IdeasProject : All Content - Articles

From Idea to App: “Zoom Out - Children’s Magic Book”

ideasproject@nokia.com — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 17:44:55 GMT

Great apps begin with great ideas. Those ideas then spawn other ideas, which - given some hard work and inspiration from developers - can ultimately lead to great apps. Such was the genesis of “Zoom Out - Children’s Magic Book,” created by developers Tomasz Mucha and Siva Kumar, an app that displays interactive content when children touch mobile devices to pictures of animals.

Mucha and Kumar got their inspiration from Educative Game, an idea submitted to IdeasProject’s recent Primary Education challenge by John Doe. Their description of the steps it took to turn the idea into an app, told in an interview with IdeasProject’s Community Manager, is an education in itself.

While Educative Game offered a fun way to help children learn new words, the developers felt the idea needed a stronger focus to be viable in the marketplace. From spelling and words, Mucha and Kumar evolved the idea of a magic book about animals. “The magic happens on the phone,” says Mucha, a business school grad who recently taught himself programming, “which, after touching the picture of an animal, starts to display more interactive content than what a simple book can.”

From Proof of Concept to (Almost) a Product

One obstacle to the creation of the app was the implementation of NFC, or near field communication, a technology typically used by customers to pay for retail purchases using a special chip in a mobile device or credit card. For Educative Game, using NFC involved several steps, including the creation of an infrastructure within which the application could be used, as well as determining the cost of NFC tags that could contain the information needed for the app. It also meant finding investors to cover those costs, and proving to those investors that the app could be profitable. “We built a simple prototype as a proof of concept,” says Kumar, an engineering student with a passion for entrepreneurship. “That's the way any idea turns into a sustainable business. Now we are further improving the prototype into first level of product.”

As of this writing, the “Zoom Out” app is still under development, but Mucha and Kumar say they are close to release. “That will be available in Nokia store early next year if everything goes well,” says Kumar.

Mucha advises those who would follow their lead that the most important resource for a developer is passion. “Find something that you're passionate about, and start making it happen,” he says. “It is easy to talk about different ideas and how great they would be,” he says, “but if you don't start acting, these are all [just] ideas.”

Education as a Lifelong Endeavor

ideasproject@nokia.com — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 18:39:36 GMT

Education, viewed as a lifelong process, offers unique potential to transform lives and enrich societies. The third sub-challenge in Nokia IdeasProject’s Education For All series, sponsored by UNESCO, the Pearson Foundation, and Nokia, is “Youth and Adult Learning Needs.” This challenge aims to gather ideas for how mobile communication can help young people and adults gain life skills, access tools to ensure their continued learning, and use technology to move beyond educational institutions.

A Vicious Circle

Adolescence is a critical time for people to get the skills they need to avoid exploitation in the workplace, and to participate fully in society. UNESCO cites secondary education as one of the signposts of a modern, open economy, noting that “...young people, especially adolescent girls, face risks and threats that limit learning opportunities.” These same threats, which include “...exploitative labour, the lack of employment, conflict and violence, drug abuse, school-age pregnancy and HIV/AIDS,” are paradoxically among the pitfalls that a strong secondary education can help adolescent girls to avoid. And mobile technology has the potential to address these challenges by educating adolescents, and by providing them with access to better job opportunities.

Another pillar of the Youth & Adult Learning Needs challenge is appropriate learning needs for young people and adults. This value was reaffirmed as a basis for lifelong learning in a recent video by the Pearson Foundation, which discusses its importance in the context of mobile communication systems. “It is broader than just literacy,” says Sayeeda Rahman, Programme Specialist, UNESCO Section for Literacy and Non-Formal Eduation. “It talks about learning needs of all young people and adults with appropriate learning and life-skills programs. It is contextualizing what is appropriate for a learner today.”

Transcending Educational Systems

UNESCO recognized in 1997 that “...the challenges of the twenty-first century cannot be met by governments, organizations or institutions alone.” That statement, from the Hamburg Declaration on Adult Learning, also acknowledged the potential for mass media and technology to go beyond what could be achieved by traditional institutions. The Youth and Adult Learning Challenge invites education experts, teachers, parents, students, employers and software developers to explore how mobile technology can impart values and expertise, and provide an educational outlet for youth and adults. “It’s a question of really doing some creative thinking,” says UNESCO Senior Programme Specialist For Literacy and Non-Formal Education Clinton Robinson in the Pearson video. “How can we now take [mobile technology] and see it in the broader context of people’s livelihoods, of people’s values, of people’s learning needs, of people’s cultural self-expression?”

While greater numbers of adolescents are enjoying the benefits of secondary education, the disparities between countries and regions are still significant. Mobile devices are not only potentially more accessible in underserved areas, but can provide a unique capability to facilitate innovation in vocational training and distance learning. IdeasProject’s Youth and Adult Learning Needs challenge invites you to think about how mobile phone communication can help youth and adults expand their participation in the workplace and society, and become a basis for lifelong learning.

巧思无极限---IdeasProject创意集合

ideasproject@nokia.com — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 02:49:05 GMT

IdeasProject至今为止已经有300多条创意了，大家都在踊跃分享自己对手机好点子。在刚刚结束的“创意改变生活”挑战赛中，获奖创意“穿衣搭配”的提供者获得了参加10月底与伦敦举办的“诺基亚世界2011”活动的机会，其创意还将由诺基亚做成应用供用户就通过ovi商店下载，是不是很酷呢？

小编我也从众多优秀的创意中选出了几个我喜欢的创意同大家分享，希望这些创意也能激发您的聪明才智，为大家提出更棒的点子：

•1. 旅游图志(http://www.ideasproject.com/ideas/9654)

现在越来越多的人喜欢旅游，但往往在行程中无法及时准确地获得诸如：交通、住宿、餐饮、景点、天气等信息支持。可以考虑开发一个基于地图的手机软件，它不仅可以提供给旅行者直观指示，包括：现在所处位置、到达目的地的路线、目的地天气情况、性价比最高的酒店等，还可以让旅行者事先在相应的位置记录自己搜集的关于旅行一切信息，制定相应计划，设置必要的提醒，撰写旅行心得与驴友分享。

•2. 音乐播放器显示歌词功能(http://www.ideasproject.com/ideas/9957)

现在手机自带的播放器无法从网络下载歌词和显示歌词，诺基亚公司应该和当地的搜索引擎公司合作，比如：百度等，当播放某歌曲时，软件能通过网络下载对应的歌词，并显示出来。

•3. 穿衣搭配(http://www.ideasproject.com/ideas/10480)

明天后天要穿什么呢？怎样帮助朋友家人远距离挑选衣服？要出门了，天气突变，来不及选衣服怎么办？衣服太多，不记得了怎么办？怎样才能穿的时尚，穿的符合场合？出差去外地，怎么知道在当地穿什么合适？

•4. 增加一个睡眠模式(http://www.ideasproject.com/ideas/9677)

当人睡觉的时候，手机就没必要全力运行，可以进入睡眠模式。所谓睡眠模式，就是通过设置睡眠模式启动和结束时间，在这期间，手机会把闹表、接听电话和发送短信功能以外的各种功能都关闭，而且，手机信号也降低50%的接受效果，以达到省电目的，当来电话或短信时，会自动切换到正常模式，一旦完成了相关动作，就又会自动进入睡眠模式，直到到达结束时间后，手机会自动进入正常状态，把相关程序再重新启动。

此程序可以解决以上问题~

用手机照下自己的衣服，储存下来。就可以提前为自己或他人搭配衣服~也可由程序自动挑选，符合场合、天气，又很时尚的衣服搭配，一键搞定~

•5. 心情收留站 mood station(http://www.ideasproject.com/ideas/10545)

