The Challenge is to come up with a functioning application that leverages Open Data in an innovative and diverse way. The application should be related to one or more of these Smart City topics: Urban Mobility, Energy & emissions, Culture & tourism, Shopping & Retail and Collaborative city.
The City of Helsinki is a pioneer is opening its data repositories. Vast numbers of data sets are already available through the Helsinki Region Infoshare service (HRI). Now the city wants to encourage developers to come up with new kinds of applications, visualisations and dashboards using Open Data. For example shedding light on what is taking place in Helsinki or how things are evolving. Or mobile applications, that help tourists find interesting locations and events. Or allowing citizens to take part in the public decision making processes. The City of Helsinki encourages user-oriented and diverse use of the Open Data sets available in the HRI service, especially the open APIs. As a source of inspiration and assistance for developers the city is showcasing potential ideas, data sets and contact points related to the five Smart City topics. The additional information and links to other open data resources available on the Helsinki Smart City App Hack page.
Use your imagination and build an app using Smart City data!
The Helsinki Smart City App Hack competition is a part of the Open Finland Challenge. All works that answer the challenges of the City of Helsinki take part in the Helsinki Smart City App Hack competition in addition to the main – national level – Open Finland Challenge.
However, the Smart City App Hack has an additional benefit for developers! If your Helsinki-related app wins the Helsinki Smart City App competition on October 26th you will get a free trip to the Barcelona Smart City Expo World Congress on November 17th to 19th – to compete with apps from around the world for additional prizes. The Smart City Expo in Barcelona will give special awards to apps that leverage FIWARE and Mastercard resources, so check those out also.
You can also take part in the Ultrahack 48 hour hackathon to compete for additional prizes and a chance to pitch at the Slush event in November.
What can you win ?
GRAND CHAMPION
All paid trip to Barcelona + direct slot to pitch your app in the Grand SCAH Finale at the Smart City Word Expo in Barcelona in Nov2015 + Nomination to the Mobile Premier Awards 2016 + the chance to win more great prizes!
* The others finalists will still have the opportunity to be selected as one of the remaining slots for the 15 finalists to present at the Grand SCAH Finale on November 2015, in Barcelona (see below).
Global SCAH Prizes
MASTERCARD SPECIAL PRIZE
Spot in the Grand Finale of the MasterCard Masters of Code in Silicon Valley + airfare + accommodation + the chance to win more great prizes!
5 x BEST APP PRIZES
5.000€ cash prizes for the Best App in each of the five categories of the challenge.
BEST FIWARE APP PRIZE
Accelerate your app in the market (more than 150K€ in grants) and make it visible at the Mobile World Congress 2016. The less you can get is 10.000 €! Learn more.
Important Dates
HELSINKI CHALLENGES
These challenge descriptions will be updated with specific sources of inspiration and recent data sets during June. The five categories are Urban mobility, Energy & Emission, Culture & Tourism, Shopping & Retail and Collaborative City.
Urban mobility
Traffic and transportation is a major challenge of any urban environment where density, infrastructure, public transportation, weather and layout all play a major role. While each city has its own challenges, this theme focuses on how better access to information and services can lead to more efficient and effective mobility in the city.
Your brief:
Solutions for Urban Mobility should deal with, but are not limited to the following aspects:
- inform users on traffic condition.
- guide users in choosing the right means of transportation
- help promote the use of sustainable mobility.
| API | Description |
| HSL Developer Community | HSL Developer Community is open for all individuals and organisations interested in the Open Data and Open Source software regarding Helsinki Region Transport HSL or wider. HSL is the public authority that plans and procures the public transport (ferry, tram, metro, train, bus) within its member municipalities (Helsinki, Vantaa, Espoo, Kauniainen, Kirkkonummi, Kerava, and Sipoo). Contact person: tuukka.hastrup@hsl.fi. |
| Traffic Volumes in Helsinki | This dataset provides data on the volume of traffic in Helsinki since 2011. |
| Metropolitan area travel time matrix | The metropolitan travel time matrix provides the time taken to travel from one place to another in the city by foot, public transport and car. |
| Other traffic open data | List of numerous traffic related APIs on the Avoindata.fi portal for Helsinki and rest of Finland |
Ideas for inspiration
“Create an app for winter bicyclists, that combines data about scheduled cleanups (Ylre) with realtime data about the snow ploughs (Stara) and weather. You can also include information about road works (Winkki) and public events (Linked Events) that may cause disturbance on the routes. Feedback about winter maintenance or other issues can be sent to the city from the app through the Open311 interface. Building registry data can be used to offer routes e.g. through residential areas rather than industrial zones.”
“Create an app that informs people when they need to move their car (to prevent it from being towed away). The user could be notified by the app whenever the city is planning to clean up the streets (puhdistussuunitelmat API) or when there are scheduled road works (Winkki API)”
Energy & Emission
As most of humanity moves to live in cities, energy efficiency and emissions control becomes a critical factor for our health as individuals, communities and as a planet. While many aspects of this issue are quite systemic and technology-driven, significant changes can take place from changes in our behaviour. How can we know more, spend less and live better are key questions and answers for advancement.
Your brief:
Solutions for Energy and Emissions should deal with, but are not limited to the following aspects:
- help cut wasteful energy consumption
- give tools to reduce energy spendings
- improve transparency and visualization of energy consumption
- provide Hints and tips on saving energy
- facilitate automation and control of energy consumption of electronic home devices
| API | Description |
| Helsinki region waste and emissions statistics | Various statistics on the Helsinki and metropolitan region emissions, noise pollution, air quality, recycling and other indicators. Contact email: avoindata@hsy.fi |
| Energy consumption and emissions statistics | Various statistics on emissions and energy in the Helsinki city. Contact email: petteri.huuska@hel.fi |
| Other environment related statistics | List of various environment related statistics in the HRI data catalogue |
Solar Energy App – Analyze the Helsinki energy consumption data (Helen) to find a customer segment, that would benefit from installing solar panels on their rooftops. The Suvilahti solar plant energy production data and Fingrid hourly energy prices data could be useful in the analysis.
