Why is The World Bank holding the Apps for Development competition?

The World Bank aims to bring together the best ideas from both the software developer and the development practitioner communities to create innovative apps using World Bank data. The goal is to find solutions to today’s development challenges and through technology, help tackle some of the world’s long-standing problems.

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What are the criteria for the winning applications?

Software applications will be judged on the Quality of the Idea (Including creativity and originality), Implementation of the Idea (including user experience, design, and performance), and Potential Impact on either of the two competition objectives which are 1) raising awareness of, or 2) making progress toward achieving at least one MDG. You may view all details in the Official Rules.

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Do I retain intellectual property ownership?

Yes, all entrants regardless of winner status will retain Intellectual Property ownership of their software applications.

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Can more than one person work on an application and receive credit for it? And if the app wins a prize, will the prize money be split among the creators?

Yes.

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Can I enter more than one application?

Yes.

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Is Apps for Development limited to certain countries?

Apps for Development is a global competition open to member countries of the World Bank (see http://worldbank.org for details).

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We are an organization. Can we enter?

Organizations with fewer than 50 employees may enter and compete for the cash prizes if they are legally established entities (profit, non-profit, academic) in their respective countries. Organizations with 50 or more employees may enter and compete for the Large Organization Recognition Award, which has no cash prize.

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Must I use World Bank data, and where can I find it?

Yes, software applications must use at least one data set from the http://data.worldbank.org.

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