- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
- Health, Science & Technology
- Forum One Communications
Detailed description
Using Technology to Fight the Flu
Applications and technology make it easier to communicate critical information about the flu and its impact. We’re looking for an innovative use of technology to raise awareness of influenza and/or educate consumers on ways to prevent and treat the flu.
We're challenging you to create new ways to use technology, be it for:
- the web
- a personal computer
- a mobile handheld device
- any platform broadly accessible to the open Internet.
You pick the technology and design the idea, we’ll provide the data
CDC compiles a wealth of data that often go unnoticed by the technical community. The mission of the CDC Flu App Challenge is to promote healthy behavior for flu prevention by introducing the software development community to those resources, and generating useful and innovative solutions with those data. We're requiring that you use at least one of the following datasets in your technical solution:
- Influenza Vaccination Estimates
http://www.cdc.gov/flu/professionals/vaccination/reporti1011/resources/2010-11_Coverage.xls - XML source of the Weekly Flu Activity Report
http://www.cdc.gov/flu/weekly/flureport.xml - RSS Feed of Influenza pages through content syndication
http://t.cdc.gov/feed.aspx?tpc=26829&days=90 - RSS Feed of Influenza updates
http://www2c.cdc.gov/podcasts/createrss.asp?t=r&c=20 - RSS Feed of Influenza podcasts
http://www2c.cdc.gov/podcasts/searchandcreaterss.asp?topic=flu - RSS Feed of CDC Features pages through content syndication
http://t.cdc.gov/feed.aspx?tpc=26816&fromdate=1/1/2011 - JSON Feed of Influenza pages through content syndication
http://t.cdc.gov/feed.aspx?tpc=26829&days=90&fmt=json - JSON Feed of CDC Features pages through content syndication
http://t.cdc.gov/feed.aspx?tpc=26816&fromdate=1/1/2011&fmt=json
In addition you can draw on data and resources from any other public sources online - related to flu or otherwise. We anticipate winning entries to draw on one or more of the CDC data sources, but combine them with any interesting array of resources.
What's in it for you?
Applications that best satisfy the competition criteria will receive cash prizes up to $15,000, and the opportunity to have their apps featured on the CDC website. Applicants are encouraged to mashup CDC data with any other publicly-accessible data feeds from around the web, and to be creative in exploring approaches for realizing the goals.
How to enter
Contestants must register for the contest on this website by creating an account between April 6, 2011 and May 27, 2011. Registrants will receive an email to verify their account and may then enter their submissions via the "Post a Submission" tab.
- Submissions may be any kind of software tool, be it for the web, a personal computer, a mobile handheld device, console, or any platform broadly accessible to the open Internet.
- Submissions must be made available free of charge to the public throughout the Competition period, and for one year after the announcement of winners.
- If the software tool is not accessible by the Administrator and Judges for review purposes via the web with a URL or mobile app store, a link to a video of the working tool may be submitted. In such case, the Administrator has the right to request access to the Submission in person or via any reasonable manner to verify any criteria about the software tool.
- A Submission may be disqualified if it does not function as expressed in the description.
- All Submissions must be available for public use and evaluation by May 27, 2011 for public voting and judging purposes.
- Once a Submission is made, the Contestant cannot make any changes or alterations to the Submission until the judging is complete. The approximate date by which the judging will be complete is June 8th.
Important dates
- Submission Period:
- Start: Apr 06, 2011 12:00 AM EDT End: May 27, 2011 11:59 PM EDT
- Judging Period:
- Start: May 28, 2011 12:00 AM EDT End: Jun 07, 2011 11:59 PM EDT
- Public Voting Period:
- Start: May 28, 2011 12:00 AM EDT End: Jun 07, 2011 11:59 PM EDT
- Winners announced:
- Jun 08, 2011 12:00 AM EDT
Judges
- Mark Smolinski
-
Director, Global Health Threats, Skoll Global Threats Fund
- Peter Speyer
-
Director of Data Development, Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME)
- Jim Cashel
-
Chairman, Forum One Communications
- Maureen S Marshall
-
Health Communications Specialist, National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
- Fred Smith
-
Technology Team Lead, Electronic Media Branch, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Judging criteria
- Data Criteria
- Does the app or game use a combination of creative and relevant data sets including at least one from data.CDC.gov? (20%)
- Technical Implementation
- Is the app implemented in a functional and elegant fashion? (20%)
- Education Criteria
- Does the software apply best practices for health and risk communication, as cited on www.cdc.gov/healthcommunication/HealthBasics? (20%)
- Creativity
- Is the app creative? Interesting? Fun to use? (40%)
Prizes
- First Place - $15,000
- Second Place - $10,000
- Third Place - $5,000
- People's Choice - $2,500
- Honorable mention - $2,500
- Judges will have the discretion of awarding up to five "honorable mention" prizes at $500 each.