22nd January 2015
Apps4Gaps Challenges Irish Students to Create Apps Using Public Data!
The Insight Centre for Data Analytics at NUI Galway is inviting the public, members of Irish Dojos and school/college students to take part in an all-Ireland team competition to create apps from freely available and publicly accessible data. Students in teams of two or three can enter in one of two ways, either by submitting an idea for an app as a concept entry or by creating an app and submitting a working app using datasets from the National Data Portal such as Census 2011.
February 6th is the closing date to register as a competition entrant and the closing date for concept entry or a working app entry is April 2nd. Entry forms for student teams must be signed by a teacher, lecturer or course instructor from the students’ educational primary, secondary or third level institution.
The aim is to develop ideas and create applications (apps) that will provide innovative and fresh ways of exploiting the Open Data freely available on the National Data Portal http://data.gov.ie to improve the lives of ordinary peoples, their communities or society generally in such areas as transport, housing, planning, education, communications and health.
Apps, in this case software that can operate on a mobile telephone or any other online accessible device, is a communications icon of our Internet age. We want to empower and up-skill our youngsters to learn how to make their own powerful modern technology applications from freely available data.
Apps4Gaps is a partnership between the Insight Centre for Data Analytics, the Central Statistics Office (CSO) and Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) in conjunction with the Department of Education and Skills, the Department of Education Northern Ireland and the Open Government Partnership Ireland.
Information on the competition such as registration, datasets and rules as well as examples of the civic apps that can be created from open data, can be found at www.apps4gaps.ie.