CivicApps Prize for Bus Locator

A free iPhone application called Bus PDX that tells riders where their bus is was the top winner of the CivicApps contest sponsored by the Mayor’s Office.

The awards event, held Wednesday night at NedSpace Downtown, was timed to coincide with the city’s coveted OSCON open source convention that has brought more than 3,000 open source developers to town this week. The CivicApps event was attended by executives from Microsoft, the Software Association of Oregon, and OSCON organizer and open source evangelist Tim O’Reilly.

The project was designed to reward civic-minded developers who create free applications that help residents navigate the torrents of information on the Web or that simply translate that information into something useful and accessible.

Another major winner was a program that channeled all EMS and Fire Department calls in Clackamas County into a Twitter feed.

“Through CivicApps, we’re harnessing the phenomenal talent of Portland’s mobile and software development communities,” Mayor Sam Adams said in public statements in March when the contest was launched.

Contestants were given access to large amounts of public data with which to build their programs. Prizes were awarded through a combination of community voting and panel judging. Two $500 awards and five $1,000 awards were given out, as well as the top award of $3,000 award to PDX Bus.

Open source development generally refers native, Web and mobile applications that are built for free distribution, or in which the code and designs of the technology is open for others to modify or use. In recent years, applications like Mozilla’s Firefox web browser, Wikipedia and free mobile apps have been a visible signs of the popularity of open source methods.

Rick Turoczy, owner and creative director of Return and editor of the Portland tech blog SiliconFlorist, said he wasn’t surprised that the City of Portland was able to develop such useful tools for citizens through a small cash award contest.

“One of the things I like most about Portland is its exceedingly collegial tech community,” Turoczy said in an email. “It’s not often that you can get a group of very intelligent people together and have them collaborate on projects without dissent and territorial bickering. It’s part of the culture. And part of what attracts people to our community.”

Roy Kaufmann, communications director for the mayor’s office, shared that sentiment. “I think it speaks to the do-it-yourself spirit of Oregon,” he said. Kaufman likens the growing open source community in Portland to the craft brewing industry and the growing amount of bicycle-based businesses. “These things were almost like people’s hobbies and a community grew out of them, and now we are seeing local industry evolve.”

Kaufmann and Turoczy said that, in time, the open source community will lead to economic growth for the city.

Kaufmann said the CivicApps awards was timed with OSCON in order to send a clear message to the rest of the country: “If you are an open source innovator, you should have presence in Portland.”

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