The votes are in for the B.C. government’s Apps for Climate Action contest.

Over 500 votes were cast on-line toward the people’s choice category, according to David Currie, spokesperson for the B.C. Ministry of Environment.

Apps for Climate Action challenged Canadian developers to create open-data applications that raise awareness of climate change and related issues.

Public voting on the 17 applications entered in the contest, such as BCEmissions.ca and Etho, wrapped up on August 29.

In a voicemail message left for the Straight, Currie noted that the contest’s Web site received about 25,000 hits during the month of August.

David Eaves, a Vancouver-based public-policy consultant who is a sponsor and judge for Apps for Climate Action, called the response the contest has gotten “really encouraging”.

“Whether those people are friends and family of the apps’ developers or other people who are coming through, it shows that this type of engagement can tap into at least some different communities in the province that I think normally don’t get tapped into,” he told the Straight by phone.

Eaves, who’s also a member of the Vision Vancouver executive, pointed out that B.C.’s contest received more submissions than the Apps for Californians competition, which garnered 14 entries this summer.

Last week, Eaves and several other judges decided the winners of the contest’s four other categories (best mobile app, best Web app, best of B.C., and overall best app).

Judges filled out forms to evaluate the apps—which Eaves noted ranged from “simpler” to “quite interesting”—and met in person to discuss the results.

“It was actually quite hard, because people really had strong opinions about apps they really liked and different aspects about apps,” Eaves said. “So, I actually shifted my opinion about apps because of what other people were saying—because I was very persuaded.”

On September 16, the contest winners will be announced during an awards ceremony at the Vancouver Aquarium.

You can follow Stephen Hui on Twitter at twitter.com/stephenhui.