The City of New York is excited to announce Reinvent Payphones, a joint initiative of NYC Digital and the NYC Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications. The goal of the Reinvent Payphones Design Challenge is to rally urban designers, planners, technologists and policy experts to create physical/virtual prototypes that imagine the future of payphones that best meet the needs of a changing, modernizing and...  Continue reading... ever-connected global city. The role of payphones has changed dramatically over the last ten years. Once a primary method for communicating in public space, payphones are now widely viewed as a supplementary resource, and the widespread adoption of mobile devices reduces the overall need for public telephones. But not everyone owns a mobile phone, and not everyone has connectivity at all times. Publicly accessible communications tools remain critical, especially in times of emergency.

Through Reinvent Payphones, the City will cultivate innovative ideas to help shape the future design and functionality of the current payphones infrastructure. The City of New York is inviting teams of participants to participate, and will select up to 15 teams to demonstrate their prototypes to a panel of judges on Tuesday, March 5, 2013.

Participants are encouraged to join CollabFinder in order to build teams, share ideas, and collaborate on reinvent payphones projects. Make sure to tag your project idea "Reinvent Payphones" for easy searching. You must submit your final project idea to nyc.gov/reinventpayphones by February 18, 2013 for consideration as a semi-finalist.