Minibar IC tomorrow App Building Contest

[Update: the deadline for this contest has been extended to 22nd January 2011, please see our _Connect group for more details]

Win up to £5000 and the chance to impress major content owners with your apps

Join this contest and be part of the future of app production. MiniBar is looking for developers who will create innovative apps mashing, mixing, streaming, enriching music, pictures and video content.

There is a total of £7,000 up for grabs, £5,000 for the overall winner and £2,000 for the runner-up and you get to tinker with content from the likes of Sony Music and Universal.

IC tomorrow is a Technology Strategy Board initiative launched by Ed Vaizey (Minister of Culture, Communications and Creative Industries) on October 12^th which provides a testbed environment for content owners and application developers to collaborate and trial new content-rich apps and services with real users.

Through this contest ALL entrants will get the exciting opportunity to become part of IC tomorrow and get the chance to showcase their inventiveness to major content providers and build valuable relationships for the future.

What we want you to do for this contest is to create apps using the IC tomorrow platform with either content available through IC tomorrow itself from content partners such as Sony Music and Universal, or from other sources of your choosing, such as flickr, youtube, other content archives.

The goal is to develop applications that make use of the content in innovative, experimental or, simply put, fun ways, and use IC tomorrow as the testing ground to evaluate their potential.

And the great news is, is that this is only the beginning for IC tomorrow! It will get the dialogue going between media owners, developers and users.

Don’t pass up this opportunity to get your talent recognised!

To learn more and receive updates about the contest JOIN our ‘Minibar IC tomorrow App Building Contest’  _connect group.

The timeline for the contest is as follows:

• 12th October – Launch of IC tomorrow contest platform at Innovate10 and opening of online registration
• 4th November – API and contest briefing event that will include a detailed introduction to the IC tomorrow platform.
• 25th November – Registration surgery at the Sanctuary. More info and RSVP here.
  
• 3rd December – The fist of our online ‘drop in’ developer support surgeries*
• 14th December – Version 2 of the APIs and relating documentation released
• 17th December – Online ‘drop in’ surgery specifically for API tech support (for API Version 2)
• 22nd January – Closing date and final event for the contest consisting of a workshop in the morning where developers may bring along their apps for completion (in collaboration with the IC tomorrow team if needed), followed by the final judging later that evening.**

*Please also note that we are aiming to have additional weekly online surgery sessions and more will be announced at a later date.

**The panel of judges includes Craig Smith (O’ Reilly) and Chris Jackson (MetaBroadcast), Daniel Ayers (Sony Music), Matt Sansam (TSB), and Martyn Davies (Universal).

If you would like to find out more about IC tomorrow please read this press release. Also read our recent interview with Chris Jackson, CEO of Metabroadcast and once Head of Strategy at the BBC, who has been working with IC tomorrow since its inception. He tells us about his own experiences being the first to develop an app through the platform, the benefits of taking part in the contest and his hopes for the future of the programme.

This event is produced by Openbusiness, creators of MiniBar. For more information please contact info@openbusiness.cc