If you are considering organizing a conference, contest or long-term initiative with programmers to encourage innovation and create applications with open data, this recent series of best practices may serve as inspiration. Take note.
In hackathon format. If the purpose is to create a community among programmers, conduct a quick experiment or, alternatively, you want to draw attention to a particular problem for a short period of time, holding a hackathon suitably meets these objectives. Just remember that its main limitation is that, with few exceptions, the initiatives that emerge often lack continuity.
An example of best practice that proposed to turn this limitation around from the outset is theEdinburgh Apps, the first civic competition organized by the local Edinburgh government (City of Edinburgh Council). This event has placed this municipality among the most innovative in Scotland for three main reasons. First, because in addition to programmers, designers, journalists, entrepreneurs and groups with a direct interest, it was decided to involve other municipal officers, civil servants involved in the management of information, digitization, administrative technology, open government and citizen service. The large representation of public managers helped to make Edinburgh become a benchmark and inspiration.
In addition, the organizers made it clear from the beginning that they didn’t want it to be a one-off, isolated initiative. Municipal officers explained how they are actually working to expand the open data sources, and individuals in senior roles in the council made the most of this contest to publicize the official open data strategy that Edinburgh is following. That is, they showed “everything behind it”.
Finally, and very importantly, several of the projects managed to achieve business continuity as start-ups. For example Neatbox, which aids urban transit for pedestrians with impaired vision. This is a small device installed at junctions that connects, firstly, with the signal of traffic lights that have a push button for pedestrians and, secondly, with the phone of any user. So when a blind person reaches the zebra crossing, their cell phone activates the green man without having to search to press the button. Or Airts, a project that combines local data on support services with private data of companies in need of logistics, warehousing and distribution to multiply the effectiveness of their services and workforce or better distribute resource allocation in a project.
In app challenge format. An app programmingchallenge has the advantage that, with less time constraints and physical presence than a traditional hackathon, it is closer to the ideal framework of involving developers to create lasting solutions, finding more allies in the government and among the business network, and the possibility of finding better data sets to work on.
Here’s an example that is still current. The phone operator AT&T has a particular interest in the convergence between telephony and vehicle traffic and navigation. Its application AT&T DriveMode seeks to reduce distractions caused by incoming calls and messages. Being one of the member companies of the New York City Lab, AT&T has teamed up with a consortium of technology companies, public agencies and several universities to organize an app contest designed to reduce the almost 15,000 accidents between vehicles and pedestrians (including cyclists) that occurred in 2013 in New York.
Connected Intersections, which is the name given to the challenge, part of a well-documented hypothesis on the effect of the distractions caused by mobile devices while driving and how to apply those technologies to improve the safety of pedestrians. Participants must start from the data from this study to design their proposals, with the requirement that the application does not distract users, but does alert them while carrying their smartphone. Great care has therefore been taken in order to have access to high-quality data: from information relating to vehicle collisions collected by the NYPD to the state of highways and urban roads, speech recognition APIs from participating companies, open data from the Department of Transportation, real-time traffic cameras or software development kits like Google Glass, Pebble, Samsung and many others. Organizers will distribute 50,000 dollars in prizes, and everything — beginning with the technical requirements — is described accurately and specifically to ensure that the projects meet the organizers’ expectations.
Code for… Civic programmers integrated in the government . These medium- and long-term innovation programs (that are increasingly widespread) are based on the goodwill of a group of programmers to create and donate technology solutions that solve local problems and that of a local government that welcomes them to find out the intricacies of institutions and enable them to detect obstacles in public services that can be solved with a technical solution.
We have already discussed the examples of Code for América, Code for Europe and othershere . Code for Germany is in its infancy, and the Mexican case may serve to illustrate some best practices in terms of implementation. Código para la Ciudad de México (Código CDMX) is a call from Laboratorio para la Ciudad, the area of civic innovation and urban creativity within the Federal District government, which is dedicated to promoting the creative capital of Mexico City as does the MediaLab-Prado de Madrid: that brings together people from different disciplines around a forum for innovation and development of ideas. The particularity of this case – as the blog YoGobierno.org points out – is that, while Code for America and similar organizations emerge from civil society, Laboratorio para la Ciudad and Código CDMX emerge from the Mexico City government. It was the government who “came out to seek” the support and expertise of citizens, and formalized this with the signing of a letter of intent between Miguel Angel Mancera, head of the Federal District Government, and Nigel Jacob, representative of Code for America. Código CDMX invited two different groups – developers on a full-time basis and university students on a part-time basis – to carry out a nine-month immersion. Each of the six developers (chosen from 256 candidates) had two university student volunteers (from 104 candidates) on their team.
The result of this immersion in the local administrative machinery has beensix recently-presentedopen code applications. Traxi (from the Ministry of Transportation and Highways) is a mobile app for choosing safe taxis with high-quality service. By simply entering the taxi’s license plate number, you can find out if it has any outstanding fines, complaints or poor scores, and it includes a “panic button” and localization if you feel threatened. Verifícalo (Ministry for the Environment) is for drivers to look up their inspection obligations, payments and driving limitations. Cuídate and Chécate aquí (Health) promote healthy activities informing you of events or showing you the clinic, hospital or health center closest to your location, the services they provide, their opening times and phone number. Check out the other apps here .
