Nokia crowd sources ideas for innovative mobile apps at SXSW

Nokia launched a new website during SXSW (South By Southwest), an annual conference and festival held in the USA, that attempts to connect innovative thinkers with application developers in the hope of creating mobile applications that solve "challenges."

The company's IdeasProject website is "a web-based, innovation community where application enthusiasts (consumers, developers, anyone) can join, share and collaboratively create applications for mobile platforms."

"Participants can create or respond to innovation 'challenges' and work together to solve the challenges," explained Nokia in a March 13 blog post.  

The first challenge on the IdeasProject website is called "Apps That Change the World" and asks thinkers, developers and community members to share their ideas about how mobile applications can be used to make positive changes around the globe.

The best submissions will be turned into free applications and will be distributed through Nokia's Ovi Store.

Developers around the world are already starting to explore the ways in which mobile applications can become solutions to global problems: the GoodGuide app lets mobile users scan product barcodes to find safe, healthy, green products while they are shopping; Locavore helps people find and eat local food when it's in season; and MIT is working on a mobile app and inexpensive optometry device called NETRA (Near-Eye Tool for Refractive Assessment) that could help diagnose optical problems in people living in the developing world.

http://www.ideasproject.com/

Independent Comment
blog comments powered by Disqus
Career Services

Day In a Page

Is Ridley Scott the most macho man in movies?

Ridley Scott: The most macho man in movies?

His cinematic CV is unparalleled. Yet the Alien director is still obsessed with beating his rivals.
Being Gary Lineker: The clean-cut anchorman is this summer's Mr Sport

Being Gary Lineker

The clean-cut anchorman is this summer's Mr Sport...
Gallic gourmets are putting French cuisine back on the culinary map

Gallic gourmets put France back on culinary map

Overdone, out of touch and old-fashioned: French cuisine has never been at a lower ebb...
So Moorish: Mark Hix offers his own take on classic Moroccan dishes

So Moorish: Mark Hix's Moroccan dishes

Why not create a north African-inspired feast to share with your friends?
Sin and the single mother: The history of lone parenthood

Sin and the single mother

Maureen Paton explores the history of lone parenthood.
The outsider: Margaret Howell is British fashion's queen of minimalism

The outsider: Margaret Howell

The designer tells Susannah Frankel why she has never felt part of the fashion industry.
The 50 Best luggage

The 50 Best luggage

From chic cases to compact baggage, pack it all in this summer
For men only: A pilgrimage to Mount Athos in Greece

For men only: A pilgrimage to Mount Athos

On a secluded peninsula in north-east Greece lies an enclave that's way off the tourist map, especially for women...
48 Hours In: Faro

48 Hours In: Faro

More than just the gateway to the Algarve, this city has much to tempt you off the beach.
Here, the coast is always clear: Celebrating sixty years of Pembrokeshire's National Park

60 years of Pembrokeshire's National Park

Mick Webb reveals a land of puffins, tanks and Hollywood blockbusters.
Free Range: Meet the designers of tomorrow

Free Range

Meet the artists of the future
Feeding a hungry world – or meddling with laws of nature?

Feeding a hungry world – or meddling with laws of nature?

As scientists at Rothamsted's GM trials plead with activists not to sabotage their work, Michael McCarthy visits the battle field
Monkey meat that could be behind the next HIV

Monkey meat that could be behind the next HIV

Deep in Cameroon's rainforests, poachers are killing primates for food. Evan Williams reports from Yokadouma on a practice that could create a pandemic
Catcalls, whistles, groping: just another day for a young woman

Catcalls, whistles, groping: just another day for a young woman

Government urged to take abuse more seriously as London study shows 41 per cent are harassed
Jailing of Maori separatists stirs colonial-era resentment

Jailing of Maori separatists stirs colonial-era resentment

Militant Tuhoe tribe members defiant amid claims race relations had been set back 100 years