#hackINvTX Challenge runs from Jan. 31-Feb. 23
Company Website:
http://www.texas.gov
AUSTIN, Texas -- (Business Wire)
Today, Indiana
and Texas
announce the Indiana Texas Challenge, a battle for bragging rights for
the best government application to serve citizens. The #hackINvTX
Challenge is a contest for the residents of both states to create
applications that support and inspire entrepreneurship and digital
government innovation, encourage government transparency and open data,
and promote interstate collaboration and competition. Each state is
presenting two challenges, four in total, with the winner from each
state earning $4,000. A grand prize champion, that determines which
state wins, will be selected by a national panel from the two challenge
winners. The grand prize winner receives an additional $4,000. The
competition will start on January 31 and conclude on February 23.
Civic hacking is an opportunity for citizens, software developers, and
entrepreneurs to collaborate and create, build, and invent new solutions
using code, technology, and publicly-released data to solve challenges
relevant to neighborhoods, cities, states, or the country.
“This is a chance to encourage our citizens to use their skills to
improve government services,” said Indiana State Chief Information
Officer (CIO) Paul Baltzell. “I believe that the intelligence and skill
of Hoosiers and Texans will shine through and they will develop
innovative solutions to these problems and potentially turn them into
full-blown products. My hope is that some of these teams that form will
eventually turn into businesses and bolster the burgeoning tech-scene in
Indiana.”
Todd Kimbriel, Interim CIO for Texas, said, “We appreciate this
Texas/Indiana challenge and welcome the opportunity to promote Open Data
and Texas government transparency. We thank the Texas civic developer
community for helping us provide citizen access to government
information and services anytime, anywhere. Texans are known for their
inventiveness and creating opportunities from challenges. I am confident
the Texas team will bring forth ideas that are both innovative and
useful.”
Challenge Entries:
Indiana Department of Environmental Management: Create a centralized,
streamlined, and secure platform for receiving, tracking, and
collaborating on permit applications. Significant time in creating
permits is lost in the hand offs between the agency and its
stakeholders. Any system that assists in streamlining the processes and
is transparent for users will benefit all.
Indiana Department of Homeland Security: Develop a method to register
and create a checklist of available/needed services for Hoosiers
visiting a One-Stop-Shop after a disaster.
Texas Department of Family and Protective Services: Provide map-based
results and associated information for child-care operations when using
different search criteria.
Texas Department of Transportation: Develop a mobile application based
on the www.my35.org
approach that enables commuters to plan their travel more effectively
along with the portability that comes with an ever-expanding mobile
device market.
Event Information:
The #hackINvTX Challenge will have a launch event on Saturday, Jan. 31
beginning at 10:00 a.m. ET. The main launch event in Indiana will be on
the campus of IUPUI, with satellite events across the state. The event
at IUPUI will be in the Informatics and Communications Technology
Complex, 535 West Michigan Street; Room 152.
More details about the hackathon, including the location of the Texas
event and rules and full descriptions of the challenges can be found at https://www.hackerleague.org/hackathons/texas-vs-indiana-challenge.
About Indiana
The State of Indiana has partnered with the Indy Chamber and TechPoint
to run the competition for Hoosiers.
The Indy Chamber is the voice of progress and improvement for the
Indianapolis region's business community. With membership of nearly
2,500 businesses representing 230,000 employees in the Indianapolis
region, the Indy Chamber is leading the effort to strengthen the
business climate, improve the state of education, revitalize
neighborhoods and enhance the region's workforce. For more information
about the Indy Chamber, visit IndyChamber.com.
TechPoint is the hub and accelerator for Indiana’s technology
ecosystems, connecting and amplifying the tech community via
TechPoint.org and events throughout the year, attracting and developing
talent via the Xtern and Xpat programs, accelerating startup growth and
providing strategy and research.
About Texas.gov
Texas.gov is the official website of the State of Texas (www.texas.gov)
and is a collaborative public/private partnership managed by the Department
of Information Resources (DIR). Texas.gov
helps state and local government entities web-enable their services and
operates without tax funds through a partnership between the State and Texas
NICUSA, LLC. Texas NICUSA builds, operates, maintains, and markets
Texas.gov and is part of eGovernment firm NIC’s
(NASDAQ: EGOV) family of companies. Since its launch in 2000, Texas.gov
has securely processed more than 234 million financial transactions and
collected more than $32 billion on behalf of participating entities.
About NIC
Founded in 1992, NIC (NASDAQ: EGOV) is the nation's leading provider of official
government websites, online services, and secure
payment processing solutions. The company's innovative eGovernment
services help make government more accessible to everyone through
technology. The family of NIC companies provides eGovernment solutions
for more than 3,500 federal, state, and local agencies in the United
States. Forbes has named NIC as one of the “100 Best Small Companies in
America” five times, most recently ranked at No.11 (2013), and the
company has been included four times on the Barron’s 400 Index.
Additional information is available at http://www.egov.com.
Contacts:
Texas.gov
Jennifer Buaas, 512-463-3602
Texas.gov
Program Manager
jennifer.buaas@dir.texas.gov
or
Graig
Lubsen, 317-232-0618
Communications & Marketing Director
glubsen@iot.in.gov
Source: Texas.gov
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