Last week, as part of the Apps for Climate Action competition (which is open to anyone in Canada), I interviewed the always awesome Luke Closs. Luke, along with Kevin Jones, created VanTrash, a garbage pick up reminder app that uses open data from the City of Vancouver. In it, Luke shares some of the lessons learned while creating an application using open data.

As the deadline for the Apps for Climate Action competition approaches (August 8th) we thought this might help those who are thinking about throwing their hat in the ring last minute.

Some key lessons from Luke:

• Don’t boil the ocean: Keep it simple – do one thing really, really well.
• Get a beta up fast: Try to scope something you can get a rough version working in day or evening – that is a sure sign that it is doable
• Beta test: On friends and family. A lot.
• Keep it fun: do something that develops a skill or let’s you explore a technology you’re interested in