FutureBoston
From MashupCamp
Contents |
ANNOUNCEMENT AND COMPETITION RULES
Do you have a mapping fetish? Are you into data diving? Do you care about cities and neighborhoods? Wiki cities? Social networks? Innovation and start-up companies? Are you a leader of the future?
Then come to the FutureBOSTON@Mashupcamp, January 15-18, 2006! Held on MIT's campus in Cambridge, MA, hosted by MobiLAB@MIT in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning, join 200 other Web innovators and free-thinkers who, in addition to attending Mashup Camp, are invited to prototype their vision of the future. The competition is being convened in association with Boston.com, Massachusetts Technology Collaborative/John Adams Innovation Institute and the National Association of Industrial and Office Properties/Massachusetts.
WHAT?
FutureBOSTON is an examination of technology's role in shaping Boston's competitive edge. As part of this initiative, FutureBOSTON is hosting two competitions to help prototype what the urban planning tools of tomorrow might look like.
FutureBOSTON@Mashupcamp is part of a major effort, being convened by MIT and State Street Corporation, in association with WCVB-TV5, Boston Magazine and Boston.com. Part of the project is to better understand how geospatial mapping might be combined with enterprise to increase Boston's competitive edge, connecting place, opportunity and talent. The two FutureBOSTON@Mashupcamp competitions are a beginning. The idea is to jump-start creation of two applications: "Innovation Landscape" to show where entrepreneurs choose to locate; "ScienceCITY ModelMaker" -- a "spider" -- which searches parcel data to detect the development capacity of a district.
From January 15th to the 18th, dozens of creative people from around the world will descend on MIT's campus for a FREE community event to develop new software known as Mashup Camp. In conjunction with Mashup Camp you and your friends are invited to bring your best visions, dreams, codes, programs, and ideas to participate in two experimental Web development competitions.
COMPETITION DETAILS
The objective is to create two prototypes that will allow citizens to participate in the life of their city in a manner never before possible. Individuals and teams will compete to create the best "proof-of-concept" along two themes, described below, working with their preferred software tools and integrating them into API's from Google, Yahoo Maps, Microsoft Virtual Earth and others. The competition is a beginning, not an end; an experiment in speed-innovation to see how far developers can get in framing a concept, generating a use-narrative, writing an application and pushing the state-of-the-mashup-art.
The winners of each competition will receive a cash prize of up to $500 for each competition and a chance to develop their work further with FutureBOSTON and Boston.com, to be launched in the Fall of 2007. This competition presents an exciting opportunity for creative individuals to network with industry leaders, demonstrate their creativity and technical ability and help push the envelope of what is possible in mapping, planning and design.
THE COMPETITIONS
To find out the nitty gritty details on each of the two competitions, click on one or both of the following links:
JUDGES AND COMPETITION
This is a short competition to see how far participants can get in two days. The competition expects functional concepts that work on the Internet via a browser or a desktop mapping and visualization package that uses one or more of the APIs, presented at Mashupcamp.
Winners will be chosen based on the most innovative approach, the most attractive interface and the approach which has the most likelihood to be successfully developed further.
Awards will be based on the following criteria:
- short narrative describing their strategy
- functional demo in their web application of their choice
- a description of workability, backend software and scalability of their approach
The winner in each category will be selected by representatives from MIT, Boston.com and venture capital firms. The winner from each category will receive a $500 cash prize and recognition for their work. Successful MashupCamp participants may also have the opportunity to be involved in subsequent phases of work with the FutureBOSTON and Boston.com team.
FINE PRINT
FutureBOSTON@Mashupcamp is a feature of "FutureBOSTON," a major civic dialogue focused on increasing Boston's competitive edge; being convened by the MIT and State Street Corporation, in association with WCVB-TV5, Boston Magazine and Boston.com. FutureBOSTON will culminate in a televised town forum, broadcast live from MIT, November 15, 2007.
In addition to State Street, sponsors of FutureBOSTON@MIT include Blue Cross Blue Shield, Chiofaro Company, Distrigas/Suez, Harvard Pilgrim, John Hancock, Liberty Mutual, Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Novartis Institutes, Partners Healthcare, Staples and The Boston Foundation.
For more information
Please contact:
Thomas Piper Executive Director and Principal Investigator
LABORATORY FOR MOBILE LEARNING/FutureBOSTON
MIT Department of Urban Studies and Planning
MIT Room 9-534
77 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge MA 02139
Phone: 617-253-8950
Fax: 617-253-2654
Email: piper@mit.edu
or
Noah Raford
Director of Research
Email: nraford@mit.edu
Competition website: http://web.mit.edu/piper/www/mashupcamp/