And back to the basics… the data
Involve other actors, encourage the business continuity of ideas, show the long-term open data strategy… But don’t forget that if you organize an event, contest or program to develop applications with open data, everything begins by providing quality data to motivate participants. The prize or compensation is not the only incentive: projects must have a civic or commercial purpose that is appealing to all. Remember that there are ways and means to open data. For your contest with open data make sure you release large amounts of high-quality data, include an accurate description of the data sets provided, make the data freely available to anyone (and if there are exceptions, define them well), use accessible formats, encourage their reuse and distribution, facilitate the publication of linked data and ensure that the data are as current as possible.
In a connected world, APIs are the glue that keeps all the parts that form our day-to-day lives in place. The same way the power of glue depends on the material it is used on and the knowledge of its properties, APIs are only as useful as their documentation allows for.
There are different solutions to monitor the performance of an API, in terms of traffic, quality and speed of the answers it provides. Detecting faults in the code or quantifying the generated revenues are also some of the options offered by these useful tools.
App users must be aware that a button... is in fact a clickable button. Therefore, app buttons must be designed in such a way that users should feel invited to interact with the interface and actually click on it.
Please, if you can't find it, check your spam folder
×
The email message with your ebook is on the way
We have sent you two messages. One with the requested ebook and one to confirm your email address and start receiving the newsletter and/or other commercial communications from BBVA API_Market
×
PROCESSING OF PERSONAL DATA
Who is the Data Controller of your personal data?
Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria, S.A. (“BBVA“) with registered address at Plaza de San Nicolás 4, 48005, Bilbao, España and Tax ID number A-48265169 . Email address: contact.bbvaapimarket@bbva.com
What for and why does BBVA use your personal data for?
For those activities among the following for which you give your consent by checking the corresponding box:
to receive newsletter from BBVA API_Market through electronic means;
to send you commercial communications, events and surveys relating to BBVA API_Market to the e-mail address you have provided.
For how long we will keep your data?
We will keep your data until you unsubscribe from receiving our newsletter or, if applicable, the commercial communications, events and surveys to which you have subscribed. Whether you unsubscribe or whether BBVA decides to end the service, your details will be deleted.
How can I unsubscribe to stop receiving newsletters and/or communications from BBVA API_Market?
You can unsubscribe at any time and without need to indicate any justification, by sending an email to the following address: contact.bbvaapimarket@bbva.com
To whom will we communicate your data?
We will not transfer your personal data to third parties, unless it is mandatory by a law or if you have previously agreed to do so.
What are your rights when you provide us with your information?
You will be able to consult your personal data included in BBVA files (access right)
You can modify your personal data when they are inaccurate (correction right)
You may request that your personal data not be processed (opposition right)
You may request your personal data be deleted (suppression right)
You can request a limitation on the processing of your data in the allowed cases (right of limitation of processing)
You will be able to receive, in electronic format, the personal data you have provided to us, as well as to transmit them to another entity (portability right)
You are responsible for the accuracy of the personal data you provide to BBVA and to keep them duly updated. If you believe that we have not processed your personal data in accordance with regulations, you can contact the Data Protection Officer of BBVA at the following address dpogrupobbva@bbva.com.
You can find more information in the “Personal Data Protection Policy” document on this website.
×
PROCESSING OF PERSONAL DATA
Who is the Data Controller of your personal data? Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria, S.A (“BBVA“), with registered address at Plaza de San Nicolás 4, 48005, Bilbao, España, and Tax ID No. A-48265169. Email address:contact.bbvaapimarket@bbva.com
What for and why does BBVA use your personal data for?
For the execution and management of your request, specifically, download the requested e-book/s.
BBVA informs you that, unless you indicate your opposition by sending an email to the following address: contact.bbvaapimarket@bbva.com, BBVA may send you commercial communications, surveys and events related to products and/or services of BBVA API Market through electronic means.
For how long we will keep your data?
We will keep your data as long as necessary for the management of your request, and to receive commercial communications, events and surveys. BBVA will keep your data until you unsubscribe to stop receiving our newsletters or, where appropriate, until the end of the service. Afterwards, we will destroy your data.
How can I unsubscribe to stop receiving newsletters and/or communications from BBVA API Market?
You can unsubscribe at any time and without need to indicate any justification, by sending an email to the following address: contact.bbvaapimarket@bbva.com
To whom will we communicate your data?
We will not transfer your personal data to third parties, unless it is mandatory by a law or if you have previously agreed to do so.
What are your rights when you provide us with your information?
You will be able to consult your personal data included in BBVA files (access right)
You can modify your personal data when they are inaccurate (correction right)
You may request that your personal data not be processed (opposition right)
You may request your personal data be deleted (suppression right)
You can request a limitation on the processing of your data in the allowed cases (right of limitation of processing)
You will be able to receive, in electronic format, the personal data you have provided to us, as well as to transmit them to another entity (portability right)
You can exercise before BBVA the aforementioned rights through the following address: contact.bbvaapimarket@bbva.com
You are responsible for the accuracy of the personal data you provide to BBVA and to keep them duly updated.
