In an attempt to get the best and brightest minds in the technology world to put their spin on making government data more accessible and useful for the public, the District of Columbia invited software developers to enter a competition for the best new applications.

The “Applications for Democracy” contest asked developers to create mashup applications - a web application that combines data from more than one source into a single integrated tool - for the District’s data using popular consumer technologies like the iPhone, Facebook, Google Maps and others. Contest entries were required to use open source programming.

The contest attracted more than 25 innovative applications, all licensed as open source and freely available to government and the public. Two gold prize winners and six silver prize winners were announced last month.

One of the top honors went to Boalt Interactive for their DC Historic Tours application. It is a Google Maps mashup that combines customer walking tour creation with Flickr photo feeds and Wikipedia entries. Users can create a custom map and save for later reference.

The other gold prize winner was iLive.at, created by independent developers Travis Hurant, Tim Koelkebeck, and Brian Sobel. iLive.at presents users with information tailored to a specific location, organized into three categories: errands, crime, and people. The errands category indicates distance to government offices and private sector businesses. The crime category tabulates recently reported offenses in the area. And the people category displays colorful pie charts giving demographic information.

“While the immediate goal of the Applications for Democracy contest is to develop innovative software to present District data, its long-term goals are broader,” said District Chief Technology Officer Vivek Kundra. “By making government data easy for everyone to access and use, the District hopes to foster citizen participation in government, drive private sector technology innovation and growth, and build a new model for government-private sector collaboration that can help all governments address the technology challenges of today and tomorrow.”

For a complete listing of submissions, including links, and information about future contests, visit the Apps for Democracy web site.