Today iStrategyLabs becomes the proud father of Apps for Democracy!

You can download the full press release here.

The District of Columbia’s Office of the Chief Technology Officer (OCTO), in collaboration with iStrategyLabs, today announced the launch of the Apps for Democracy - “An Innovation Contest” for visualizing DC’s public data. The intention of this competition is to reward technology developers with cash prizes and public recognition for creating applications that are useful for the DC government and the citizens, visitors and businesses of Washington, DC.

The contest will serve as a catalyst to visualize OCTO’s data so it will be useful to the citizens of DC, improving their quality of life; foster innovation in the DC technology community resulting in startup formation and growth; solve the technology challenges of OCTO through more cost effective open collaboration; and work towards a new model for government/private sector cross collaboration that can be utilized repeatedly to solve OCTO’s challenges and serve as an example for other municipalities.

Apps for Democracy will feature 60 cash prizes from $2000 to $100 dollars for a total of $20,000 in prizes.

Developers and designers will compete by creating web applications, widgets, Google Maps-mashups (and other maps-mashups), iPhone apps, Facebook apps, and other digital utilities that visualize OCTO’s Data Catalog, which provides real-time data from multiple agencies to citizens - a catalyst ensuring agencies operate as more responsive, better performing organizations.

Who: This contest is open to everyone.
What: Submission guidelines, meet-up notifications and awards structure can be found at Apps for Democracy. Submission must be released as open source code.
When: The contest starts 10/13 and ends at 11:59pm on 11/12. The awards ceremony will take place on 11/13. A kick-off happy hour will be hosted on 10/16 and 4 open innovation labs will hosted each weekend leading up to the deadline enabling participants to find collaborators and to work onsite among their fellow technologists. A full Google Calendar can be found here. The official social media tag is #APPS08.

A full social media strategy is in place and you can engage your community here:

1. Facebook Group
2. Facebook Event for the Kickoff Happy Hour @ Local 16 in DC
3. http://twitter.com/apps08
4. http://apps08.ning.com
5. http://www.flickr.com/groups/apps08/
6. Grab the Widget!
7. And more…

Grab creative assets for articles/posts here.

Media Contact: Peter Corbett, 202-683-9980, peter@istrategylabs.com

Huge props to Scott McCaughey for leading design/dev on this! More about him in iStrategists section.

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On September 8th, I spoke at the Inbound Marketing Summit in Cambridge on “The Ins and Outs Viral Video,” and the super talented organizers at HubSpot have posted a video of my session. It’s about an hour long, but if you’re interested in creating content and campaigns that get shared across the web, it might be an interesting thing for you check out:

My slides are here:

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We’re honored (and flattered) to be nominated for the Greater Washington Board of Trade’s “Most Engaged Small Business Award”!

Michelle Hoffman, of Hoffman CFO Consulting - an accounting services company specializing in software and e-commerce companies - was thoughtful enough to submit the nomination as follows:

Summary:

Peter Corbett’s business helps companies develop and implement interactive marketing strategies.  Because many interactive marketing strategies involve components of technology, he is closely aligned with the movers and shakers of innovative technology and is a wonderful advocate for technology in DC.

Involvement:

Peter is doing amazing things to promote DC and the greater DC area.  His web site includes surveys helping the District of Columbia to determine the needs of small businesses, great blogs relevant to DC business, and announcements for creative events that bring together many players in the DC area business community.  He hosts events that attract entrepreneurs from all over the northeast.

Leadership:

I am most impressed by Peter’s leadership role in rallying the DC area technology community and those who support it.  In the aftermath of the untimely 2008 demise of the DC Technology Council, it seemed no one would take up the mantra of technology for DC. Peter has single handedly galvanized the DC area technology masses, successfully partnering with the established Northern Virginia Technology Council to promote, rally and unite technology entrepreneurs and investors in creative events such as Twin Tech I and II. Because of him, there is hope for the future of technology in DC. He has done something the government of DC wants to, but has not been able to effectively do—spread the word that DC is a great place for technology companies to call home.  While most technology companies remain unaware of the DC government’s Qualified High Tech Company designation, which offers great tax breaks to technology companies in DC, they know about Peter and his events.

And it goes on…

One thing that is very important to mention, which is relevant for any DC tech business person reading this article, was further highlighted in Michelle’s email to me:  DC offers Qualifed High Tech Companies with a host of tax breaks.

A detailed explanation of the QHTC program is available here as a PDF. Off the top of my head I think this document will be a good read for my friends at nclud, SocialTimes, LivingSocial, SocialCash, JobMatchBox, ShareMeme, Intridea an host of others!

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