Digital Apps for Asia to track water usage, emergency service

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) and Microsoft Corp. will showcase the Apps For Asia – Redesigning Development Program at the ADB’s 46th Annual Meeting. The program includes concepts for mobile applications that track water usage, consolidate the most sought-after emergency services, monitor medication use among tuberculosis patients, and help public transit users plan travel.

The program, supported by regional information technology associations, private sector technology partners, and universities, aims to harness the creative power of hundreds of software developers to create sustainable solutions for the economic, commercial and social benefit of governments, civil society and businesses in the region.

The Apps For Asia program included a series of national developer events in Australia, India, Republic of Korea, Malaysia and the Philippines. Of the 100 apps submitted, only the top three from each country are exhibited at the ADB’s 46th Annual Meeting in New Delhi.

“Apps For Asia is a great showcase of the power of technology and the role it can play in fostering social and economic development,” said Bindu N. Lohani, ADB’s Vice President for Knowledge Management and Sustainable Development. ADB provided guidance on regional economic, social and development priorities to assist and inspire program participants.

Apps For Asia contestants built new apps addressing a wide range of issues, including apps to manage blood donor networks, help match youth with potential employers, coordinate indigenous housing projects, promote crime prevention, and address diabetes management.

“We received an incredible amount of creative and impactful apps over these past few months, which represents the impact we can make in solving the region’s challenges through technology,” said John Cann, Director, International Organizations, Microsoft. “With new technologies like cloud services and a range of mobile devices, apps can be developed quickly to reach more people in more ways.”

In addition to insight from the ADB, participants were given training and access to Microsoft’s platform, spanning devices and cloud services, enabling developers to create innovative Windows Azure, Windows 8 and Windows Phone apps. Further, the program helps to enable local developers to produce local solutions and foster innovative business models that have a positive impact on their communities.

The 15 finalists showcased at the ADB Annual Meeting include:

Australia

• Blue Clover – Revolutionizes the current diabetes management approach by utilizing mobile and cloud to improve the quality of life for the 347 million people affected by diabetes.
• Idex (Grand Domain) – Allows people to use a single digital identity to access online services, which helps improve security, eases management of directories and provides easier access to end users
• xMeaning – Serves as an aid to learning a foreign language by allowing translators to produce a document in a source language and annotate it with translation information to help a learner better understand the context.

India

• Jeevan Pani – Provides citizens with access to information about water usage and allows them to calculate and report how much water they use and share on their social networking sites.
• Help-Me – Consolidates the most sought after emergency services: police, fire and ambulance with a phone app, operator console and reporting application.
• TOTS – Ensures tuberculosis patients follow a proper treatment regimen to help cure the disease by managing records and calendars, mapping routes to nearby treatment centers, and taking photos of patients taking their medicine and immediately notifying their doctors and families.
• PathFinder – Eases the process of planning travel when using public transportation for local citizens by identifying the best transportation routes to get to their desired location.

Republic of Korea

• Filament – Supports real-time crime prevention through enhanced incident reporting and tracking, integrating with existing report management systems to help reduce response delays.
• Mapi – Provides real-time navigation advice, allowing users to post information and communicate about the best routes based on mode of transport, current traffic situations and crowd sourced feedback.

Malaysia

• EPIC Hope – Connects and empowers communities in Malaysia to get involved in building sustainable housing for the indigenous people.
• Gnowledge – Supports education by allowing users to create, publish, share and take tests, and complete exercises and assignments.
• Blood R2 System – Addresses communities’ blood donation needs by matching blood demand and supply.

Philippines

• Codetoki – Eases the process of helping youth find employment by allowing applicants to improve their technology skills and by matching employers and applicants through a gamified platform.
• Blood Donors Network – Provides a solution to help communities meet their blood donation needs.
• Leanasset – Serves as a public transport monitoring system that enables commuters and transport operators to access transportation information and simplifies fleet management.