随时随地通过手机app更新自己的心情标签和心语，看看app统计的全国甚至全世界有多少人此刻真经历着与你相似或相反的情绪。。。找个同病相怜的吐吐苦水，还是拉个乐天派来安慰安慰，随你。app会统计你一段时间内的心情变化和频率，通过和群体合适常值的比较和你的类型（男女，年龄，职业）来告诉你你可能属于哪种性格，并给出相应的建议。。。人数庞大具有统计意义时，甚至可以作为研究调查的参考来判断固定群体在一段时间内德情绪变化和整体走向，作为跨文化研究，情绪研究或是历史事件对大众的影响都是不错的一个视角。。。

•6. 避免误挂电话(http://www.ideasproject.com/ideas/9584)

很多触摸屏手机都有一个缺点，距离感应器的反应，比屏幕反应慢，这就出现一个问题，来电话时，如果脸先碰到屏幕，就会直接挂断电话，能否设计一个功能，比如：按接听键之后，屏幕立刻黑屏或锁屏几秒钟，或者把挂断键立刻隐藏起来。

•7. 绿箱子的升级版(http://www.ideasproject.com/ideas/9593)

现在回收手机只是在部分地区设置了几处场所，官网能否开设一个绿箱子的页面，鼓励大家把废旧手机寄给诺基亚公司，然后，给寄送者一个积分，当积分积攒到一定程度的时候，可以换成购物代金券或者是虚拟钱币，可以买点实用的东西。

•8. 简易方便的旅行计划(http://www.ideasproject.com/ideas/10683)

现在的地图应用都只能告诉你去一个目的地的路线建议，但是作为旅游人士却常常需要一个时候去好多景点，这时就要考虑去景点的顺序，怎样才最近而不会绕路，怎样才最省钱，午餐、晚餐该去哪里，甚至景点周围有没有可以方便的地方，等等。

如果有一个程序可以提供多个去处的路线建议，甚至为你提供行程的具体安排建议就会方便很多。因为是手机程序，所以可以实时定位、帮助指引，所以集成在手机功能里会更加方便。

怎么样，看了这些新奇的创意感觉如何？我错过了你最喜爱创意吗？如果您有更妙的想法，就来参加IdeasProject挑战赛吧！

IdeasProject现在正在举行“全民教育”系列挑战赛。这是诺基亚、联合国教科文组织以及培生基金会共同举办的旨在为所有儿童、青少年和成年人提供优质的基础教育而设计的创意挑战赛。如果您能对教育专家、教师、学生以及软件开发人员之间通过动态交流提升教育质量提出任何建议，就来参加挑战赛吧，奖品可是诺基亚最新的智能手机哦！

另外，随着诺基亚N9的发售，IdeasProject正在举行”N9挑战赛”，如果您是N9的用户并在使用中有什么改进N9的好点子，可以把您的创意提交到网站上同大家分享。没有N9也不要紧，因为您提交的N9创意最终获奖的话，就会获得由挑战赛送出的N9手机！

穿什么？你是否每天都有这样的选择焦虑症？” 软件Dress来解决这个问题。”

ideasproject@nokia.com — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 07:02:40 GMT

10月26日和27日, 在伦敦举行的Nokia World大会上,邀请了来自中国的工程师进行Hackathon竞赛. 我们对他们进行了采访.

" 我是瓦力网络的石鹏，高级软件工程师，多年Symbian, Windows Phone研发经验。我们的团队非常幸运接受Nokia China邀请参加了London Nokia World 2011以及 Hackthon 大赛。作为中国区参赛队员与来自各国的研发精英团队过招，我们压力都还挺大。虽然为此我们做了充分的赛前准备，但是很遗憾最终还是没有能获得奖项，我们的失败部分原因在于策略的失误以及参赛经验的缺乏,获奖的团队几乎都是一个team专攻一个奖项。这使得我们在单一平台产品上没有太多竞争力。不过我们收获的是宝贵的参赛经验，也见识到精英团队的高效协作和研发设计理念。

最后特别感谢一下Nokia China 王薇的大力支持!感谢Nokia!感谢瓦力网络!"

Dress的创意来自Project Idea, 中国Hackathon团队基于这个Idea，设计了基于windows phone 7,nokia s60,s40的跨平台程序。

"大家好，我是袁彬，瓦力网络研发总监，多年Symbian,Windows Phone以及iPhone Os研发经验，2011年10月26日~27日的London Nokia World大会上，Wali Team有机会参与到Nokia Hackthon比赛，获胜者将获得丰厚奖金以及Nokia,Microsoft的技术，市场推广支持。对我们来说，这是一次非常珍贵的机会。比赛在一个封闭的房间累计24小时计时编程，对参赛人员的身体和心理抗压能力要求比较高，当然赛前的准备是必不可少的。一个完整的好的产品设计，经过验证的技术解决方案，是获胜的必要条件，编程的代码实现细节显得加分不多。这些都是我们这次未能获奖的经验教训。不过能与世界顶尖的研发团队切磋比拼，输赢并不重要，重要的是我们学习到了宝贵的经验，我们很乐意将这些经验分享给所有的中国研发者，大家共同进步，下一次的冠军也许就是我们中国的团队了。

最后非常感谢Nokia China的支持。希望开发者朋友们多多关注新的WP7平台，新的S60,S40，Nokia的辉煌，将在我们所有开发者的支持下再现。"

Dress解决方案是通过天气以及地理位置信息，结合用户日程安排，模拟出用户当前或未来某个时间的场景，天气数据包括温度，风力，湿度通过公式计算出所需服饰隔热值，再通过策略算法获取服装搭配的方案。这套方案暂不包括时尚方面的搭配。算法部分和数据可以放在云服务器上。

"我是瓦力网络的刘必强，高级软件工程师，曾有Symbian/Windows Mobile/BREW/Android/J2ME研发经验。

很荣幸也很幸运能够作为来自中国区的成员之一参加NH2011，也是本人第一次参加这样的国际赛事，那激动心情可想而知。能够挑选出来参加 NH2011,是Nokia对我们瓦力公司技术研发实力的认可，更是对我们瓦力产品的肯定。虽然我们的产品最终没能获奖，但通过此次大赛，也让本人认识到与世界顶级公司的技术差距，也积累了Hackathon一些经验，今后参与类似赛事就会游刃有余，而不像这次这样参促应战。NW2011这种赛事，很考验团队的协作以及对产品的整体把握，还有个人的耐力。"

Dress数据来源方面设计由商家提供数据，也可以由用户可以通过扫描码或者拍照方式导入服装图片，手动设置服装各项数据（款式，长短，厚薄，甚至可以扩展到价格，来源等等）,可以自由搭配服装获取得评价或者获取程序推荐的服装搭配。

目前重要的技术环节在Demo程序中已经实现。

Nokia N9 Challenge Winners - Reducing Our Actions to a Single Swipe

ideasproject@nokia.com — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 06:31:35 GMT

IdeasProject’s Nokia N9 challenge underscores the power of simplicity, especially when it comes to mobile devices. 12 winning ideas – chosen from the biggest pool ever submitted for a challenge – help streamline the Nokia N9 by putting relevant information in the places we want it. From screensavers and messaging to multitasking and ringtones, these refinements aim to improve N9 functionality by reducing the number of actions we perform, often to a single swipe.

