The Apps4Deutschland, apps for Germany, competition has been launched on 8 November. With this competition the German government, together with several civic organizations, invites designers, journalists, researcher and the wider civic society to make public data useful through re-use.

About 25.000 Euro is available as prize money, provided amongst others by a list of sponsors. The German ministry for the Interior, the state governments of Berlin and Bremen, as well as the German statistical office have provided data, triggered by the Apps4Deutschland competition.

All further information is available at the Apps4Deutschland website. Main dates for the competition are the launch at 8 November, the entry deadline for applications at 1 February 2012, and the award session on 12 March 2012 at the CEBIT conference and fair. There is a separate deadline for entering idea, as well as for sending in datasets by government bodies: 15 December 2011.

The German Minister for the Interior Dr. Hans-Peter Friedrich launched the competition, and will also be handing over the awards next March.

The jury consists of some 25 people from government, civic organizations, academia and business, all with a strong interest in open government and open government data. Ton Zijlstra of the ePSIplatform team is also a member of the jury.

Follow the #apps4de tag on Twitter for more online discussion.

A video with the opening statement of the German Minister for the Interior is embedded below.

Start des Wettbewerbs "Apps für Deutschland" from buero fuer neues denken GbR on Vimeo.