Got Game?

Company/Organization Type: 
for-profit
Company/Organization Size: 
Independent (no employees)
Company/Organization Age: 
1-5 years
If you win, who should we make the check out to?: 
Thomas D. Uram

GotGame is a new tool for residents to use the parks near them to join each other in the activities of their choice.

Imagine that you want to play a basketball game this Saturday. With GotGame, you could choose Basketball as your activity, and it would show you nearby parks where you'll find basketball courts. Select a park, specify a date and time, and your basketball game is scheduled. Other people in the area who check GotGame for activities at parks near them will see the basketball game, click on the name of the park to view a map,  and join you there. A game is born!

GotGame uses the City of Chicago Parks dataset, including 575 parks. When a user selects basketball, GotGame shows only those parks where a basketball net is to be found. Courtesy of this dataset, GotGame can discover which parks support the activities from the following list (with some redundancy, as provided by the dataset):

  • Kids Baseball     
  • Adult Baseball    
  • Softball          
  • Football          
  • Basketball        
  • Hand/Racquet Ball 
  • Tennis            
  • Volleyball        
  • Horseshoes        
  • Ice Skating       
  • Skateboarding     
  • Roller Hockey     
  • Playground        
  • Track             
  • Dog Friendly Area 
  • Beach             
  • Spray Pool        
  • Water Playground  
  • Outdoor Pool     
  • Indoor Pool   

 GotGame is a web app, meaning that it is accessible on mobile devices as well as web browsers. The location-based functionality will, of course, be limited in the absence of GPS hardware.

Over time, the GotGame database will describe the usage of the city's parks. At which park are the baseball fields used most often? Where might it make sense to install more basketball hoops? We will share the resulting data with the City for planning purposes, if GotGame succeeds in describing the city's parks in this way.

Community Explanation: 

GotGame combines Chicago park data, GPS, and elements of Meetup.com to support the emergence of community use of the city's parks. By allowing residents to choose an activity (basketball), find parks near them that support the activity (a basketball court) and schedule a game, GotGame enables people to meet up and use the facilities at the parks near them.

In the spirit of Placemaking, according to the Apps for Metro Chicago guidelines, apps should

"create an app that helps users to find, create, sustain and/or share vibrant public spaces in metropolitan Chicago"

GotGame does this for parks in the city, making it easy to find nearby parks that support the activities people want to take part in, and schedule them with their fellow residents.

Screenshots: 
Placemaking: 
Consider this app for the MPC Placemaking award