Information at Our Fingertips

Parth Patel thought about what we see on the surface of the device and came up with Smart Lockscreen, which allows users to configure their screensaver with weather information and location-specific details about entertainment and services. To manage the daily barrage of notifications we get – from missed phone calls to Twitter and RSS updates – Karim Nehme proposed Organising Feeds in the Events Homescreen, which arranges these events according to source, chronology, and user preference. Zoom Levels in Feed View, from Youness El Alaoui, offers the option of simple pinch gestures to zoom out for an overview or zoom in for more detail on individual notifications.

Easier Dialing, Ringing, Scrolling & Emailing

We’ve long been able to choose songs for our ringtones, but Better Ringtone by Matjaž Lesjak offers the ability to select specific parts of a song. Photo Dial by Ara Azatanci brings us closer to friends by replacing the number system for dialing with actual photos. Downhill Kinetic Scrolling by Lauren Tucker lets users accelerate or decelerate the speed at which they scroll by changing the angle of the phone. This allows users to pinpoint items but also to scroll faster when moving down a long list.

Ever feel like you’re sending the same email over and over? Quick Reply (for SMS, Email, etc) by Andre Medeiros eliminates the need to start from scratch with each email by triggering the phrases you’ve used in the past when certain keywords are typed.

Multitasking, Multidevicing & Data Sharing

Faster Browser Tab Switching/Multitasking, from Ejas Mudar, makes it possible to toggle between open windows in a single swipe rather than the two or three actions it normally takes on a mobile device. Youness El Alaoui's Multitasking Swipe Gesture adds a two-finger swipe option to allow users to cycle through previously running tasks.

Ejas has also devised Nokia Uninterrupted, a way to move between different devices as you continue a task, for example an email you began on your mobile phone and want to finish on your personal computer. My Stream! by Prassad Sherlekar facilitates the sharing of files from a server by any device or individual who belongs to a designated group.

Our final winner, Ivan Čukić's Application Icon and Title in Running App Overview, refines the way we distinguish between instances of an application. For example, a user can scan across multiple chats and quickly identify the person with whom they are chatting through a bold icon laid over the chat windows. We've cited Benjamin Pannell's Overlay Icons in Task Switcher as a similar idea that could be combined with the above.

In combination and on their own, these winning ideas offer something more than just innovation. They help us enjoy the innovation the N9 offers by making it easier to access information.

Advancing Technologies For Privacy

ideasproject@nokia.com — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 22:19:48 GMT

With an increasing number of technologies dependent on the sharing of personal information, privacy is a consideration that often gets compromised. Privacy by Design is a concept created by Dr. Ann Cavoukian – Ontario, Canada’s Information & Privacy Commissioner – to advance privacy protection by evolving it in parallel with technology. Like technology, privacy is dependent on good ideas in order to grow. IdeasProject recently launched the Designing Privacy challenge to encourage users to share their thoughts and inspirations for new ways to incorporate privacy protection in mobile phones, services, and technologies.

In recent years, Internet users have come to accept the idea that sharing their own personal data is simply the price to be paid in order to take full advantage of what a technology such as Facebook has to offer. But Dr. Cavoukian, who has been grappling with privacy issues as Ontario’s privacy commissioner since 1997, believes this notion, which she refers to as a “zero-sum model,” is flawed. Instead, she advocates a “positive-sum solution,” where “you can have multiple functionalities occurring in unison in a positive way. A positive strategy that will ensure the future of privacy and freedom.”

Sounds good, but how does it work? Dr. Cavoukian suggests beginning with the assumption that access to personally identifiable information is neither a given nor a necessity. “The starting point is privacy,” she says, “no tracking, no secondary use of my data without asking me, the Customer.” Recognizing, however, that “there are many times when I will want you to have my data,” Dr. Cavoukian offers an example of the kind of measure that could be built into a mobile device to facilitate an app for getting directions: “A simple prompt can say, ‘You realize that we’ll need to know where your location is in order to determine how to get you from where you are to where you want to go.’ And I’d say, ‘Yes, of course, use my data.’”

Selling Privacy

Entrepreneurs accustomed to a world in which access to personal data is taken for granted may bristle at such limitations. But Cavoukian says she is “not telling the industry not to develop innovative solutions and apps. What I’m saying is: ‘Build them alongside privacy; offer both.” She points out that because corporations are often the ones negatively impacted when privacy issues blow up, they’ve begun to see the wisdom of implementing more robust privacy protections.

Dr. Cavoukian believes, in fact, that privacy is a powerful selling point. “When I talk to businesses,” she explains, “I say, ‘I want you to be able to sell these solutions to your customers by telling them that they’re also going to be sold privacy in the same package.’”

Inspired by Dr. Cavoukian’s ideas, IdeasProject’s Designing Privacy challenge invites users to share their ideas to advance privacy in parallel with technology. Dr. Cavoukian is also a judge for the challenge, and predicts that privacy will be a winner for technology innovators, “It builds consumer confidence, it builds trust, “ she concludes, “it makes it easier, in fact, to spread their solutions.”

Watch the complete interview with Dr. Ann Cavoukian:

Developer David O'Neill Brings Winning Blood Donation App to Life

ideasproject@nokia.com — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 19:40:51 GMT

In June of 2011, Kamel Seghaier and Sana Refai’s idea to create a social network “gathering blood donors worldwide” was the winner of IdeasProject’s Apps For Change challenge. Now it looks to become a groundbreaking app, thanks to the efforts of developer David O’Neill and his Seattle-based company, Viafo. The two were connected through IdeasProject and Nokia, who invited O’Neill to complete the app at the Nokia World Hackathon in October. Now called Blood Sprint, the app solves a perennial problem for blood donation agencies: finding a critical mass of blood donors to meet specific and time-sensitive needs.

Creating an app to address such a massive challenge was not as simple as it might appear. “Most people think a mobile app just sits on your phone and does things,” explains O’Neill, “[but] an app is just the front end of a whole rich set of services that need to come together in the right way.”

A Simple App to Address a Staggering Need

O’Neill and his colleagues began by asking doctors and agencies how a blood donation app might best serve their needs. “Blood supply agencies were actually all starting to think about how [to] leverage social media,” he says. What the agencies hadn’t figured out was how to do it at the scale required to address their staggering needs. “In an area like Seattle, which only has a population of two or three million,” says O’Neill, “they need something like a quarter of a million donors a year just to meet demand.”

O’Neill’s team was particularly suited to the considerable challenge of plugging the app into the kind of network this appeared to require. “One of the things we specialize in [is] social media,” says O’Neill, “and making it easy for apps to interact with back end Web and location services.” Viafo identified three critical components – data management, social media, and location awareness – to enable the app to work not just in Seattle but anywhere.

They also kept it simple. “Anybody can download the app and sign up for free,” says O’Neill. “You put your blood type in, you activate the location services, and then the blood donation services have a Web portal where they can register and issue alerts and news to people within their geographic area.”

Double Prize Winner

In addition to its inception as the Apps For Change challenge winner (as Red Heart), Blood Sprint garnered second prize at the 2011 Nokia World Hackathon. SMS-provider OpenMarket is supporting the app with preferential messaging rates, and FourSquare is creating a special badge. Having tackled blood donation, it’s clear that the app can have broader uses. As O'Neill points out, "Everybody has their phone with them - but not everybody opts into organ donor card systems.” O’Neill’s suggestion? “We'd like to see this evolve as a bigger part of the social contract we have with each other.” We couldn’t agree more.

Watch the video interview with David O'Neill:

Developers and the “Third Ecosystem”

ideasproject@nokia.com — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 20:27:30 GMT

Nokia CEO Stephen Elop has described the alliance between Nokia and Microsoft as a “third ecosystem,” which could potentially become the basis of an ecosystem to rival Apple iOS and Google Android. His statement reflects the belief that success in the mobile arena is no longer defined by individual devices or software, but instead is an interconnected markeplace of hardware, operating systems, and apps that creates compelling, groundbreaking, and useful technology.

