CEA Launches Apps Contest

-- TWICE, 10/12/2009

Arlington, Va. — The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) has launched a contest meant to encourage developers to build apps that demonstrate how innovation and entrepreneurship are making an economic impact in the United States.

The grand-prize winner of the Innovation Movement “Apps for Innovation” contest will receive $10,000 and a free trip to the 2010 International CES, held Jan. 7-10 in Las Vegas.

CEA also said it had opened an online portal for submissions of software applications for judging by a panel of industry experts.

“Innovation is at the heart of the global economic recovery,” said Gary Shapiro, CEA president and CEO, in a statement. “We're launching the 'Apps for Innovation' contest to encourage the most talented software developers to deploy apps that illuminate how innovation and entrepreneurial activity are at work across America.”

The contest will also accept submissions from developers that create apps to help consumers advance policy goals that support innovation.

As an example, CEA said, an innovative app might use publicly available Federal Communications Commission broadband data and Internet mapping tools to show the need for high-speed Internet access in rural areas. The contest is open to apps for any type of device or any type of Web platform.

In addition to the grand-prize winner, judges will award a second place of $5,000 and a third place of $3,500. The best apps will be included in the “Apps for Innovation” library, where apps will be available for free to the public as a way to help them learn about the innovation economy.

Judges will include Leslie Harris, president and CEO, the Center for Democracy and Technology; John Zogby, president and CEO, Zogby International; Michael Masnick, founder and CEO, Floor64, and editor of the Techdirt blog; Jonah Seiger, founder and managing partner, Connections Media; and Michael Petricone, government affairs senior VP, CEA

Winners will be announced on Nov. 10 at the CES New York Press Preview in New York City. Visit www.appsforinnovation.com for the rules.