17 applications want your vote in B.C. Apps for Climate Action contest

Seventeen applications.

That’s what the B.C. government’s Apps for Climate Action contest—which challenged developers to create open-data applications that raise awareness of climate change—has produced.

On Wednesday evening (August 11), the contest’s apps gallery went live and the public voting period opened.

You now have until August 29 at 5 p.m. to vote on-line for the people’s choice winner.

Judges will pick the winners of the other four categories (best mobile app, best Web app, best of B.C., and overall best app).

With all the grand, second, and third prizes as well as honourable mentions—a total of 26 prizes—available, it’s possible that none of the apps’ developers will leave empty-handed.

These are the Web and mobile apps vying for your vote and those of the judges, along with their official summaries:

”¢ BCEmissions.ca: “To promote awareness of personal contributions to climate change, in the context of contributions at the municipal level.”

”¢ Canadian Greenhouse Gas Emissions by Industrial Sector: “To inform readers about the environmental impact and economic analysis of the industrial sector.”

”¢ Climate Reports: “Allow the general public to explore how the climate has changed since the year 1900.”

”¢ The Dictionary of the Climate Debate: “To give people clear and concise explanations of key terms that are being used by participants in the climate change debate; as well as brief biographies of those participants and their qualifications”

”¢ The Effects of Rising Sea Levels on Vancouver Due to Global Warming: “To raise awareness of the potential impact of Global Warming on Sea Level Rise.”

”¢ Etho: “Etho is an iPhone app that provides shoppers with relevant health, social & environmental facts on the spot to aid them in making ethical purchases.”

”¢ GreenMoney: “GreenMoney is a personal offset calculator for the money and time you invest in environmental savings. GreenMoney measures environmental impact based on economic data collected by the government.”

”¢ MathTappers: Carbon Choices: “The MathTappers: Carbon Choices App is designed to help students examine the effects of their personal choices on climate change. As students track their choices their impact is assessed in terms of annualized kg of CO2 equivalents generated.”

”¢ Rain Caddy: “Calculate the total rainfall for an area over a period of 7 days”

”¢ Save-the-Rain: “One way to prepare for the effects of global warming on water supply is to capture and save rain water running off of our roofs. This app allows you to calculate how much rainfall you can capture in a year by calculating the area of your roof.”

”¢ ShowMeBC: “The main purpose of this app is to raise awareness by making climate data accessible via rich visualization and interaction.”

”¢ Smoggy: “Based on real-life greenhouse gas emission statistics, we want our users to understand these numbers through an engaging game experience and realize the problem these underlying numbers represent.”

”¢ Streamlined Water Use Reporting Tool: “Improve water resource information management - support climate change adaptation by providing a simple, easy to use App for local water utilities to report monthly water use.”

”¢ Vancouver Bike Routes: “Encourage people to commute by bike”

”¢ VanTrash: “To help people remember to take their recycling, organic waste and other garbage out.”

”¢ VELO: “GHG emissions reduction through measurement and benchmarking against peer.”

”¢ Waterly: “Waterly raises awareness about water use, in particular lawn watering, and help citizens to reduce their water consumption.”

Obviously, these apps vary widely in quality and complexity.

For one thing, a few of them have little or nothing to do with climate change. And there are those that require a proprietary browser plug-in to view, or just have a demo on-line, not a working app.

Still, others do provide interesting, climate-related information in an accessible manner.

So, what do you think? Which app deserves to win the $3,000 grand prize in the people’s choice category?

You have 17 apps to choose from and 17 days to vote.

The winners will be announced on September 16.

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