IdeasProject asked software developers at Nokia World 2011 to share their thoughts about Windows Phone 7, and to ruminate on the possibilities for such a “third ecosystem.”

What’s Different

Several of the people interviewed believed that the combination of Nokia and Windows phone represents a different user experience from the other two ecosystems. “As always with Nokia,” says Henrik Pettersson from Visiarc, whose Duudle app won the Nokia World Hackathon, “I’m expecting great hardware. But I’m also expecting some differentiators from the other manufacturers.” And Suraj Pavaskar of United States and India-based Persistent Systems, who worked on a “Panic Alert” app at the Hackathon, says, “On other platforms you will find applications like Facebook and Twitter, where you need to launch those applications and work with them. But on Windows Phone 7, it’s an integrated experience.”

Martti Piirainen from Tieto, a Finnish company that worked on an app called “Did You Like It?” expects that “...Nokia will find a few interesting niches that make it more impressive and interesting.” However, he points out that, at least initially, the incorporation of a Microsoft software platform is no more than what other manufacturers have been doing. “We all know that the first increment of Nokia Windows phones cannot be radically different from others who have already been using Windows phones,” he says.

Creating Apps on the New Platform

So, will developers become excited enough to want to create apps for this new platform? Jaakko Kangasharju from Futurice, a group of developers from Finland who worked on an app called “Virtual Toilet Wall” at the Hackathon, says that “...it took a while [for me] to understand how things worked. But once I got into the mindset,” he continues, “it was really simple to do the things I was wanting to do.”

However, Visiarc’s Pettersson, who has been developing for previous Nokia operating systems since 2002, isn’t quite sure - yet. "It's going to be quite a challenge for us to learn a totally new platform,” he admits. Suraj Pavaskar of Persistent Systems agrees. “It’s got its own way of app development,” says Pavaskar, “based on service applications, rather than native platform applications,” which potentially means more portability across different types of phones.

“A Very Different Approach”

David O’Neill, CEO of Seattle-based Viafo, which won second place in the Hackathon for the “Blood Sprint” app, thinks that “...people will naturally take to it. But it’s a very different approach to what people got used to on Android and iPhone and existing Nokia phones.” Having worked in the past for Microsoft, O’Neill believes he’s found something that the software giant was missing in past: “I think Microsoft have lacked having a partner who really has bought into [mobile], rather than somebody who just builds phones of every type.” The partnership between Nokia and Microsoft, however, represents a new approach - and a new opportunity to build that “third ecosystem.”

“Create 4 Millions” Takes a Big Step Toward Reaching the Next Billion

ideasproject@nokia.com — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 17:23:42 GMT

IdeasProject’s Create 4 Millions challenge was launched to generate exceptional mobile apps that can help “the next billion” users connect to the Internet via mobile devices. In a related “Hackathon” at the recent Nokia World event on October 26 and 27, 2011, over 40 developers from a dozen countries converged on London to develop these life-changing apps. And in the same way that the winners of the challenge had to travel thousands of miles to receive their prizes, the transformation from a glimmer of an idea to a life-improving app has also involves a journey.

“Preschool Aid” Helps Children - and Parents - Learn

Challenge Winner Simon Botes from South Africa hopes that his Preschool app will one day reach children who might not otherwise have access to early-learning tools, which are helpful for long-term educational success. “In a small rural village where they don’t even have preschools,” he says, “it gives the parents the ability to give their child a preschool, and monitor their progress from the palm of their hand.” At the Nokia World Hackathon, Simon and his team from AppCRAFT worked on the app, and renamed it Preschool Aid.

Here’s a brief interview with Simon:

“Emergency Response” Provides Critical Information

Challenge participant Ingrid Botes won second place - but not because she and Simon are married. Ingrid’s husband Simon attended Nokia World 2010 as a Calling All Innovators challenge winner, and this year Ingrid decided that she didn’t want him making any more trips by himself. She achieved this objective on the merits of her winning app idea, which earned her a trip to the 2011 event alongside her husband.

Ingrid had thought about what it would be like for others traveling alone, and what might happen if someone had a physical problem while on the road. Her idea was to display important medical information on a person’s default mobile device, in case of a medical emergency far from home - and the Emergency Response app was born. “In the time when an actual emergency happens,” she points out, “[we’re] not always close to family members that actually know of our condition.”

You can see Ingrid’s video interview here:

“Clothing Match Up” Helps Users Choose Weather-Appropriate Clothes

Third place-winning idea, Clothing Match Up from Kate Tu of China, is for an app that uses photographs to help users select the right combination of clothes to keep cool in the summer, warm in the winter, dry in the rain, and always in style. A team from China comprised of developers Shi Peng, Yuan Bin, and Liu Biqiang completed prototypes of the app for three different mobile software platforms - Windows Phone 7, QT and Java 2 Micro - at the Nokia World Hackathon. It’s still mostly concept though, and Liu reports that it is “...far from submitting to market.”

So while Create 4 Millions has proved itself a destination for inspired ideas to have the opportunity to touch the lives of millions around the world, the journey from simple ideas to great apps is ongoing.

Nokia World 2011 Hackathon Turns App Ideas Into Reality

ideasproject@nokia.com — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 22:31:08 GMT

Over the past six months, IdeasProject has been the destination for over 1500 new app ideas. Challenges such as Apps For Change, Where’s the App For, and Create 4 Millions have inspired ideas for mobile apps to improve the quality of our lives in numerous ways. And Nokia World 2011 in London will feature a two-day “Hackathon” event to transform the best of those ideas into real applications.

A Hackathon brings developers together to collaborate on a common programming objective, such as creating apps for a specific purpose. For this year’s event, Nokia invited teams from all over the world to develop workable mobile phone apps from 11 selected ideas. This 48-hour “sprint” will culminate at the closing presentation of Nokia World, where finalists from the Hackathon will present their completed apps, and a winner will be selected.

The Hackathon finale will also coincide with the announcement of the winners of the Create 4 Millions challenge, whose top prize winner Simon Botes will be developing his own Nokia Preschool application in the Hackathon. This free S40 mobile based home preschool will be the world's largest home schooling system for 5-7 year-olds. Emergency Response from Ingrid Botes, the Second Prize-winner, offers an imaginative way to use mobile devices to avert potential calamities. The third prize winner, 穿衣搭配 by炀涂 was an idea submitted from China to use saved pictures to help mobile phone users determine which outfit to wear in different weather.

The Right Information at the Right Time

A dominant theme among the ideas chosen for the Hackathon is in responding to emergencies. Three different suggestions –Watch Dog, an app idea from Charles Cann, PaniQ from Dion Guillaume, Rapid Alarm from Ali Pitkänen, and Emergency Response from Ingrid Botes, mentioned above – offer imaginative ways to use mobile devices to avert potential calamities. These ideas demonstrate that basic smartphone functions such as speed dialing, GPS, video, photos, and screen savers can inspire people to save lives by channeling the right information to the right person at the right time.

Two other ideas will provide a different kind of inspiration: Fun. Crowd Doodling Canvas, from Harri Kiljander, envisions a virtual 50-foot screen, visible to crowds as they wait for a concert to begin, upon which they can sketch and share their own designs using their mobile devices. Should they need to use the toilet while waiting, they can scribble their musings on a Virtual Toilet Wall, an app idea conceived by Teemu Korpilahti.

