The Awesome Submissions for NYC BigApps

Yesterday was the deadline to submit apps for the NYC BigApps contest, which gives out $20,000 in cash prizes for the best apps built using government data, and there are some pretty sweet submissions that will be useful for a wide range of situations.

Meet a homeless people on the street? Shelter Find lets you send information about the person to the city's Department of Homeless Services, or look up the closest shelter so you can give the person directions. Looking for a little kickball? Find leagues and pickup games for any sport at PlayNY.com.

Or maybe you're just bored? NYCRandomly suggests a random activity you can do based on the nearest subway line.

Several apps organize public data or make it interactive, including "Who's My Landlord?," an open source project to organize the public records of who owns buildings in New York and make them easy to access. The NYC Campaign Tracker lets you explore the data published by the Campaign Finance Board, including campaign contributions, expenses and payments. Bad NYC Apartments gives access to data about a landlord's maintenance track record.

There are also several apps for parking, riding the subway, and finding places to eat, including DontEat.at, a Foursquare app that sends you a text message when you check into a restaurant that is at risk of being closed for heath code violations.

Check out the full range of submissions at NYC BigApps. Winners will be announced in March.

ajeffries [at] observer.com | @adrjeffries