NASA Launches Second Annual International Space Apps Challenge

Last week, NASA announced that it will host a second annual International Space Apps Challenge on April 20-21, 2013. The event is a follow-up to last year’s highly successful Space Apps event, which brought together thousands of members of the tech and space community from 25 cities in 17 countries on all 7 continents (including participants in space!) to develop more than 100 unique open-source solutions to improve life on Earth and in space. 

The event, which is part of the global Open Government Partnership, encourages collaboration between government agencies and civil society organizations around the world to promote technology development and innovation based on the principles of transparency, participation, and collaboration that are at the core of citizen science. This inclusive approach leverages the expertise and entrepreneurial spirit of citizen explorers to find solutions to key global challenges.

Unleashing the ingenuity of the Nation’s innovators on open government data has already led to new applications in a range of sectors, including health, public safety, energy, education, finance, and international development. These applications harness publicly available data to empower millions of Americans to make informed choices in their daily lives.

At the coming event, NASA experts and representatives from international government agencies will gather with scientists, citizens, and tech-ies to jointly mine open data sources for solutions to dozens of pressing challenges in robotics, remote sensing, data visualization, and more. A set of specific priority challenges is being developed now and will be announced publicly prior to the event this Spring.

To learn more about the International Space Apps Challenge, visit: http://spaceappschallenge.org

To learn more about the Administration’s Open Data Initiatives, visit: http://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/innovationfellows/opendata

Brian Forde is the Senior Advisor to the U.S. CTO for Mobile and Data Innovation

Nicholas Skytland is the Program Manager of NASA's Open Innovation Program