the best ideas from both the software developer and the development practitioner communities to create innovative apps using World Bank data.

The Competition challenges participants to develop software applications related to one or more of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Submissions may be any kind of software application, be it for the web, a personal computer, a mobile handheld device, console, SMS, or any software platform broadly available to the public. The only other requirement is that the proposed application use one or more datasets from the World Bank Data Catalog available at data.worldbank.org.

Applications submitted to the Competition should address at least one of the following objectives:

  1. Raise awareness of at least one of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), or
  2. Contribute to progress toward meeting one of the MDGs by 2015

Applications which best satisfy the competition criteria will receive cash prizes and the opportunity to have their apps featured on the World Bank Open Data website. Competition participants are encouraged to also use other relevant indicators and datasets, and to be creative in exploring approaches for realizing the goals.

Eligibility

* individuals from member countries of the World Bank, who have attained the age of majority in their individual nations at the time of their entries
* companies with fewer than fifty employees
* submissions must be original software applications solely owned by the entrant(s), which must use at least one of the World Bank datasets found here.
* the text descriptions in the contest submission must accurately describe the functionality of the application, and all submitted materials must be in English, or include an English translation.

Application procedure

Interested participants must register for the contest on this webpage by creating an account between October 7, 2010, and January 10, 2011.

Registrants will receive an email, which they must use to verify their account. Once registered, participants may enter their submissions via the Submit Application tab. In order to be considered, each submission must include: a link to the application, a video of the application, a text-based description of the application, and at least one still photograph of the working application.

All interested applicants must read the complete version of the Official Rules document.

Official Webpage

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