As you already know, one of the big goals we have at programmr.com is to encourage developers to get build their own open source projects. We totally love open source - because it is awesome on so many counts. Your open source project will look great on your resume, but it's not just that. Working with the larger community, answering questions from users, and responding to bug reports, will all make you a more confident developer, and your project will also help the community at large. 

 

In keeping with our love for open source and hackathons, we are back with another great hackathon from hired.com - The Hired London Hackathon. Participate in this hackathon to win cool prizes for your contributions to the community. The contest will be be giving away a total of £ 5000 in Amazon Gift coupons, as prizes.

 

 

You need to make London cooler with your web or mobile app. Your application should use data from the London data store to create something of value for the residents or tourists of London, or for that matter something of value for anyone interested in the city.

 

You have till the 5th of May to complete and submit this project. 

 

 

 

You can use any technology as long as it's Javascript :-) No, I'm kidding :-) It's just that I've been reading so much about Javascript's domination and ubiquity lately, that it's all I can think about.

 

You are free to use any technology of your choice: PHP, Python, Java, RoR, Android, iOS, Angular, AJAX, whatever you like. As long as it works. You are welcome to host your work on programmr.com if it's in one of the technologies we support. Alternately, you can host it on your server or space on the Internet and submit the URL of your live project along with a GITHub project URL where we can inspect the source code. 

 

Be sure to use Hired.com London Hackathon as the contest name.

 

 

Perhaps you are already brimming with ideas and can't wait to start. That's awesome - you are good to go. Let us quickly tell you that entries will be judged on their utility, virality, presentation, and overall execution. Without wasting any more time, let us also tell you that neither programmr.com nor our sponsor will use your application for any commercial purpose. Without much ado here's the contest URL.

 

 

 

Do you feel stuck for ideas? Do you need some help to get you started? Here are a few that you might find useful. 

 

Are you a movie buff by any chance? If you are, then you might enjoy displaying all the spots in London that were used as film locations. You can also make the app more exciting by pulling reviews of the movies from iMDB, movie clips or trailers from Youtube, or a variety of other sources. 

 

Do you believe greenery and nature have a positive impact on the human mind? You can prove your theory by calculating and displaying the co-relation between the number of trees on a street and number of reported crimes.

 

Or perhaps you are into biking. Then, you can make an app which will help users discover the best biking routes between any two points in London.

 

Or maybe you just loooove coffee shops, in which case you can show all the coffee shops in London, including not only the big chains but also those cozy family run ones which are always a treat to sit in. You can show the coffee shops along with reviews pulled in from one of the many restaurant review websites.

 

Or you could combine graffiti data along with Google Street View to show all the graffiti spots in London, giving users an opportunity to actually see the streets and graffiti. 

 

I could probably keep going on, but there's no stopping the fire hose of ideas. The sky's the limit. Scratch you itch, work on your passion, be an armchair activist, find some interesting co-relation in the data and make it known to the residents of London. Have a great time, or make a difference. Whatever you choose. It's your baby, and you get to do it your way.

 

 

If this excites you, head over straight to the Hackathon website for rules and more information.