Redlands, California—As part of its commitment to build smart communities, Esri is supporting the National League of Cities (NLC) initiative 2015 Multi-City Innovation Campaign (MCIC). It encourages people to create solutions that will improve the quality of life in cities across the United States. Finalists will be announced April 30.
"Esri’s unique experience in the civic innovation field will help make the Multi-City Innovation Campaign a success as the initiative grows and develops in the coming year," said Clarence E. Anthony, CEO and executive director of the National League of Cities. "Our partnership with Esri will help enable a greater number of cities to benefit from sustainable, technology-driven solutions that support smarter and more resilient communities."
This year, developers, innovators, and community leaders are encouraged to create scalable solutions related to public health that will change the way cities serve citizens. Twenty-five participating governments will each provide $5,000 to the winning solution if they choose to deploy it. One of MCIC’s finalists could receive up to $100,000 in seed capital from Jumpstart Foundry, a leading accelerator.
Esri encourages participants to use the resources it has made available including open-source code on GitHub, Esri Developer Network (EDN), the ArcGIS for Developers web page, open data for health, and other open datasets.
"With Esri’s ArcGIS platform and open datasets, developers can create solutions that transform public health," said Dr. Este Geraghty, chief medical officer at Esri. "Mapping and spatial analyses are essential to effectively managing pandemics and disease as well as creating an environment that promotes healthful living."
MCIC was started in 2014 by four NLC member cities—Boston, Massachusetts; Nashville, Tennessee; Palo Alto, California; and Raleigh, North Carolina—and has been expanded to include 25 cities this year. The program has been recognized as a Bright Idea by the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation at Harvard University.