Monday, May 6, 2013

MTA App Quest Hackathon Recap

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Wow, what an amazing hackathon! There were great apps built this weekend; I am very impressed with what was built. These developers only had 24 hours to build their apps and have something ready to show off. Congratulations to the first, second, and third place prize winners; SubCulture.Fm, MTA Sheriff, and ACCESSWAY. These apps will truly impact the New York City's mass transit in a bright way. Check out below for a quick summary of what's cooking in the app division of NYC public transit.

SubCulture.Fm is an iOS app that allows you to interact with subway musicians. The app mostly works through QR codes. Each artist would have a QR code that the user would scan. This would give the user information about the artist; such as social media, albums and songs, etc. You can share information about the musician using Facebook or Twitter. The app also allows you to track nearby musicians, and even where your favorite musician will be playing. SubCulture.Fm won first place at the hackathon.

MTA Sheriff is a quick and easy gamified way to report issues within the MTA's system. As you report more issues, your character upgrades until you become the "MTA Sheriff".

ACCESSWAY is an iOS way-finding app to help visually-impaired or wheelchair-assisted New Yorkers find their way in the NYC Subway. It allows you to track elevator and exit status. The app currently looks pretty good, but should try and implement real time status updates.

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