Paris – May 13, 2013. The New Cities Foundation today announced the names of the three mobile applications in the running for the AppMyCity! Prize for the world’s best urban app.
The three finalists – app developers from the USA, Israel and India – will be offered an all expenses paid trip to the New Cities Summit in São Paulo. At the Summit, the finalists will present their apps to the high-level audience of global urban leaders, in their bid to win the 5,000 USD Prize. The winner will be selected by the audience and announced live at the Summit.
The international AppMyCity! judging panel were looking for the best apps from around the world that enhance the urban experience and make cities more fun, fair and vibrant. The finalists were selected from a semi-finalist list of ten.
The judging panel selected the following three apps as finalists for this year’s AppMyCity! Prize:
- BuzzJourney, from Kfar-Saba, Israel, is a social transportation app that provides information on all means of urban transportation including bus, train, taxi, bike rental and even car sharing. http://www.buzzjourney.com/
- PublicStuff, from New York City, USA, helps local governments turn civic inquiries into tangible community improvements, by enabling residents to connect to their representatives through mobile phones, laptops and tablets. http://www.publicstuff.com/
- Walkability, from Delhi, India, crowd-sources data on walkability to inform the government on how to create more pedestrian-friendly urban spaces. http://walkabilityasia.org/
Mathieu Lefevre, Executive Director of the New Cities Foundation and AppMyCity! Prize Judge, said: “Our three AppMyCity! finalists demonstrate the incredible creativity among young developers. We were impressed to see the diversity in the projects put forward by our ten semi-finalists coming from all parts of the world including Brazil, India, the USA, Israel, the Netherlands and South Africa. Apps improve our lives in cities in fun and also very meaningful and serious ways, as demonstrated by these finalists. I want to congratulate all ten semi-finalists who did very well to make it to the judging stage. These are amazing projects and we’re delighted to have promoted their work through the AppMyCity! Prize. We can’t wait to watch these three great finalists present their apps live at our New Cities Summit in São Paulo in just 3 weeks’ time. May the best app win!”
Lior Harstat, Founder of Buzzjourney, said: "BuzzJourney is extremely excited to be an AppMyCity! Prize finalist. We thank the New Cities Foundation and the panel of judges for this honor. In this new urban era, transportation poses more complex challenges than ever. Our urban population is outgrowing existing transportation systems. Winning this Prize would help BuzzJourney to expand its sustainable, affordable, immediate solution for urban transportation."
Lily Liu, CEO and Co-Founder of PublicStuff said: "PublicStuff is honored to be selected as a finalist for the AppMyCity! Prize. This is a great opportunity for us to make our leading civic engagement app available to cities worldwide, and help improve the connection between local governments and residents."
Parthaa Bosu, Developer of the Walkability App said: “Walkability was the first app in the world to give a voice to pedestrians about the walkability conditions of a street.”
Submission and Judging Process
Submissions for the AppMyCity! Prize closed on April 26, 2013. Ten semi-finalists were selected by the New Cities Foundation, out of a total of 92 apps that met Prize requirements.
The 9 expert AppMyCity! judges – from the corporate, non-profit, academic and civic worlds (see list below) voted on the ability of these apps to create widespread impact for cities worldwide, through their innovative design and helpful user interface.
Thanks to the support of Google, the New Cities Foundation will invite the three selected finalists to the invitation-only New Cities Summit in São Paulo, Brazil from June 4-6, 2013. In their final bid to win, the three finalists will present their project live at the Summit, to the senior-level audience of urban entrepreneurs, innovators and leaders. The winner will be announced immediately, and will receive 5,000 USD towards the further development of
their app.
The other 7 apps that reached the semi-finalists stage were: Aircasting (New York); Colab (Recife, Brazil); Derivé (Johannesburg, South Africa); iWhisper (Utrecht, Netherlands); paprika (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil); Urbanias (São Paulo, Brazil) and VaiRio (Rio de Janeiro,
Brazil).
To find out more, visit www.appmycity.org and www.newcitiessummit2013.org