How to Create Your Own

Apps for Democracy

Peter Corbett, CEO, iStrategyLabs

@CORBETT3000
Smarter
Better
Faster
Cheaper
Vivek Kundra, former CTO of
DC (current Federal CIO)
needed a way to make DC’s
open Data Catalog useful
http://data.octo.dc.gov
 The Old Way

1.0
you know
the way it’s done now
 The New Way

Open Data/Source
+
2.0 Citizen Talent
+
Fame and Fortune
=
?
Fame and Fortune
 Year 1 Results
47 web, iPhone, & Facebook apps
$2,300,000+ EST Value
$50,000 in cost
+4000% ROI
* Marinas near you
* Libraries near you
* Gas stations near you
* Banks near you
* Hotels near you
* Construction projects near you
* Embassies near you
* Places of worship near you
* Vacant properties near you
* Building permits pulled near you
* Crime alerts near you
* Post offices near you
* Housing code violations near you
* Police stations near you
Subsequent Innovation

www.AreYouSafeDC.com
Chris Willey, Interim CTO of
DC wanted to build the first
Open 311 API (built by
Dmitry Kachaev) and use
citizen driven innovation to
power new service apps
Framework for Citizen Driven
Innovation in Government IT

2. Open Data
3. Gov Sponsorship
4. Contest Framework
5. Launch and Run
6. Award
Framework for Citizen Driven
Innovation in Government IT

1. Problem Sourcing
2. Open Data
3. Gov Sponsorship
4. Contest Framework
5. Launch and Run
6. Award
7. Support by Gov
8. Commercialization
Built by: Victor Shilo, Roman Zolin, and Andrey Andreev
Built by: Victor Shilo, Roman Zolin, and Andrey Andreev
Built by: Zvi Band and Zach Goodwin
 Apps for Democracy (2)
Apps for America (2)
Apps for Democracy Finland (1)
Apps for Democracy New South Wales.AU (1)
Apps for Democracy Belgium (INCA 09) (1)
NYC Big Apps, DataSF Challenge
Apps for the Army
Apps for the World?
Vancouver, Portland, Minnesota, Greece,
Denmark, London next?
How to Create Your Own
Apps for Democracy

19 Page PDF:
http://bit.ly/apps4all
 Overview

Project Components
1 Contest Framework (data, prizes, judges, timeline)
2 Website Creation
3 Marketing to Developers
4 Judge Recruitment
5 Initial Screening
6 Apps Posted Publicly
7 Public Voting for “People’s Choice”
8 Awards Ceremony & Final Judging
9 Results of Contest Marketing
1. Content Framework Definition

Contest Framework Check List

1 Define Data Sources
2 Define Rules
3 Define Prizes
4 Define the Registration and Submission Process
5 Define Judging Format and Judges
6 Define Timeline
 Define Data Sources
DC’s data was already open. It made our job easy.
This will take you a lot of time. Take a look at these
examples.
Geography Data Site Contest Site
Washington DC http://data.octo.dc.gov http://www.appsfordemocracy.org

US Federal http://data.gov http://www.bit.ly/apps4amer

San Francisco http://datasf.org http://spot.us/pitches/272

New York City http://nyc.gov/data http://www.nycbigapps.com

Toronto http://toronto.ca/open N/A

Nanaimo http://nanaimo.ca/datafeeds N/A

Vancouver http://data.vancouver.ca N/A

Finland http://mindtrek.org/2009/ http://mindtrek.org/2009/

democracy_finland/datacatalog democracy_finland
Belgium http://inca-award.be http://inca-award.be

London http://data.gov.uk/ N/A

 Define The Rules

Rules are the enemy of creativity and innovation.

Avoid rules at all costs. With Apps for Democracy

our only rule was to use at least one data source
from http://data.octo.dc.gov to build an application
of some kind.
Define Prizes

• More prizes = more likely to attract participants

• Segmented by independents and web/tech agencies

• The people’s choice drove massive buzz

• Bigger prizes due to singular focus on 311 API

• Broken into rounds to enable iteration

• Tested a community grant

Define Registration & Submission

Used EventBrite = free, fast, easy

Define Judging

• Make it easy
• Recruit buzz builders
• And technologists
• And end users
• Judge it all in a day
 Define Timeline
Year 1
Month 1 2 3 4
Week 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4
Website Creation
Design
Copywriting
Development
Project Management & Strategy
Marketing to Developers (Outreach)
Key Marketing Events A B C D E
Competition Open for Submission
Judge Recruitment
Initial Screening
Apps Posted Publicly
Public Voting For “People’s Choice”
Awards Ceremony (Event
Management)
Results of Contest Marketing
Facebook Social Ads
Facebook Social Ads (Ad Design)

Marketing Detail
Key Marketing Elements
A Splash page with e-mail sign-up live, press release, initial outreach to media and developers
B Full site launch, full campaign launch, host first “camp”
C Integration with a nearby technology conference by sponsoring/speaking/hosting a code jam
D Host final code jam
E Host awards ceremony
 Q&A

There’s a lot more in

the guide.

http://bit.ly/apps4all