Mayor Bloomberg gestures to the crowd after taking the Oath of Office during his inauguration at New York's City Hall
Mayor Michael Bloomberg gestures to the crowd after taking the Oath of Office during his inauguration at New York's City Hall, January 1, 2010. REUTERS

Taking queue from Android and Apple iOS strategy New York City has opened its set of data to developers to create apps which could unlock the potential trapped in public data.

CNN reported that New York City opened its data to some 50 teams to work on 350 datasets to create web and mobile apps for data mining. The competition involved a prize money of $10,000 which was won by Roadify. They created an app that sends alerts about buses, subway and driving conditions.

The competition is part of New York City Mayor Bloomberg's plan to promote tech entrepreneurship in New York. Bloomberg told CNN: Our business strategy is to make New York a place where those people want to come,

The current strategy to create a mindshare around data and content by major content providers is at the heart of New York City's strategy. New York City data set includes data related to criminal records, traffic stats, and public health data. Opening this data to developers creates new ways of analyzing data and presenting data for various uses.

Presently Google and Apple open their platforms through APIs to developers to create apps for iOS and Android devices. In fact, the number of apps a platform supports is integral to the success of the platform. Thus, major smartphone platform makers like RIM, HP and Microsoft are on the lookout to woo developers to develop apps for their specific OS.

InformationWeek reported that New York City Mayor Bloomberg unveiled the city's consolidated 18,000 square-foot data center in March. The data center brought New York City's 40 scattered data center into one location. The data center costs $11.7 million. The consolidation is part of the Citywide IT Infrastructure Services Program (CITIServ) Program. It is planned to consolidate its entire data center into the new facility by 2014.

It could also be an attempt to re-create New York City's image into a technology hotspot since its financial image took a severe beating during the 2008 financial crisis.

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