I think that an app contest raises the profile of projects like this and provides incentive for some people/businesses to take the time to build an app. A business might very well be able to justify their *money* investment just for the PR of promoting their app. Huh, sounds kind of like what the City of Vancouver is experiencing right now as it gets free earned media around the globe! :P

Having a prize for best business use of the data can perhaps spur some of the entries in the right direction. Think of it as seed capital to get the ecosystem going.

Some simple things like free hosting, or reserving some likely top level domain names so that “free” subdomains could be given out, might be starting points for making it more likely that some sustainable projects start and continue.

First, the post was not meant as a wag of the finger – but a recognition that there needs to be uptake, by anyone (coders, academics, bike advocates, etc..) for the city to want to invest. Just like when the city offers services through its community centres, if no one comes and uses them, those resources get redeployed.

I also agree that there can be real economic value generated by open data (a point that was written into the Open Motion) and we should be asking how to we enable more apps (that get maintained) to be created. I'm not persuaded that an Apps for Democracy contest is the best way. I'm open to the idea, but having the city or sponsors inject 10K once every year (or less frequently) won't create a sustainable business model. It is great for proof of concept, but I think that's already been done. We know apps can be interesting, the question is what business models will it support, a competition won't answer that question (as far as I can tell – but again, I'm open to the idea and have been thinking about it as a next step for the city).

I'm sensitive to the fact that the resources it takes to open this data are competing with funding to fill potholes and make other tangible changes that many other wants. I don't want the point I'm making to detract from the awesome job the City of Vancouver has done. I'm just wondering if the kick in the ass encouraging us to take advantage of the opportunity can be delivered without threats of taking away our ability to play with our very meaningful toys, because it continues to put government in the position of having the “power” through the data/information and citizens being told to play ball or stop whining, which doesn't sound all that collaborative or, frankly, much fun either.

But waggling your finger and saying “use it or lose it” is not, I think the correct approach. In most open source projects, unless there is continued economic drivers, it is very hard for a project to continue. Growing a commercial ecosystem is healthy.

It's great to see Sandy from HomeZilla here. This is an example of economic value seen by one commercial entity. How do we attract more? How do we maintain the apps that do get created?

I'd love to see a contest with prizes to motivate people to set up some usage of this data with real longevity. I think the Apps for Democracy contest in DC was a good example of this.

HomeZilla is going to be integrating some of the Vancouver data this weekend. We are working on a way to give some 'cred' to Open Vancouver for the data we are going to use.

Thanks for a great post!