The Gist:
RIT along with AT&T, Digital Rochester, High Tech Rochester, and Hack Upstate will be hosting a 60 day app creation challenge based around creating an app that exposes civic resources to the average citizen [Link Here]. Every sponsor of the event is clearly stating that they are doing it to once again start up Rochester's tech sector, hopefully bringing it back to the peak of the Kodak and Xerox years.
The Good:
- The fact that recognition of the tech community in Rochester is happening from companies
- The promotion of creating a more transparent government to help facilitate communication with citizens
- The promotion of the Open Source Initiative
The Bad:
- The challenge lasts an entire 60 days, which leaves ideas to a test of time. If a developer loses their passion for an idea the overall challenge loses a bit of quality.
- The press conference looked more like companies trying to improve their public image
- The Open Source Initiative was mentioned, rather than the Free Software Foundation (It seems that this is a recurring bulletin in "The Bad" for my posts)
Overall attending the conference was a good experience. It helped me realize who would be looking at the apps that are created during the challenge.