The Government of Alberta, in partnership with Alberta Innovates Technology Futures, is hosting Apps for Alberta, an innovation competition using Alberta open data. Apps for Alberta is offering $70,000 in cash prizes to encourage the brightest and most creative minds in Canada and the United States to develop apps that use open data from the Alberta Open Data Portal.
Eligibility
You are eligible to enter the Apps for Alberta challenge if:
- You are a resident of Canada (excluding Quebec) or the United States.
- You have reached the age of majority where you live.
- You are an individual, a team of eligible individuals or an organization that employs no more than fifty (50) people and have generated no more than CAD 10 million (or the USD equivalent) in revenue in the most recent fiscal year.
Note:
- Only Alberta residents may compete for the Best Made in Alberta App Award.
- Only individuals registered as full-time post-secondary students in a designated post-secondary institution in Alberta may compete for the Best Student App Award. A team may compete for this award if the majority of team members meet the individual eligibility requirements for this award.
- Apps may be newly created or pre-existing. If you submit an app that was developed prior to this competition, it must include features and functionality that were added after this challenge began.
- April 29 update - If any participants are using the Alberta Culture Calendar Dataset http://data.alberta.ca/data/alberta-culture-calendar-3 to build an app for the challenge, could you please email our data team at data@gov.ab.ca on or before May 8 to let us know about it.
Requirements
Your submission must include:
- A working software application that uses at least one dataset from the Alberta Open Data Portal that was posted on or before the challenge launch date, or one dataset listed in the Apps for Alberta section of the Alberta Open Data Portal.
- A YouTube or Vimeo video (should be less than five minutes) that demonstrates the functionality of the application. You must have permission to use all content in your video, including footage, music and images.
- One or more screenshots of your application.
- A way for us to access your application for testing/judging, such as a URL, installation file or shared test build.
- A description (should be less than 250 words) of the application.
Prizes
$70,000 in prizes
Best Overall Application
$30,000 cash. This application will best demonstrate the potential of open government in which people use government data for innovation and business potential, or to realize social value.
Best Made in Alberta Application
$30,000 cash. This application will encourage software development entrepreneurship in Alberta and show how Albertans can use Government of Alberta data to create viable business ideas or social value.
Best Student App
$5,000 cash. This application will encourage post-secondary students in Alberta to use Government of Alberta data to create viable business ideas or social value
People's Choice Award
$5,000 cash. The public's favorite application as determined by voting on the challenge website.
Devpost Achievements
Submitting to this hackathon could earn you:
How to enter
- Register with ChallengePost.
- Visit the Alberta Open Data Portal.
- Create your app.
- Submit your application and supporting requirements through ChallengePost by 5:00pm on June 19, 2015.
Note: For information about privacy, please visit ChallengePost's privacy policy at http://ChallengePost.com/privacy.
Judges

David Eaves
Open data expert, public policy entrepreneur and civic startup CEO

Bruce Johnson
Executive Chairman, Visio Media

Richard Pietro
Host for the Open Government Tour; active member of the open government and open data community

Patrick Lor
CEO/Co-Founder, Dissolve

Rod Skura
Deputy Minister, Service Alberta
Judging Criteria
-
Quality of Idea
Includes creativity and originality (30%) -
Implementation of Idea
Includes how well the idea was executed by the developer (30%) -
Potential Impact
Includes the potential impact for economic or social good (40%)
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