apps4nsw winners finally announced

Winners of the long-running "apps4nsw" competition were announced last night at an awards ceremony alongside a showcase of the winning entries. Winners shared $50,000 of prize money, with two first place winners taking away $15,000 each for their efforts.

Over 120 entries were received by apps4nsw competition. (Intel touchscreen image by Nan Palmero. CC 2.0)

First place went to Brad Spencer's entry: "Demographic Drapes" — an application that overlays Australian demographic information on a map that users can interactively browse. A similar application shared first place with Spencer, entitled "Suburban Trends" by design team Smart Mashups. Suburban Trends allows users to compare and contrast statistical information by suburb, including socio-economic standing, crime trends and education levels.

The second place prize of $10,000 went to Bikey for its "Bike Community Hub" app and third place of $5000 went to Jack Zhao for "The School Hall".

Similar to the Victorian Government's "App My State" competition, apps4nsw aimed to find "new and useful ways to deliver government information to the public via the internet and mobile devices", according to Jodi McKay, New South Wales minister for Science and Medical Research.

Apps4nsw also had an ideas section, where users with no technical design knowledge could submit their entries on what they thought would make a useful app. Ronit Olovitz took out the $3000 prize in the ideas category with his submission "nsw4kids". If developed, the application would allow parents and carers to find activities and recreational facilities for kids of all ages in their area of choice, according to Penny Sharpe, apps4nsw judge and member of the New South Wales Legislative Council.

A people's choice category was open to public voting, with the award going to "CityTag" after unanimous support on the public forum. CityTag is an iPhone application that allows users to bookmark locations of interest and share them with others around them.

The competition was announced last year by then New South Wales premier, Nathan Rees. Entries were accepted between 12 November 2009 and 22 March 2010, with winners originally scheduled to be announced on 20 April 2010. However, more than two months passed and no winners were announced. Apps4nsw organisers contacted the winners privately in early June, according to a post from the competition's Twitter page.

122 developers submitted ideas and applications to the competition, with the judging panel looking for a unique design, excellent usability and overall originality of idea.