Marcus Ross, Ryan Billington, and Jason Kirk, the team behind the idea JustAPosition.org, took home the top prize at the first-ever Government 2.0 Innovation Challenge hosted by Graffiti Tracker (GT).
The competition, held Nov. 13-15, challenged its seven contestants, organized into five teams, to invent and develop a Gov 2.0 idea in a 48-hour period. When the time was up, the competitors pitched their idea to the panel of five judges: Douglas County Treasurer John Ewing Jr., Omaha City Councilman Gary Gernandt, GT Founder Tim Kephart, GT Event Planner Stef Monge, and myself.
Second place, a $750 check, was awarded to Sarah Riley and Carl Zulaf, the team behind Citizen Pulse. First place, the JustAPosition team, received $1,000 and six months of support from GT to further develop their idea. In addition, they were also awarded “Best Design” of the competition.
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As a judge, I was there for the kick off event Friday night and the judging Sunday night — when I showed up Sunday, I could feel a weekend of hard work had taken place. It was a pleasure to serve as a judge and hear the five teams present their ideas.
Citizen Pulse: Sarah Riley and Carl Zulauf Web application that analyzes data from Twitter and other social networking sites to come up with a level of citizen happiness as well as locate areas in need of improvement
Government Works for You: Carl Zulauf and Sarah Riley Website that aggregates data from municipal government and presents a simple overview for citizen consumption and interaction
JustAPosition.org: Marcus Ross, Ryan Billington and Jason Kirk Online tool for municipal government representatives to connect with their constituents
Predictive City Planning: Grant Stanley Takes city planning from “project based” to “vision based” through city data analysis
The One Touch “Port” Card: Rob Powelson Smart phone application bringing your child’s grades, attendance record, and teachers’ notes at the touch of a button
After the competition, I spoke with Stef and Tim from GT as well as Sarah and the JustAPosition team about the weekend, Gov 2.0, and where they’ll go from here.