If you believe that we have not processed your personal data in accordance with the regulations, you can contact the Data Protection Officer at the following address: dpogrupobbva@bbva.com
You can find more information in the “Personal Data Protection Policy” document on this website.
Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria, S.A. owner of this portal uses cookies and/or similar technologies of its own and third parties for the purposes of personalization, analytics, behavioral advertising or advertising related to your preferences based on a profile prepared from your browsing habits (e.g. pages visited). If you wish to obtain more detailed information, consult our Cookies Policy.
Cookie settings panel
These are the advanced settings for first-party and third-party cookies. Here you can change the parameters that will affect your browsing experience on this website.
Technical Cookies (required)
These cookies are used to give you secure access to areas with personal information and to identify you when you log in.
Name
Owner
Duration
Description
gobp.lang
BBVA
1 month
Language preference
aceptarCookies
BBVA
1 year
Configuration Accepted Cookies
_abck
BBVA
1 year
Helps protect against malicious website attacks
bm_sz
BBVA
4 hours
Helps protect against malicious website attacks
ADRUM_BTs
Salesforce Marketing Cloud
Session
Required for monitoring of the service, inherent to SFMC
ADRUM_BT1
Salesforce Marketing Cloud
Session
Required for monitoring of the service, inherent to SFMC
ADRUM_BTa
Salesforce Marketing Cloud
Session
Required for monitoring of the service, inherent to SFMC
ADRUM_BT
Salesforce Marketing Cloud
Session
Required for monitoring of the service, inherent to SFMC
xt_0d95e
Salesforce Marketing Cloud
Session
Remember user preferences (if any)
__s9744cdb192d044faa1bf201d29fafd1e
Salesforce Marketing Cloud
Session
Remember user preferences (if any)
wpml_browser_redirect_test
WPML
Session
Text translation in the portal
wp-wpml_current_language
WPML
24 hours
Text translation in the portal
They are used to track the activity or number of visits anonymously. Thanks to them we can constantly improve your browsing experience
Your browsing experience is constantly improving.
With your selection, we cannot offer you a continuously improved browsing experience.
Name
Owner
Duration
Description
AMCV_***
Adobe Analytics
Session
Unique Visitor IDs used in Cloud Marketing solutions
AMCVS_***
Adobe Analytics
2 years
Unique Visitor IDs used in Cloud Marketing solutions
demdex (safari)
Adobe Analytics
180 days
Create and store unique and persistent identifiers
sessionID
Adobe Analytics
Session
Launch's internal cookie used to identify the user
gpv_URL
Adobe Analytics
Session
Adobe Analytics plugin: getPreviousValue Capture the value of a certain variable in the following page view, in this case the prop1
gpv_level1
Adobe Analytics
Session
Cookie used to store the DataLayer levl1 of the previous page.
gpv_pageIntent
Adobe Analytics
Session
Cookie used to store the pageIntent of the previous page.
gpv_pageName
Adobe Analytics
Session
Cookie used to store the pagename of the previous page.
aocs
Adobe Analytics
Session
Cookie that stores the first values collected at the beginning of a process.
TTC
Adobe Analytics
Session
Cookie used to store the time between the App Page Visit event and the App Completed event.
TTCL
Adobe Analytics
Session
Cookie used to store the time between the LogIn event and App Completed.
s_cc
Adobe Analytics
Session
Determine if cookies are active
s_hc
Adobe Analytics
Session
Cookie used by Adobe for analytical purposes
s_ht
Adobe Analytics
Session
Cookie used by Adobe for analytical purposes
s_nr
Adobe Analytics
2 years
Determine the number of user visits
s_ppv
Adobe Analytics
Permanent
Adobe Analytics plugin: getPercentPageViewed Determine what percentage of the page a user views
s_sq
Adobe Analytics
Session
ClickMap/ActivityMap features
s_tp
Adobe Analytics
Session
Cookie used by Adobe for analytical purposes
s_visit
Adobe Analytics
2 years
Cookie used by Adobe to know when a session has been started.
They allow the advertising shown to you to be customized and relevant to you. Thanks to these cookies, you will not see ads that you are not interested in.
The advertising is customized to you and your preferences.
Your choice means you will not see customized ads, only generic ones.
Name
Owner
Duration
Description
OT2
VersaTag
90 days
VersaTag Cookie used to store a user id and the number of user visits.
u2
VersaTag
90 days
VersaTag Cookie where the user ID is stored
TargetingInfo 2
MediaMind
1 year
Cookie that serves to assign a unique random number that generates MediaMind.
These cookies are related to general features such as the browser you use.
Your experience and content have been customized.
With your selection, we cannot offer you a continuously improved browsing experience.
Name
Owner
Duration
Description
mbox
Adobe Target
9 days
Cookie used by Adobe Target to test user experience customization.
×
Looks like you’re browsing from Mexico, so let’s show you the custom content for your
location. Change
Looks like you’re browsing from Spain, so let’s show you the custom content for your
location. Change
Select a country
In order to access the private area and corresponding sandbox, select the country of the APIs you want to use.