AppsForAsia is a new initiative created by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and Microsoft, and is supported by regional information technology (IT) associations, private sector technology partners and universities. The programme aims to harness the creative power of hundreds of software developer teams to create sustainable solutions for the economic, commercial and social benefit of governments, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), citizens and enterprises throughout Asia.
In this post we are pleased to present the winning AppsForAsia entries from Malaysia.
As part of the ADB and Microsoft's efforts to support the development of a knowledge-based economy in Malaysia, the AppsForAsia national developer event attracted a great number of software developer teams to create apps that are geared towards addressing social challenges. The three winning applications — EPIC Hope, Gnowledge and Blood R2 System — were showcased at the 46th Annual Meeting of the ADB, held on 2-5 May in New Delhi, India.
Leveraging the latest cloud technology, software developer team DreamX created the EPIC Hope app with the objective of providing sustainable housing for indigenous people in local communities.
EPIC Hope allows for the easy identification of a rural family in need and the information is relayed via the app to appointed master builders who decide if they will proceed with the project. Users of the app can view all approved projects in their area and pick those that they would like to fund or volunteer to help build.
Once teams and project managers have been established, the EPIC Hope app creates a dashboard for managers to easily coordinate project assignments. As a collaborative platform, EPIC Hope helped in reducing the time taken to complete a project and attracted greater community involvement.
The Gnowledge app supports educational activities by enabling users to create, publish, share and take tests, as well as complete academic exercises and assignments on a public portal (Gnowledge.com) that runs on Windows AzureTM.
By offering access to more than 2,000 tests on a wide range of topics, the developers of Gnowledge aim to improve access to quality educational content and records management — and AppsForAsia is the ideal platform for them to raise awareness of their solution and drive traffic to the portal.
In many developing countries in Asia, blood supply remains a significant challenge for hospitals and blood banks. Centium Software developed its Blood Request & Receive System (Blood R2 System) app, also based on Windows Azure, to address blood donation needs in local communities with a global communication tool that helps match blood demand and supply.
The Blood R2 system consists of two apps, the donor app and the requester app. For the donor app, community members register to become a blood donor and key in their personal medical information such as the blood type. If a person requires blood in the community, they can download the requester app and make a request for the blood type, the amount of blood required and the urgency of the request. All donors who have previously downloaded and registered with the donor app, will get this alert and can communicate via the app.
The app has additional features such as recommending donors, recognising successful donations and honouring top donors in the area. To learn more about the app watch this video.
Congratulations to these young developer teams from Malaysia!
For more information, please visit the AppsForAsia website.