These same concert-goers will also be able to find friends using one of two proposed location-based apps being developed at the Hackathon: the Similar Person Locator, from David Spark, and I'm Here from Atte Harjanne. The winning idea from the Apps For Change Challenge, Red Heart, was proposed by Sana Refai and Kamel Seghaier of Tunisia, suggesting the creation of a community of blood donors and recipients. It will be developed at the Hackathon by a team from Seattle. And News2Views, an interactive “curated news” app from Jessie Torres, will be made possible by Polish developer Krzystztof Krzewniak.

Two final app ideas are Synchronize Birthday Dates from Facebook to Mobile from Jijo Joseph Villanasseril, which employs an attractive user interface and mobile device accessibility to ensure we never miss a birthday and Vote Independently Using Mobile Phone, from Oleg Ushakov, which offers the opportunity for mobile phone users to create a “virtual United Nations” and to vote on critical global questions. In fact, with app ideas from so many different parts of the world being developed by teams representing so many different nationalities, the 2011 Nokia World Hackathon is beginning to look like its own version of the United Nations.

Education For All Challenge Begins with “Literacy”

ideasproject@nokia.com — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 01:29:18 GMT

Education, according to UNESCO, is a “basic human right.” But it’s a right that still isn’t universally accessible – not when so many of the world’s children are forced to work at a young age, or to live far from any possibility of schooling.

But now IdeasProject users have the opportunity to offer ideas that can help. Nokia, UNESCO, and the Pearson Foundation are challenging the IdeasProject community to think about ways that mobile technology could help to meet six goals for universal education, as outlined by the World Educational Forum in Dakar, Senegal. During each month of IdeasProject’s Education For All Challenge Series, Nokia will award smartphones and the Pearson Foundation will donate money as well as books to support the best ideas for each of the six goals.

The first monthly “sub-challenge” is focused on Literacy, which can be a doorway to greater participation in society, and can help to reduce such problems as poverty, child mortality, population growth and gender inequality. Launched on October 10th, 2011, the Literacy sub-challenge invites teachers, students, education experts, software developers, and others to propose mobile communication solutions to strengthen this foundational component of education. Anyone can help – even by voting and commenting on other ideas. In this way, mobile devices can continue to play a major role in helping more women, children, and adult men gain access to literacy tools.

Go now to the Literacy sub-challenge page, where you can gather information, scan ideas from other participants, and submit your own ideas. You can also learn more about some inspiring literacy projects from our challenge sponsors, including UNESCO’s Mobile Literacy Programme, the Pearson Foundation’s Bridgeit Mobile Technology Program, and Nokia’s MoMaths. Submitted ideas will be judged by a panel of distinguished education experts, including UNESCO Director of Education Strategies David Atchoarena, educational technology innovator Jacqueline Batchelor, and John Traxler, the Founding Director of the International Association for Mobile Learning and Professor of Mobile Learning at the University of Wolverhampton.

In the coming months, IdeasProject will roll out five additional sub-challenges, in the areas of early childhood education, learning outcomes, life skills, gender disparities, and underserved communities. Monthly sub-challenge winners will receive a Nokia smartphone, a donation of US$3,000 plus a US$3,000 library of digital and print books for children, both from the Pearson Foundation, to a nonprofit organization in each sub-challenge winner’s home country. All Challenge winners will have their ideas published and promoted on the UNESCO Web site. The cash donations will be paid in June 2012, following the completion of the Education For All Challenge Series on May 31, 2012.

Mobile technology offers an exciting way to address gaps in literacy, and to attain the projected universal literacy rate mandated by the UNESCO Education Charter. But the crucial ingredient to drive that innovation is people. By connecting your ideas about how to meet this challenge with other stakeholders, and the children and adults who can benefit by these programs, we can help to meet the goal of universal education for all.

Open Data for Your City

ideasproject@nokia.com — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 16:32:49 GMT

How well do we know our own town or city? Wouldn’t it be great to have access to the kind of practical information known by people who’ve lived there a long time? IdeasProject’s new challenge, the PICNIC 2011 Open Data Kitchen Challenge, gives us all the chance to ask what is most important to know about our local area. And if your question is one of five selected, you’ll receive a brand new Nokia N8 mobile device!

Many of us are resigned to the fact that when we’re out and about on any given day, we’re operating with an incomplete picture of the tremendous range of information, goods and services that are available to us. Mobile devices have helped us to access information about various locations such as restaurants, entertainment, and events, as well as timetables for buses and trains. But the deeper information - what we discover only after living for years in a location - often remains known only to us individually. And we pass one another on the street each day without being able to easily share it.

Now’s your chance to change this. The Open Data Kitchen Challenge encourages us to ask for the kind of insider information that can help many different kinds of people. By asking what could be useful to you, you can bring attention to a variety of needs, ranging from where to buy that special gift, to helping parents of children with disabilities find critical services. For example, IdeasProject member Simon Botes suggests, “I would love to know where strategic evacuation routes are so that in the event of an emergency, I can quickly identify the fastest route out of the city.”

IdeasProject users have until September 15, 2011, to pose questions about their own locale. IdeasProject will then choose five questions from those submitted; select an appropriate person to answer the question, on video; and publish the answer on IdeasProject. IdeasProject will use the questions generated from this challenge at the PICNIC 2011 Festival in Amsterdam (September 14-16, 2011) to better understand how cities can help their citizens.

During the three weeks following PICNIC, we’ll then search to determine if your responses to the selected questions can be made available as “open data” to enrich lives in participating cities: Helsinki, Finland is already on board.

Submit your idea now. Join IdeasProject’s PICNIC 2011 Open Data Kitchen Challenge, and help turn your town into an “open data hub.”

Trailblazing App Developer Gregg Lebovitz

ideasproject@nokia.com — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 20:55:03 GMT

On IdeasProject users are encouraged to share their great ideas to make life better, more fun, more productive. But many are unaware of the next steps that actually bring those ideas to life. We recently met up with a developer who is extremely active on our sister site, Nokia Developer.

Gregg Lebovitz has been a developer and champion for Nokia since 2005, specializing in training other developers in the use of QT, a cross-platform framework that is widely used for developing application software with a graphical user interface. His team at Integrated Computer Solutions in Bedford, Massachusetts, works closely with Nokia to develop and promote mobile applications for numerous platforms, including Symbian, Meego, Ti OMAP, ST Micro, MIPS, and desktops. Prior to his work with Nokia, Gregg was President of Lebovitz.net, a consulting business providing hardware, software, and networking solutions for small to medium size companies. He also worked for such companies as BBN Planet and Cisco Systems. Gregg received his Master and Bachelor of Science degrees from Carnegie Mellon University.

Recently, Gregg documented his groundbreaking work adapting a casual game and a Twitter application from the Nokia-based QML platform to Windows Mobile 7 for Nokia’s developer blog. In the following interview and video excerpt, Gregg explains how his collaborative efforts to share this knowledge among other developers is paving the way for them to rewrite application code for the new Microsoft platform.

How did you get the idea for the cross-platform project you’ve been working on for Nokia and Windows Phone 7?

We got the idea the day that Nokia made the announcement that they were moving their smart phone platform to Windows. We needed to develop internal expertise for doing Windows Phone 7 development, and so we took a number of our applications that we had developed for customers, got their permission, and then used those as training exercises for developing those applications on Windows Phone. In doing so, we developed an internal process, if you will, for developing applications that had already been ported [i.e. adapted] to the Nokia platform. Going forward, our goal is to build a process pipeline that would allow us to develop QT Quick applications and Windows Phone versions of that application at the same time, which would reduce the time it takes to bring customers over to both platforms.

