New competition for best app using govt data

SINGAPORE — Aspiring app developers can now submit innovative creations using government data to improve the way residents live, study, work and play in Singapore to a new app competition launched yesterday.

Not only do participants with the best apps stand to win cash prizes — the first prize is S$10,000 — entries with strong business potential will also be eligible to apply for co-funding to sustain the apps, such as with the OneMap GeoIncubation Fund, which provides up to S$20,000 in seed funding for submissions that use OneMap’s application programming interfaces.

The Apps4SG competition was announced by Minister of State (Finance and Transport) Josephine Teo at the inaugural PlugFest International Programming Competition award ceremony.

“The availability of government data in the hands of creative yet responsible developers has created novel services that society can enjoy,” said Mrs Teo, citing SGBuses and WeatherLah as examples of “excellent local apps”.

The competition was initiated by data.gov.sg, a government portal containing over 8,000 data sets from more than 60 government agencies — and OneMap, the government’s geospatial portal. Working apps “of either an online service or mobile app featuring the use of at least one government data set” can be entered into the competition.

One such app that used data from OneMap — which won second place in the PlugFest Institute of Higher Learning Category — aims to let drivers do away with paper coupons by utilising Near Field Communication technology, allowing them to pay for parking through the app and renew the parking anywhere without going back to the vehicle.

The authorities have previously said they are considering if the technology has been found to be feasible.

Said Mr Lim Min Kuan, 25, a third-year student at Nanyang Polytechnic and developer of the Paperless Parking Coupon app: “Our app is able to relate to the problems which most drivers face in Singapore. With the proliferation of smartphones, (it) can also reach out to a large user base ... most of us will be able to benefit from such innovation.”

Winner of the Most Innovative App at the PlugFest awards, The Great Singapore Rat Race, successfully leveraged data from the Ministry of Manpower, Ministry of Education and the Department of Statistics to compare income levels across various occupations and at different stages of users’ careers.

The app’s creator, 31-year-old teacher Seah Ru Hong, explained that his inspiration came during his schooling years “when there were lots of difficulties in career planning and getting reliable information”.

“I hope the usage of the app can have a broad appeal, not just to salaried workers, but also employers to gauge salaries on a competitive level,” Mr Seah added.

The Apps4SG competition is open to Singapore residents of all ages. Entries must be submitted by Oct 1.