Last year the State of Illinois, Cook County, and the City of Chicago announced its first-of-its-kind application development competition, “Apps 4 Metro Chicago Illinois (A4MC)”. This was the first government-sponsored apps competition in Chicago, and the first anywhere that included collaboration among three different units of government. Here’s a press release about the competition from the City.
The A4MC competition was run by the Metro Chicago Information Center, which closed in March 2012. The A4MC website is no longer available on the Internet. Here’s a list of as many entries as we could cobble together, along with some basic info about the apps, listed in alphabetical order. We’re certain that we’re missing some things and we’d love to hear any updates about your apps or new projects. Please write me at doneil@cct.org with updates!
42nd Ward Crime answers the question: How safe is your block in the 42nd Ward. Select a block, give your email address and at no charge an alert will be sent to the user’s email automatically whenever an incident is reported.
AllSchedules gives you access to a huge collection of transit schedules, for different transport modes (bus, metro, train, tram ferry, etc.), in multiple cities around the world.
Bikes on Metra – “Can I bring my bike on Metra right now?” is an application that answers this question with a simple text display of “Yes, you can” or “No, you can’t” for each Inbound and Outbound Metra train. This text display tells the user when a bike can or cannot be brought on board a Metra train, help the user find bike parking around Metra stations, and advise them on specific rules and tips for bringing bikes aboard.
Buster is a CTA bus and train tracker application that is designed for the subset of transit users that use the service every day as their main mode of transit.
Chicago and Friends is a social networking online magazine that connects the community through geolocation and Facebook.
Chicago City Crime is an Android application that provides a convenient and simple mechanism for users to quickly get crime information, based on their current location in Chicago. By becoming more aware of how many and what types of crimes have been committed around their area, this allows them to make informed decision and action that will benefit them and their community.
Chicago Crime Viewer helps people find maps of crime in Chicago for a better understanding of neighborhood issues and trends. Quick access to this authoritative information supports real estate, commuting, and situational awareness decision making across the City of Chicago.
Chicago Lobbyists is an open data, open government, and open source project intended to improve the transparency of interactions between the City of Chicago and lobbyists and their clients.
Chicago Local Guide is an Android app meant to help local people as well as tourists find interesting places and points-of-interest near them; locate specials and promotions from local businesses; get updates on cultural, social, and technology events around Chicago; and hear breaking local news.
The Chicago Metro Information (CMI) Real Time Screensaver is an application designed to turn any unused computer screen into an electronic billboard displaying “up-to-the-second” data images for the Chicago Metropolitan Area, such as the forecast, street traffic, and public transportation schedules.
Chicago Recycle Helper is a web application that helps people locate recycling drop-off points for various materials in the Chicago area.
Chicago River Viewer is an interactive mapping web application designed as a one-stop resource, so that anyone interested in learning more about the Chicago Area Waterway System.
Chicago Rider is designed to get you the information you need quickly. See nearby stops, favorite stops, and real time bus schedules at a glance.
Chicago Service Request is a web application that allows you to store additional information about a service request either as a picture, mapped location, and/or note.
Chicago TIF Viewer is a unique map viewer allowing free access to data and services with three features: Tax Increment Financing District Information, Ward Contact Information and US Census 2010 Unemployment Rates.
Chicago Wards I-Map is an interactive map of Chicago which provides ward information for every square foot of the city, which includes the ward number, alderman’s name, telephone number, and office locations.
ChicagoTXT is a text message feature that allows the user to get upcoming train and water taxi departure times to any phone.
ChiTxt provides residents a way to access city information without the need of an internet connection. Anyone who has a cellphone with standard text-messaging can use ChiTxt to get information about city services like health facilities, soup kitchens, and more.
Chicago Public Library (CPL) Mobile is designed to provide easy access to Chicago Public Libraries’ (CPL) resources everywhere for users on mobile devices and tablets.
Crime Alert is a cross-platform web application that serves to alert users of crime in their community and surrounding area as rapidly as possible, and receive information that is relevant to their lives.
FasPark helps drivers find street parking in real time.
FixIt! is a mobile app that allows Chicagoans to report issues, like public property damages, that require city attention. It automatically requests confirmation from participating citizens who are in the area and uses their responses to highlight critical reports while sifting out erroneous ones.
FOIAshare brings together FOIA request logs so viewers can share insight on the information that they have requested, view trends and search for records.
GoChicago grants users the ability to make a list of the places in Chicago they’d like to see, view directions to each place on a map, or call the place for more information.
Got Game? is designed for residents to choose an activity, find parks near them that support the activity and schedule a game, enabling people to meet up and use the facilities at the parks near them.