How would you explain to an end user what this allows a developer to do?
What this allows the developer to do is to gain experience in developing applications that are ported to both platforms, so that users get applications they want and need on multiple platforms at the same time. This is critical especially for the business environment where the end user may be selecting the phone and it’s up to the IT department or service provider to make sure that those applications are available on all the platforms that the users may have available.

What are some of the kinds of apps that will be most easily ported or translated to a new platform?
The apps that are most easily ported are apps that are presenting lists or other graphical displays of raw data, using technology that is very similar to what is used to display Web pages in a browser. But the data that’s delivered is more machine readable so that applications can read them and interpret the data, and then display them in different ways that take advantage of the richness of a native application.

Looking ahead to the future, what do you think end users will be able to do that they wouldn't have been able to otherwise?
I think the hard part of developing applications today is the time and effort that goes into getting the applications on all the different platforms. And if we concentrate on methodologies that make it easier to do that, then we can concentrate our resources on improving the applications themselves. For instance, one of the technologies that we’re working with right now is something that’s called near-field communications (NFC). That’s a complex term for technology that allows you to touch your phone to a piece of paper, or a tag, or a door lock, or any other physical device that you might interact with, and communicate with it.

This would be useful for point-of-purchase. I could purchase with my phone by tapping on a pad. I could check into a hotel and have my keys stored on my phone rather than having to get those silly little plastic cards that I’m always losing, that would give me entry into my hotel room. Or I could use NFC for technologies such as getting into my car and starting the engine. This would really make it convenient for users because now they only have one thing they need to keep track of instead of multiple things. For me, this is great because I’m always losing my keys but I can always call my phone and find it.

We’re involved in a large number of projects with Nokia to get more and more applications on these platforms, and the benefit to end users from our relationship with Nokia and Microsoft is that we’re going to be able to delve deeper into the available technology and take advantage of the innovations that Nokia’s going to be able to bring to the Windows Phone market and to the mass market in general. Rather than making innovative technologies available for a select few, we’re going to drive these into phones for everyone.

The Women Of Technology: Making It To The Top

ideasproject@nokia.com — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 21:11:40 GMT

The conversation about women in high tech is a spirited one. Some people continue to focus upon the past, saying that women must reject their feminine side. To make it to the upper tiers of an industry dominated by men, conventional wisdom says, women need to give up the idea of ever having a family. A multitude of stories and statistics tell women that, even while pursuing a degree in computer science, they should just “go home and have babies.”

Gender Diversity

Statistically speaking, the penetration of women corporate officers in Fortune 500 technology companies is currently 8.9 percent - lagging behind the 12.5 percent for all Fortune 500 companies. But many tech companies are coming to realize that women today are using mobile devices, online social networking, online shopping, and gaming - sometimes at even higher rates than men. As a result, the female perspective on key technologies is now being seen as one key to a high-tech organization’s financial success.

“When you have gender diversity in an organization, you have better innovation, and I don’t know where innovation is more important than in the high-tech world,” says Cindy Padnos, a venture capitalist who recently founded Illuminate Ventures, which invests in start-ups led by women. Padnos has compiled data from 100 studies on gender and tech entrepreneurship, which she says indicates that the message is clear: Gender diversity at the officer level improves financial results, and leads to more creative problem solving.

Fight or Flight?

University studies from Stanford University, Carnegie Mellon, and MIT indicate that in the past, the lack of highly visible women making it to the upper tiers of tech organizations has discouraged many young women from entering the field. According to The National Center for Women & Information Technology, in 2003 only one-third of women with a computer science bachelor’s degree were still employed in a science, engineering, or technical (SET) job two years after graduation. And while 74 percent of women in technology report “loving their work,” many leave their careers at a staggering rate: 56 percent depart at the “mid-level” point, just when the loss of their talent is most costly to companies. That’s more than double the “quit rate” for men at the same point.

Due to these findings, many major universities have created programs to support women undergraduates and graduates. Carnegie Mellon formed the “Women at the School of Computer Science” Council, to create an atmosphere that encourages, stimulates, teaches, and earns the loyalty of all, women and men alike. The result is that in the past five years, the number of women entering Carnegie Mellon’s prestigious Computer Science program increased more than five-fold, from 7 percent to 38 percent.

Mentoring & Sponsorship

Bolstering these university-initiated endeavors, in the early 1990’s Astia and Springboard Enterprises became two of the first U.S. non-profit organizations to formally provide mentoring and sponsorship to women in the field of innovation and technology. In an interview with Nokia Conversations, Jo Harlow, Nokia’s executive vice president in charge of smart devices, said, “I’ve been extremely lucky in that I’ve had a sponsor throughout my career. This is someone who has invested time in me, someone who I could always go to for advice or get feedback and direction from.” Harlow, who was recently named by Fierce Wireless as one of 2011’s Most Influential Women, continued, “I’ve found it really valuable to have someone who, out of choice, decided to invest in my future, and be there for me as a role model.”

As you can see in our IdeasProject community, the number of women experts who are finding success and sharing their stories is growing every day. Women are rising to the challenge of becoming more involved in the high-tech world. As Illuminate’s Padnos has found in the world of high-tech corporations, the global community can only benefit from this ever-increasing trend toward gender diversity and greater innovation.

Apps For Change Winner Profiles

ideasproject@nokia.com — Sat, 28 May 2011 05:28:04 GMT

IdeasProject recently announced the winners of the Apps For Change Challenge. Here we present in-depth interviews with the winner and two of the apps singled out for honorable mention.

"Give me Hope, Give me Life, Give me Blood, Let my Heart Beat"

Sana Refai and Kamel Seghaier of Tunisia are problem solvers who work in the tech industry and regularly brainstorm ideas about how to use technology to make the world a better place. Their idea for an app to create a community of blood donors and recipients, called Red Heart, was selected as winner of our Apps For Change Challenge from over 300 entries. Nokia is putting its developer community to work to build the app and make it available as a free download in the Ovi Store. Soon Sana and Kamel may realize their dream of a global network that can save lives and ensure that people with rare blood types can improve their chances of survival in situations where a transfusion is required.

Exploring Hidden Frontiers

In thinking about the importance of his Green Ribbon Schools program, which was selected for honorable mention in IdeasProject's Apps For Change Challenge, director Steve Amos was inspired by a recent trip to Houston. "I saw a big picture of astronauts on the moon and remember[ed] all the talk about space rocks. Well I bet you that every one of those astronauts, as a child, somewhere was outside and they turned over a rock and said, 'Gosh, what's that bug or what's that salamander?' And I think the aspect of Green Ribbon Schools is how do we foster powerful partnerships to continue the questioning and the dreams of what we're about." Amos's hope is that students can apply that sense of wonder to explore the hidden frontiers of their own local parks and schools using their mobile devices.

Feeling Bad About Your Commute? Download podcast:

Seamus Maguire was feeling guilty, the way many of us do when we hit the highway in our passengerless cars and join a whole bunch of other single drivers. "I work in a factory near where I live and so does my wife. We might leave the place at different times or one of us might have to go and pick up the kids," he laments. "We end up having to go in in two cars, even though there’s probably about 60 people going in the same direction as us." But Seamus decided to do something about it. With some valuable input from his friend Max, he devised an idea for an app that caught the attention of our Apps For Change Challenge judges and was selected for honorable mention.

"I call it crowd pooling," explains Seamus, "it’s basically an app for helping people either get lifts from other people or give lifts if they’ve a spare seat and they’re going in the same direction." It's a simple idea that can give single driver commuters a way out of their conundrum. "From an emissions point of view and Global Warming," says Seamus, "if you can cut the amount of car journeys by half, that could have a pretty big impact."

