Find All Things Hungarian in the United States

Launched three years ago, the English language Hugo app helps collect Hungarian-related sites in the United States, building a network of ‘Hungarian traces’ from the American Revolutionary War to the present day – historical, cultural or even gastronomic.

As Anna Smith Lacey, the Executive Director of the Washington DC-based Hungary Foundation, the app’s developer, explains to Diplomacy&Trade, “travelling across the United States, we quickly realize that there are Hungarian traces everywhere: from Manhattan's Central Park to Los Angeles’ Hollywood Boulevard, from little towns in Alaska to Key West in the southern tip of Florida – you find Hungarian contributions everywhere. This realization prompted the foundation to create a platform where users can find information about Hungarian shops, restaurants, statues, churches, scout groups, pastry shops, etc. all in one place – as the app’s tagline says: all things Hungarian in the US in one app.”
Smith Lacey says that the app aims to demonstrate the incredible richness and complexity of Hungarian contributions to US history, society and economy, and make it all as accessible as possible.

Hungarian-American logo
The hussar (cavalryman) icon was chosen as the app’s symbol because it is connected to the very beginning of Hungarian-American relations. Mihály Kováts de Fabriczy, a Hungarian hussar born in Karcag, Eastern Hungary, exactly 300 years ago, is recognized as the “father of the US cavalry”. During the American Revolutionary War, he volunteered his military services to Benjamin Franklin, after which the Continental Congress commissioned him to lead and train the Pulaski legion, an important military formation in the war. Kovács created one of the first training guides for the American cavalry. He fought in New Jersey and later in South Carolina where he died defending Charleston from the British. “It was really a nod to Kovács’ legacy that we wanted to preserve by choosing the hussar logo and also because hussars are very well respected in the United States and they have a tremendous legacy in Hungary as well,” the Executive Director highlights.

The most sought categories
When it comes to actual searches by the users, the most popular category is historical sites. Anna Smith Lacey says that the app features over 400 hits in this category: churches, statues, busts of Hungarians, memorial gardens and plaques, gravesites of famous Hungarians, former residences of Hungarian composers or poets. “Another very popular category is, of course, ‘food and drink’ – we now have over 200 of these on the app, including Hungarian food trucks that sell kürtőskalács (chimney cake), Hungarian butchers selling kolbász (sausage), grocery stores selling túró and tejföl (cottage cheese and sour cream) and mikulás csoki (Santa Claus shaped chocolate figure) or confectioneries selling bejgli (poppy seed roll cake). In the ‘event’ category, the app features upcoming events. A lot of people are interested in where the nearest Hungarian dance classes are, or where they can find the next Hungarian-American business networking opportunities, scout camps, concerts, festivals, picnics or wine tastings. Registered users get push notifications on the app, so, whoever publishes an event through HuGo can reach a very wide audience. In the ‘services’ category, Hungarian businesses can register themselves on HuGo. The app now features all sorts of Hungarian-American startups, photographers, pediatricians, lawyers, car repairmen, web designers, dog walkers, plumbers, even musicians, Hungarian language teachers or tax advisors. This very colorful category is quite a good platform for them to gain visibility, outside of their own city, county or even state.”

A crowdsourcing success story
At the beginning, the developers had to decide whether this was going to be a top-down app where they funnel the information that they receive from the top and then push it down through the app or this was going to be a bottom-up, grassroots-driven application. “We decided that we want this to be a grassroots-led app, driven primarily not by us, but by the users. And that was the right decision. We now have over 10,000 users, who browse freely and find information on HuGo. And we have over 1,700 active users who have contributed to HuGo’s database by uploading new sites, sometimes only one or two, sometimes a dozen but in some cases, over a hundred new sites. We have thus built the biggest Hungarian-American knowledge-sharing platform. Every week or so, we check the validity of the uploads and users themselves can also flag information they find on the app. We don't want to be very strict gatekeepers, we don't want to be stifling information that's out there. We would like to provide a platform that is accessible to all and offer the widest possible opportunity for users to share their knowledge in English so it can be accessible to those who love Hungary but don’t speak the language. We would like to reach as many Hungarians, Americans and Hungarian-Americans as possible. It's an app for anybody and everybody who is interested in all things Hungarian in the United States,” according to the Executive Director.
She explains that most HuGo users are based in the United States. “However, we have a lot of users who are based in Hungary as well. We have also received uploads from people living in Australia, Canada, India, Belgium, France, Mexico or Jamaica. The app truly has a global reach and anyone can contribute with their knowledge as long as they have something valid to share with the rest of the users.”

Franchising opportunity
HuGo’s developers have received inquiries from various countries about the possibility to widen the geographical scope of the app to include a similar database of Hungarian traces in Canada, for instance. The Executive Director is quick to point out that the scope of their activities at the Foundation is restrained to the United States. “We are primarily interested in promoting Hungarian-American relations, but we would also love to see and help support – through franchising or other means – organizations outside the US to develop something similar for Canada, Australia, Europe or Latin America. Hungarians have left their mark all over the world. Visualizing their important historic and ongoing contributions is a laborious but fun and meaningful project to take on.”