The 48-hour Codemkrs Super Bowl challenge, a hackathon where 50 developers got together to create apps for the Super Bowl, ended Sunday night at an awards ceremony at the Little Gem Saloon.
The winner of the grand prize was Eat Now New Orleans, a team that developed an app to help citizens determine the wait time for any given restaurant in the city in ream time. It is proximity-based, so you can find an availability within an average of 1000 feet from your current location. Wait times can be found by searching the web, smartphones, or by calling a certain code via a landline. The app idea was born out of a focus group the Super Bowl Host Committee held for restaurants in New Orleans and puts the power back in the hands of restaurants and patrons. The designers built in information (restaurant phone number, location, etc.) from NewOrleansOnline.com and are hoping it can expand to be used during Jazz Fest, Mardi Gras, French Quarter Festival, and more.
Second place went to an app that helps people find venues for live music across the city. Third place went to a digital tip jar app for musicians and artists that lets music fans tip performers through electronic payments. Using Paypal or a credit card, users can tip $1, $5, $10, or $20 (tipping the latter gets you a special CD!). Their goal is to give visitors the platform to leave their money with local musicians.
The winner of a special prize for the top technical chops went to NOLA Parks, an app that lets users find park locations via GPS to see how close a certain park is, and see the different amenities across the parks. NOLA Parks won a $1,000 prize, donated by the New Orleans 3D computer marketplace TurboSquid.
The judges included James Carville and Mary Matalin, New Orleans CIO Allen Square, representatives from the Louisiana Technology Council, Turbo Squid, Peter Mayer, and Loyola. There were plenty of other app ideas, which you can read about here.
More pics, videos, and coverage to come!