Heads-Up Chicago pulls together up-to-date information of all the FREE Admission Days at local Chicago Museums and “Kids Eat Free” Days at local Chicago Restaurants, into a clearly outlined monthly calendar and daily planner format. This software will help parents to easily plan their family trips into the city, while helping Chicago organizations and institutions gain exposure while playing a part of creating memorable experiences for families within the Chicago Metro area.
IBikeChicago is an Android app built to support and enhances the biking community in Chicago. The application allows the users to locate bike routes, bike racks, and bike shops in the City of Chicago.
IFindit Chicago is an Android app that is designed to help low income and homeless Chicago residents connect with critical resources such as medical clinics, food pantries, shelters, etc in an easy to use, comprehensive and sharable format.
InThirty is an application used to see what Chicago city transportation resources that a user can access within a thirty-minute train, bus, or bike ride.
LIGHT BULB FINDER empowers consumers to make informed choices based on their own lighting needs and financial priorities. The app estimates the energy savings from changing the bulb and how long it will take for the new bulb to pay for itself. It also calculates a home’s total energy savings potential and environmental impact for recommended bulb replacements.
Green Habit (GHabit) is a social network with a simple goal to inspire people and organizations to create a greener and sustainable habitat. By inspiring green habits, each individual will take action to recycle, reuse and reduce waste, conserve resources, live a healthy lifestyle, demand eco-safe products, be innovative and implement new ideas, and energize the green movement.
MassUp.us is “Chicago’s Social Cycling System” web application that serves communications and navigation information needs for social and personal bicycling. It broadcasts maps, news, weather and more, for smartphones and text messaging. MassUp.us is also used for details about local events (“masses”), to find riders, check conditions, record, share and chat.
Metro Chicago Farmers’ Markets is a tool helping residents find farmers’ markets, identifying and plots on the map, the nearest open farmers market to the current location.
Mi Parque is a bilingual participatory placemaking web and smartphone application that helps residents of the community contribute and share their vision for the future of Little Village’s new parks.
“Mom, We’re Bored” is an application for anyone with children aged 2-12 to help find activities kids will love, going on right now, nearby.
OkCopay is a comparison search engine for medical care that allows users to search for the procedure they need, compare local providers, and view their actual prices. OkCopay hopes to be a trusted resource all Chicagoans can use to find the medical care they need.
OwtSee is an Android based and a web based application that presents information about the Chicago parks and community events in one convenient place.
See How Mobile is an application that calculates how ‘mobile’ any Chicago address is. It determines the distance to the nearest El, Metra, bus, or highway, and then tells good (or bad) those distances are compared to every other location in the city.
Recycle City Chicago is an application that helps Chicago residents recycle by finding the closest recycling drop-off facility and driving direction to that location.
SpotHero is an application that efficiently connects parking demand and parking supply. We allow parking spot owners to earn income by renting their spot when it’s unoccupied.
Spothole is an ongoing project to create tools to enable Chicago residents to more conveniently participate in the process of maintaining their neighborhoods’ streets, starting with Logan Square.
SweepAround.US helps Chicagoans find out when residential street sweeping will next occur in their neighborhood, and allows them to sign up for email or text message reminders or subscribe to calendar feeds.
Taxi Share Chicago is an application designed to increase efficiency, reduce CO2 emissions and cut down on already congested streets and highways. The app allows users to find each other and share a cab to popular destinations around the city and to the major airports.
Techno Finder helps you find public WiFi near your location by using a cell phone or home phone, the web, or smart phone.
Thank you Officer is a web-based application initiative with the goal to mail a physical personal thank-you card to every police officer in Chicago, and let them know that we appreciate them.
TrailBlaze Chicago records and anonymously reports your bicycle tracks, allowing you to vote for new paths simply by carrying your phone while you bike.
Transit Stop: CTA Tracker is a quick and easy access to bus and train arrival time estimates for every Chicago Transit Authority bus and train stop.
Transitsocial -Transit Social is a unique and new place to search public transportation and socialize.
TreKing (Chicago) is an Android app that supports all four major transit systems in Chicago.
Vacant and Abandoned Building Finder is a tool for helping people and organizations find buildings in Chicago that are not in use and are potentially hazardous to the neighborhood.
WasMyCarTowed.com is a single-serving website that lets Chicagoans quickly answer the question, “Was my car towed?”
What’s Driving Costing You in Chicago? is a compact simple tool designed to educate divers about their driving costs. This tool provides map data including optional live traffic conditions and specific route information between start and end locations.
@smartchicago
/smartchicago
+smartchicago