$60,000 to 4 winners-- $15,000 each. Very large prizes for a civic app contest.

1. OFFICE OF THE GOVERNOR
PAT QUINN
For Immediate Release
Wednesday, June 26, 2013
Contact
Press Line: (312) 814-3158
Brooke Anderson Brooke.Anderson@illinois.gov
Grant Klinzman Grant.Klinzman@illinois.gov
Governor Quinn Announces Winners of
Illinois Open Technology Challenge
Unprecedented Release and Compilation of Municipal Government Data
Fuels Competition to Develop Civic-Minded Apps
CHICAGO – Governor Pat Quinn announced today the winning entries in the pilot competition of the
Illinois Open Technology Challenge (ILOpenTech). A total of $60,000 was awarded to four winning teams of
developers who created digital tools that utilize open government data for the benefit of Illinois residents and
their communities.
Each winning entry was awarded $15,000 and was focused on one of three pilot locations –
Champaign, Belleville and a group of South Suburban communities under the auspices of the South Suburban
Mayors and Managers Association (SSMMA) – as well as an entry designed for use statewide. The city of
Rockford also participated as a fourth pilot community, playing host to a series of developer meet-ups.
Rockford’s participation will culminate in an open tech app hackathon later this month, the winner(s) of which
will receive a $15,000 prize.
“We commend these enterprising developers for applying their skills toward making municipal
government more transparent and accessible for Illinoisans,” Governor Quinn said. “This first-of-its-kind
initiative clearly demonstrates that Illinois is taking a national leadership role in embracing digital government
and promoting open data, which is spurring more innovation and economic development statewide.”
Winning entries of the competition include:
• State of Illinois: iApplied, a web app that tracks job application activity in an effort to help government
unemployment security workers streamline the review process for unemployment insurance benefits.
• Belleville: Belleville Code, a centralized easy-to-navigate website containing the Revised City
Ordinances of Belleville. An essential tool for anyone interested in economic development and
entrepreneurship, the website’s content was previously only available within 1,000 pages of PDFs
housed on the City Clerk’s website.
• Champaign: C-U There!, a “tour guide” app for iPhone that features local news and event feeds,
comprehensive parking location information and directories of historic landmarks and local businesses
in Champaign-Urbana.

2. • SSMMA: South Suburbs Housing Investment Tool, an online tool that allows users to analyze, score
and rank potential housing development projects according to their proposed location. The tool also
superimposes the data on a fully navigable map.
“It is my hope that iApplied will reduce government staff workloads, encourage unemployment
beneficiaries to apply for jobs and ultimately make more efficient use of taxpayer dollars,” said Tyron Foston of
Park Forest, who developed iApplied. “If it improves unemployment benefit operations in Illinois, iApplied could
be adopted by other states around the nation.”
Foston decided to create iApplied after speaking with some of his unemployed friends and realizing a
need for a more effective, streamlined system to verify eligibility for unemployment benefits. He consulted with
businesses and municipal employees who provided positive feedback on the tool. Foston plans to use the
award money to further develop iApplied to bring it to market.
ILOpenTech is an initiative of Governor Quinn’s Illinois Innovation Council and is managed by the
Illinois Science & Technology Coalition (ISTC) in partnership with the Smart Chicago Collaborative. The
program is focused on making Illinois’ open data platform, Data.Illinois.Gov, available and applicable to
communities statewide through trainings, community meet-ups and hackathons, bringing together technology
developers with civic leaders and community groups. The challenge was sponsored by the Chicago
Community Trust, Comcast, Google, Illinois Innovation Council, John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and
The Motorola Mobility Foundation.
ILOpenTech is the state’s first sustained, engaged initiative outside the Chicago metro area to work
hands-on with local governments and developers on the collection and publication of open data. It has created
a strong foundation for starting or accelerating open data projects statewide by helping municipalities
understand the nuts and bolts of using open data to drive innovation.
In advance of the competition, ILOpenTech worked with 12 government IT professionals in the four pilot
communities to compile and publish 138 new sets of data about local government operations to
Data.Illinois.Gov: 34 in Champaign, 15 in Rockford, 12 in Belleville and 77 from the 42 communities in the
SSMMA.
“We are excited to explore ways that SSMMA and our member communities can apply the South
Suburbs Housing Investment Tool to the housing development process,” said Ed Paesel, executive director of
the SSMMA. “ILOpenTech has galvanized South Suburban communities to strengthen their commitment to
open data and increased government transparency.”
“Throughout this first phase of ILOpenTech, we’ve seen the tremendous opportunity in gathering and
packaging local government data in new ways that are useful to the general public,” said ISTC President and
CEO Mark Harris. “By fostering partnerships between municipal governments and the Illinois developer
community, we can increase transparency and accessibility, and spark innovation in both government and
business.”
About the Illinois Science & Technology Coalition
The Illinois Science & Technology Coalition (ISTC) is a member-driven, nonprofit organization that works to
cultivate and attract research and technology-based investment, talent and job growth in the state. Through
strategic public-private partnerships, advocacy efforts and project management, ISTC connects government,
academia and industry to leverage the state’s world-class resources to enhance Illinois’ position as a global
hub for research, innovation and entrepreneurship. For more information, visit www.istcoalition.org
About the Smart Chicago Collaborative
The Smart Chicago Collaborative is an initiative that helps build the long-term capacity of the city of Chicago
and its neighborhoods to realize the transformative potential of information technology. For more information,
visit www.smartchicagocollaborative.org
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