App Ideas From DLDwomen

ideasproject@nokia.com — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 16:11:08 GMT

The year 2011 is an incredible time for technology - and also for women. All over the world, women have opportunities to succeed in ways they could not have imagined 100 years ago. In many countries, women are graduating from college and professional schools at higher rates than men, helping them to make a huge impact as local, organizational, and global leaders.

To celebrate these achievements and utilize the particular expertise of women in balancing home and work life, IdeasProject has created a new challenge in partnership with DLDwomen called Apps to Empower Women. Launched at the DLDwomen conference in Munich on June 29, this challenge invites IdeasProject users to come up with ideas for mobile apps that can help women in work, education, and daily life. The originators of the three top-selected app ideas will be given a Nokia phone of their choice. The winner will have their application developed by a team of software developers (who also happen to be women), and posted for free on the Ovi Store.

Apps for Women is hosted by Steffi Czerny, co-founder of the DLD and DLDwomen conferences, and Pia Erkinheimo, co-coordinator of IdeasProject. The challenge will be judged by a distinguished team of technologists, including Mitchell Baker, chairman of the Mozilla Foundation; Abigail Disney, filmmaker and co-founder of the Daphne Foundation; Libby Leffler, chief of staff to Sheryl Sandberg (COO at Facebook); and Elizabeth Varley, CEO of Techhub. The challenge will be open until September 30.

Simple Apps With a Huge Impact
This challenge could not come at a better time. In spite of their gains, women are still struggling to attain more parity at the highest levels of organizations, corporations and government. A recent New Yorker profile of Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg outlines the difficult balance many women must make between work and home, which can be an inhibiting factor just at the moment they might otherwise ascend to the top of organizational ladders.

The DLDwomen conference was founded in 2010 as a unique way for women in powerful positions to exchange experiences on leadership, health and economic issues. The 2011 event featured more than 100 well-known speakers and over 500 participants from all over the world. IdeasProject took the opportunity to capture application ideas from a cross section of the world’s most innovative women at the event in this video (below) to initiate the launch of our challenge.

Such ideas represent the kinds of improvements that could ultimately enable women to ascend to leadership positions in more significant numbers. See all the great ideas that have been submitted so far on our Apps to Empower Women challenge page, where you can share an idea of your own with the IdeasProject community. Perhaps yours will be put into action by our team of women software developers, and make a difference in the lives of women everywhere. And be sure to promote the Challenge and your idea on Twitter, using the hashtag #DLDwomenAPP. The person who tweets about the Challenge the most will receive the Nokia phone of their choice!

Create4Millions Challenge Puts Your Ideas into Action

ideasproject@nokia.com — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 17:34:32 GMT

Create4Millions is a global competition that brings consumers and developers together to create applications for Nokia’s Series 40 mobile phones. As more people in the world gain the ability to communicate and access data through mobile devices, the expectation that mobile applications might help solve our day-to-day challenges has also grown. Many of us have come to rely on applications to help us with daily tasks from shopping to transportation to planting crops. Create4Millions challenges IdeasProject users to discover new and better applications to improve our lives and help us be more productive.

Nokia will connect the best consumer-generated app ideas with top Nokia developers to bring this new wave of applications to Nokia Series 40 phones and make a difference to people all over the world. IdeasProject users are invited to submit ideas in three categories:

Users are also invited to vote and comment on the ideas of others and find ways to collaborate to make them even stronger. Entries will be accepted until September 20, 2011. The top ideators will be awarded a trip to Nokia World in London in October 2011 (see contest rules) and have the opportunity to see their ideas become a reality. These winners will also be given a new Nokia dual SIM device.

Consumers can submit their ideas at: http://www.ideasproject.com/community/challenges/create4millions

Developers are invited to submit Java and Web apps for Nokia Series 40 phones in a separate competition for cash and prizes at: http://developer.nokia.com/create4millions

Numerous Ways to Make a Difference

Since launching the challenge on June 28, IdeasProject has already received scores of ideas from consumers that address a breathtaking range of needs. Among the most popular subjects are childcare, food and diet, gaming, health care, banking, and social media. The contest places a strong emphasis on delivering Internet technology to consumers in emerging economies, where mobile devices have proliferated to an extent that sometimes exceeds more traditional technologies.

A recent Op-Ed post in the New York Times documents a village in Burkina Faso where many residents possess mobile phones but there are no toilets. The arrival of mobile devices in homes around the world that do not yet possess electricity is by now a familiar story. While it may be a stretch to expect mobile applications to address all our needs, what they offer in the of way access to goods and services is transformative. And we’ve only just begun to see how apps can make a difference to users in such remote regions.

Nokia’s Create4Millions Challenge offers a rare opportunity for consumers to share their ideas about how to help people solve daily problems and then see those ideas put into action on a global scale. More than half a billion Nokia Series 40 mobile phones are currently being used by consumers. Could your application idea be one of the ones chosen to be developed and made available to this massive community?

As Nokia’s Senior Vice President, Developer Experience, Marco Argenti puts it: “This competition connects ideas generated by consumers with the creativity and skills from developers, aiming to create great, locally relevant applications together.” Use your creative powers to come up with a life-changing app idea and be the difference in the lives of millions and possibly billions.

Nokia Power Challenge - Devices to Save the Planet

ideasproject@nokia.com — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 02:14:45 GMT

You want light, hit the switch. You need your car to go, pump in fuel. But with 80% of our energy derived from oil, coal and gas [source: Wikipedia], these resources are running out - and their continued use is posing significant risks to the planet. The Nokia Power Challenge asks users to put these global energy concerns in the context our of mobile devices and find solutions there.

Suppose Your Mobile Device Were the Planet

Our mobile devices are among the few areas of our daily lives where the finite nature of energy is apparent. Each day, we bring them with us to work and school, and watch as their stored energy drains away. When we don’t manage these devices properly, problems ensue: We can’t access critical information, or conduct business calls, or contact loved ones.

Now suppose your mobile device were the planet. Failing to manage your energy resources would be the cause of even greater challenges, with transportation, heating, cooling, cooking, communications - even our ability to survive - would all compromised.

Fortunately, in terms of planetary energy resources, the day is not yet over. We each have the ability to do something about it, before our energy is drained away. Our willingness to be more economical with energy is a big part of the answer. But the other part comes from our inventiveness. We don’t need to just be resource-aware: We need to be resourceful. We need to use our innate ability to innovate to find new solutions to our energy challenges. But where can we turn to find these solutions?

A Wealth of Ideas

IdeasProject put out a call to its users with the Nokia Power Challenge, asking people to share ideas about how to save, gather, and generate energy from the devices we carry. Our members responded with a wealth of inspiring, whimsical, brilliant, and many-faceted suggestions. These included new ways to charge our mobile devices using the energy derived from breathing, noise, sharing, water, motion, remote servers, magnets, walking, and more. The challenge continues until August 1, so keep sending us all your great ideas. The top 3 idea contestants will receive the exclusive, collector’s edition Power Pack rechargable battery DC-11k.

Here are a few of the ideas that have inspired us so far:

Jumper Cables for Mobile Devices

Simon Hawaii’s idea draws inspiration from the ways in which drivers help one another when their cars are stranded. His idea, called Share a Charge - Sharge, would have us all carry jumper cables so we can “jump” one other’s phones via a micro USB connector when our energy runs out. To alert other mobile device users of our decaying power status, he proposes the addition of a location-aware application, for which “...you can set your status to either CHARGED to show you're available to charge other devices, or DISCHARGED to show you need a charge,” Simon suggests. “The threshold for these can be set by the user, so as to not be nagged by users who have 50% battery and want a charge, when others have 8% and truly need a charge.” Simon even posted a video on YouTube to show how it works.