Culture & Tourism
Enjoying the cultural offer of a city is paramount to the wellbeing of citizens and a positive travel experience of visitors. The culture and tourism theme aims to harness the potential of mobile applications to give new impulses to the culture in the City. Here you will find the tools to create an app that facilitates access to the culture and supports the artistic talent of the city. Start creating your innovative solution and our mentors will help you throughout the process to make your app a reality!
Your brief:
Solutions for Culture and Tourism should deal with, but are not limited to the following aspects:
- give access to the cultural agenda to all citizens and visitors in your city
- help artists and any cultural agent in their work
- connect makers of culture with their audience
- offer personalized experiences for visitors
- facilitate meaningful connections between visitors and citizens
- help manage the flow of visitors in a city
| API | Description |
| Linked Events | Linked Events provides categorized data in a on events and places for the Helsinki capital region. Contact info: aapo.rista@forumvirium.fi, mobile: +358 40 674 0440. |
| Metropolitan service map register
|
REST API to all the metropolitan area public service locations. The same API is used for the city’s real time service map: http://palvelukartta.hel.fi/. Contact info: juha.yrjola@hel.fi, mobile: +358 503 066 955 |
| Statistics on tourists in Helsinki | Monthly statistics on tourist related data in Helsinki. |
Create a live events application using the Linked Events API. The user could see the events on a map and, for example, filter them based on time, place, type of event and organizer. The event info could be enriched with weather forecast data and estimated travel time and public transport info.
Create a “One day in Helsinki” app. The app could focus on cruise guests and other tourists who visit Helsinki only for one day. What kind of needs could these tourists have? The app could use for example public transport info, events info (Linked events), restaurant and bar information and other useful information.
Shopping is a core activity of our daily lives and one that still offers the chance to stroll, browse and interact with fellow citizens making each experience unique. Apps can enhance that experience giving it a social dimension, facilitating discovery or easing comparison and transaction.
Think of shopping as a process and you quickly see the abundant opportunities for mobile app solutions: from “Pre-Shopping” (explore, discover) to “Shopping” (find, experience, purchase) to “Post-Shopping” (share, evaluate).
Luckily we have great mentors from the world of retail, payments and technology that will support you in this journey across Fashion, Food, Beauty, Restaurants, Leisure and so much more!
Your brief:
Solutions for Retail and Shopping should deal with, but are not limited to the following aspects:
- help consumers make better choices
- connect local businesses with customers
- create solutions for a sustainable consumption
- add a social layer to the overall shopping experience
| API | Description |
| Cafe and restaurant data | Data set containing the information on all locations that serve or prepare food in Helsinki. Contact email: ymk@hel.fi |
| Metropolitan service map register | REST API to all the metropolitan area public service locations. The same API is used for the city’s real time service map: http://palvelukartta.hel.fi/. Contact info: juha.yrjola@hel.fi, mobile: +358 503 066 955 |
| Travel time matrix | The metropolitan travel time matrix provides the time taken to travel in the city by foot, public transport and car |
Collaborative City
When it comes to defining cities, citizenship participation is paramount. In a collaborative city, local communities come together to address some of their own challenges in a collaborative way. Whether it is caring for our young, old and ill or tendering to the socially excluded apps can provide solutions at scale. The collaborative city connects citizens with the decision making process in all questions of public affairs. It offers it residents tools to actively shape their communities.
Why should you care? With over 80% of the world population living in cities solutions for a more collaborative city not only will have a huge societal impact. It might well be the only way forward.
Your brief:
Solutions for the collaborative city should deal with, but are not limited to the following aspects:
- enable users to take part in the making-decision process.
- allow users to make informed decisions.
- help users to report their opinions around specific communal issues.
- empower users to create their own tools and solutions.
- improve efficiency and efficacy of the citizens’ participation process.
| API | Description |
| Open City Decisions | The thousands of decisions in Helsinki made every month in various parts of the organization are now available in structured format in the Open Ahjo API. Contact info: juha.yrjola@hel.fi, mobile: +358 503 066 955 |
| Temporary use of public spaces | The Winkki database provides geolocated information on all public works and events in public spaces (permissions for terraces, events, etc). Contact: joonas.pekkanen@hel.fi |
| Database of public areas | The Ylre dataset provides the register of public areas in the City of Helsinki. The register is maintained by the City of Helsinki Public Works Department. It includes information about streets and green space areas. Contact: joonas.pekkanen@hel.fi |
| Helsinki public issue reporting | Helsinki uses the international Open311 standard for its public feedback / issue reporting channel. This allows third party apps (e.g. Metro Fiksaa) to build feedback channels that all use the same data. Contact: joonas.pekkanen@hel.fi |
| Helsinki buidings in 3D | Map of 3D Buildings (LOD1) in the City of Helsinki and other map data. Contact: joonas.pekkanen@hel.fi |
Got and idea but no team? Want to be up to date?
Please leave your email if you want to be notified about updates related to the Helsinki Smart City App Hack. You can also suggest an idea you have, but do not have the time or team members needed to realize it. We can help you find people to do it with or for you.
Submit your idea
If you are ready to submit your concept already, you can do it here.
More information
We will update this page with more detailed sources of inspiration and links to specific data sets related to the Helsinki challenges in all five topics. In the meanwhile, please contact the Helsinki Smart City App Hack coordinator Joonas Pekkanen, joonas.pekkanen@forumvirium.fi, if you have any questions.
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