RAS vs StreetSine – Useful?
Guess the organizers will take some time to update their website on the winners for this year’s code::xtremeapps, but the ceremony was done yesterday (ugh missed). Came to hear about StreetSine and the current RAS only recently (which are both based on last year’s competition on Google Maps), and wondered why it didn’t take off …
Here’re some possible explanation:
Singapore is too happening
Singaporeans are too healthy (walk 49 minutes to MRT)
Ok, jokes aside – now that these code competition is over, I hope all the apps can be made public by the participants. Even a more polished version is fine. Firstly, they are proof of concepts, and not mainly business models so it is actually better then that people get to see and touch what is possible to formulate business models that would allow for the idea to take flight. Secondly, if it’s so darn sensitive data you wouldn’t incorporate it in a competition either, just hide what you have to hide, and have a working app available la..
what the…haha…it’s super funny!
Actually, StreetSine was just launched in Singapore not too long ago. Many improvements were made beyond the competition. More than 250 buyers and sellers of properties are connected via SMS on the system till date, with little marketing. Many home hunters find the property transaction data very useful. For example, if you want to know how much your neighbours sold their property recently, or how much your home is roughly worth, simply do a postal code search and click “Price Trends”. Also, comparable properties tells you which other properties in Singapore are similar to yours, in terms of size, type, city distance etc. Do check them out.
The code::XtremeApps participants have to individually decide what to do with the code. They are encouraged to publish it under some open source license so that the code can be mined. As an organizer, we can only suggest and encourage.
Harish