With the Apps4Linz competition the Open Commons Region Linz in Austria is seeking the best applications re-using the open government data it has made available. Linz is one of the Austrian cities that is making great progress in opening up local government data. The competition is meant to show case what is possible with that data, but also an incentive to various departments of the local government to open up data.

The competition has started and participants can send in entries until April 2012, after which the finalists will be announced. At a conference on cloud-computing on Dec 14th-16th in Linz, participants will be able to attend sessions on how to create mobile or cloud-based apps.

In combination with the competition also new data releases have been announced, most notably traffic control data held by the Linz local public transport company. Also high resolution aerial photos of the city (made earlier this year) have been made available. Via an API real time location data is being made available, which is possible after a new back-office system being implemented this year. Hopes are that this will result in apps centering around public transport.