John Lodewyk Siegers's Automatic/kinetic movement power charging idea channels an invention made popular by a well-known watch manufacturer to use the energy from the power we derive when we’re on the move. The kinetic energy generated by movement could generate enough of a charge to continually feed power to our devices. Siegers suggests that by positioning our phones strategically outside our bags or pockets, we would “...no longer need to charge all the time outside the home, because the battery is always fully charged.”

An Idea With a Enduring Life

Finally, Seamus Maguire, who previously earned an honorable mention award in our Apps For Change Challenge for his Crowd Pooling idea, posted an idea that transforms a tendency we think of as evil, to one that can contribute to the greater good. The Vampire phone would operate from a principle of inductive charging to allow phones to suck their energy from ambient sources. As Seamus explains, “The phone could be configured to match the local electricity network, and inductively charge off things like electric vehicle charging stations, lampposts, etc.” Clearly an idea that could have a life beyond simple cell phone use, he suggests it could also eventually be used for automobiles. “Inductive charging is still in its infancy really,” says Seamus, “but it’s a pretty simple principle and down the road I think all our electronics will be using [it].”

Find more inspiring suggestions on the Nokia Power Challenge page, and be sure to submit your own ideas for ways to reduce our reliance on unrenewable resources to meet our mobile phone energy needs.

WE HAVE A WINNER!

ideasproject@nokia.com — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 00:32:04 GMT

Where's the App for... something that would make the world a better place?

We asked, and you answered. IdeasProject members submitted an incredible range of ideas, and in return we offered a chance to win a trip to the IdeasProject re-launch party in Austin, TX, during South By Southwest (SXSW).

Here’s the winning answer northern California’s David Murray:

"Where did this really come from?" app: You find an item while shopping, i.e. tennis shoes or produce, and the label says "made in Taiwan," but you want to know what the working conditions are, what the labor practices are, and if those strawberries you are buying in the middle of December aren't some strange genetically mutated product. It would link you to news reports, warnings, recalls, and other important information about that country and its labor practices to make better informed purchasing decisions (as well as alternatives that might be better for the environment or people).

Congratulations to Dave! We’re looking forward to seeing him at the re-launch party in Austin. And thanks to our tremendous team of judges, including “Heroes” creator Tim Kring; social media guru Brian Solis; Internet industry veteran Deborah Schultz; Chris Ziegler of Engadget; and Laura Fitton, CEO of OneForty.com.

Check out the wide variety of submitted ideas here.

Show Me the (Mobile) Money: An IdeasProject Update

ideasproject@nokia.com — Wed, 24 Nov 2010 04:47:08 GMT

Nearly everything a businessperson or customer can do offline, or on a Net-connected PC, will eventually be supported by a mobile device. And that's great for emerging economies.

We’ve written regularly in the past about mobile money, from “m-banking” in Africa to the radical idea that someday information itself might be used as money. New interviews posted to IdeasProject serve as updates to expert thinking on where “m-money” may be taking us. The answer: Inexorably, it’s beginning to look like nearly everything a businessperson or customer can do on a PC, will eventually be supported by a mobile device. That’s good for people in developed economies, but it’s far better for economies that are still going through their early stages of growth.

What’s the Problem?

People running small businesses the world over have many similar problems: They need to find customers, deliver products and services, process payments, and track their profits and losses. The easier it is for entrepreneurs to perform these tasks, the more likely that more entrepreneurs will appear. And the more entrepreneurs who appear, the greater economies can grow. In the U.S., small business is generally credited with 75 percent of all net new job growth in typical economic times.

But those in developed economies take for granted many of the small-business capabilities that are available to them, from flexible banking services to online software for business management. Even simple services such as reliable Internet access and cheap PCs are considered basic rights in developed countries, but are typically denied to the poor in emerging economies.

London-based Olu Elesin and his partner Sirak Mussie were two of the finalists in the 2010 Nokia Growth Economy Venture Challenge. They created an application called FloCash to provide the unbanked masses of Africa with the ability to pay for products and services across a network of agents. In a recent interview for IdeasProject (see video right), Olu described how difficult it can be to conduct a simple transaction in Africa. "If this was in Africa," he said, "I want to buy some goats…It could take a month to complete the transaction that could be done in less than an hour."
Flocash adresses this lag by providing intermediaries in the form a MicroFinance Institution (MFI), a telco or a bank through a mobile device.

Previous IdeasProject interviews with experts in the mobile money arena have highlighted some of the challenges for consumers, citizens and entrepreneurs in developing nations, and offered concrete ideas for solving them. But some aspects of their vision of the solution have been slow to make their way to reality.

In “ mobile phone banking will transform economies,” Grameen Phone founder Iqbal Qadir explored the vision behind placing mobile devices into the hands of people at the “base of the pyramid.” Often unable to use banking services due to their limited income, this group represents the “next few billion” who might be helped to move above the poverty line by receiving the ability to move payments through a mobile infrastructure. Ethan Zuckerman, a research fellow at Harvard’s Berkman Center, provided background on this phenomenon, describing the mechanisms for mobile money, and describing the potential impact on developing economies.

In a newer interview, John Waibochi, founder of Kenya-based VirtualCity, has taken the idea of mobile money one step further. In mature economies, a range of online services allow entrepreneurs to manage their businesses. But these all require reliable Internet access and a PC, both costly assets in developing economies - if they’re available at all. Entepreneur Waibochi has created mobile applications that allow business owners to coordinate a variety of business activities, from order management to stock control.

"If this was in Africa...to buy some goats…It could take like a month to complete the transaction that could be done in less than an hour."- Olu Elesin, Flocash, Nokia 2010 GEVC Finalist,

C.K. Prahalad, the first leading thinker to popularize the idea of “The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid,” is a former advisor to one of Nokia’s external innovation programs. Prahalad maintained that something has to change for emerging economies who are trying to reach parity on the world stage with competitor countries who are much farther down the economic development curve. If these economies have to go through the same development sequence as their more-mature competitors, emerging economies may never fully emerge.

Instead, Prahalad - who passed away in early 2010 - maintained that, on many fronts, developing economies had the opportunity to “leapfrog” various stages of development. His most frequent example was that of telecommunications. More-mature economies often started with telegraph, moved to wireline communications, then to wireless, and finally Internet Protocol-based connections. Why, Prahalad argued, should developing economies invest in ubiquitous wired infrastructure - or even in traditional Internet access - when mobile devices provided a faster path?

Why Stop Here?

The same is true of the applications that people use in their business and personal lives. Many in mature economies simply assume that they will be performing a range of tasks on a PC. But delivering high-function applications on mobile devices allows business owners and workers in emerging countries to work at parity with their more-affluent counterparts. The result: More entrepreneurs running more successful businesses; more customers participating in commerce; and more rapid economic development.

As IdeasProject reported in October 2010, Waibochi’s VirtualCity became the winner of Nokia’s “Growth Economy Venture Challenge,” receiving a million-dollar prize to expand his business. Waibochi and similar entrepreneurs represent a new wave of application developers who are helping to rapidly close the gap between those in developed and developing economies. If the Berkman Center’s Jonathan Zittrain was accurate in his 2009 IdeasProject interview - that ubiquitous human computing will transcend geography - that’s most likely to happen through the new thinking about mobile computing, as the barriers for capability and performance melt away, and businesspeople and individuals are able to perform a broad range of critical capabilities on the go. That’s the way to show us the money.