StartupIowa is ready to usher in the open data movement in Iowa.
The organization today announced the inaugural OpenIowa competition, which will be held April 27-29. The three-day hacking event will challenge developers to turn raw government data into something useful to the state’s residents, visitors or businesses.
Participants will be given access to city, county and state datasets prior to OpenIowa, and the event’s format will closely resemble that of a Startup Weekend or the upcoming Hack Omaha. OpenIowa will kick off Friday night with pitches for using the data for web, mobile, SMS or software applications. Voting be used to whittle down the list of ideas, and teams will form. Those teams will then have two days to bring the ideas to life.
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More on the open data movement, from StartupIowa:
Open data initiatives have been gaining momentum since the 2009 launch of Data.gov, the federal government’s effort to increase public access to information. One of the first open-data competitions in the U.S., Apps for Democracy, was held in Washington, DC in 2008, and led to the creation of 47 iPhone, Facebook, and web applications worth more than $2.6 million to the local economy.
Similar contests have since popped up across the country and around the world. New York City’s Big Apps event, now in its third year, is one of the largest and has generated some compelling ideas.
Additional information about OpenIowa, including details about location, tickets and supporting agencies, is forthcoming. Stay tuned to Silicon Prairie News and the StartupIowa website for updates..
