Toronto geeks for civic good: MOBILEINNOVATION WEEK 2010

Hack-A-Thon lets Torontonians develop mobile apps for social good

TORONTO, Sept. 10 /CNW/ - Mayor David Miller and the City of Toronto proclaim September 13-18, 2010 MOBILEINNOVATIONWEEK recognizing the 2nd annual event for the global mobile industry in Toronto. Kicking off the week-long conference is MIW 2010 Hack-A-Thon where local Toronto mobile developers will leverage the City of Toronto's OpenTO.org Open Data Framework to conceive and create mobile web and apps for social benefit and community services.

"Toronto's talented mobile developer community is passionate about improving this city," said Michele Perras, director of the Mobile Experience Innovation Centre (MEIC), co-producer of MOBILEINNOVATIONWEEK, and host for the MIW 2010 Hack-A-Thon.

MIW 2010 Hack-A-Thon will feature two days of presentations, workshops and networking opportunities in addition to "dreaming and building" working sessions. Mobile and web app concepts will be judged by the community and revealed later during the Mobile ThinkTank Series event.

"I'm proud of the City of Toronto's commitment to the long-term growth of strategic industry sectors like the mobile industry," said Michael Williams, general manager, Economic Development and Culture, City of Toronto. "Events like Hack-A-Thon and MOBILEINNOVATIONWEEK not only nurture our mobile talent but also help position Toronto as leader, globally. The City is excited about this opportunity to leverage our open data resources as developed through the efforts of our CIO Dave Wallace."

"Hack-A-Thon will not only showcase our creativity and technical expertise but will result in real solutions that benefit the more than 5-million people that call the GTA home," adds Jason Silva, founder JBBMobile and curator of the MIW 2010 Hack-A-Thon.

"From September 13-18 Toronto will be the centre of the mobile universe," said Michael J. O'Farrell of The Mobile Institute, founder and co-producer of MOBILEINNOVATIONWEEK. "MIW 2010 Hack-A-Thon is the kick-off event to show what we can do for the greater good once we set our minds - and our world class mobile developer communities to it." 

WHAT:	Two days of "dreaming and building" sessions to develop mobile and web applications to benefit the City of Toronto, its residents, businesses and its services.
WHEN:	Saturday, September 11 - Sunday, September 12, 2010: 9am-6pm Daily
WHERE:	The Ontario College of Art & Design (OCAD) 100 McCaul Street, Toronto ON M5T 1W1 OCAD University Auditorium
WHO:	Hosted by the Mobile Experience Innovation Centre (http://meic.ca) with Toronto mobile, software developers, designers, marketers, and social media experts as well as with creative and passionate residents dreaming and building mobile and web application to benefit the City of Toronto, its residents, businesses and its services.

Co-Chairs for MOBILEINNOVATIONWEEK 2010 are Michael J. O'Farrell, founder of The Mobile Institute; Shawn Pucknell, director of FITC; Gary Schwartz, chair of the Mobile Entertainment Forum Americas and president & CEO of Impact Mobile; and Ian Kelso, president & CEO of Interactive Ontario.

For further information:

Michele Perras - [email protected]  
Jason Silva - [email protected]
Michael J. O'Farrell - [email protected]
Bianca Freedman - [email protected]
Nazia Khan - [email protected]