Chicago is a booming city with a robust pool of developers—web developers, software developers, application developers. We’ve got them all. (Chicago even hosted DrupalCon this year.) So we are pleased to see our government agencies taking notice and utilizing the city’s developer resources by challenging them to “build apps that solve problems and improve services in Metro Chicago” with the Apps for Metro Chicago Illinois Competition.

While our Chicago web design firm focuses on user-centered design, we’d like to give kudos to the City of Chicago, the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning, Cook County, and the State of Illinois for taking a user-centered approach to government and working to build useful tools for Metro Chicago. Bravo!

Now, while we’re pleased to see Chicago building useful apps, there are some pros and cons to the competition method, also known as crowdsourcing. Crowdsourcing has become very popular, even as a tool to leverage as part of a marketing strategy. But even with the possibility of benefiting from the talent that fills Chicago, in the end, there is just less creative control of the end product. Instead of choosing one dedicated team that builds a relationship with you, learns your business needs, and provides a customized solution to your problem, you end up hoping someone in the crowd finds the right idea.

But what if none of the entries solves your problem? During the two month entry period, how do you feel about sitting in the dark, unable to truly guide the direction your solutions are headed? And what do you say to all the unselected artists and programmers who put in dozens of hours creating an app for you and get nothing in return for their hard work? However risky their methods, we are still very excited to see Chicago focusing on technology!

At Sandstorm we do custom quality work, gathering requirements to make certain that the end product meets the clients’ specific needs. Let us know what your needs are!

This September, I was on sabbatical volunteering in Peru. I had been accepted to a program through the Karikuy organization working to promote Peruvian tourism to English-speaking countries. Specifically, I was selected to do field research and travel writing to help develop the Peruvian Wikipedia, contribute to the Karikuy blog, and add content to the various Karikuy media galleries. So I spent the my time there exploring the country, learning everything I possibly could about Peru and Peruvian culture, capturing my journey on film, and sharing my experiences through articles, blogs, and video-longs along the way.

You can check out some of my work here:
http://www.karikuy.org/blog/

What attracted me most to the organization is that they truly want people to experience what life is like in Peru; and see, smell, touch, taste and hear everything that Peru has to offer. This is really rare in the tourism world, as most companies and organizations put their focus on Machu Picchu and the famous Inca Trail. And since Julio, the Program Director, is a native, he shares with the volunteers all of the hidden gems and lesser-known aspects of the Peruvian landscape, culture and life. (For instance, I learned that Peruvians are incredibly superstitious. The will not eat fish after 3pm (convinced it is no longer fresh), and believe that a red sunset means that there is going to be an earthquake.)

One of the greatest parts of the program was the people I was able to meet and share my travels with. There was not a single person I met that I didn’t like or have loads in common with. This was especially true with Elle, my roommate, who ironically enough also works for a boutique marketing and interactive firm specializing in user-centered design…all the way in Australia! :)

Overall, the experience was extremely rewarding and educational. I was able to familiarize myself with a country and a people in a way I never would have been able to on a typical vacation…and my life is forever changed for the better as a result.