To cater to the desperate need for conserving and efficient use of the ever depleting resource ie Water, the Water Anchor and the Water and Sanitation Program of the World Bank have organized a Global Water Hackathon in ten countries to develop prototype mobile applications for issues facing the water and sanitation sector.
The event will be held at the International Institute of Information Technology, Bangalore and is scheduled for 21-23 October. Termed appropriately as a WaterHackathon, the event will see nearly hundreds of software developers along with water and sanitation experts in a grueling and marathon coding session to develop prototypes in mobile applications to help address water related issues.
In India the event is being organized by, the Indian Institute for Human Settlements and the India Water Portal and Supported by the Department of Information Technology, Ministry of Urban Development, Government of India, Department of Information Technology, Ministry of Urban Development and the Government of India.
Why mobile applications ?
The number of mobile subscription in India exceeds five hundred million and growing. The barrier to entry in the creation of mobile and web applications is low, which enables innovation and the creation of solutions under the time constraints of a hackathon making the event exciting and challenging.
Past success:
The winner of Nokia’s “Calling All Innovation” hackathon event, Nano Ganesh from India, developed a mobile application which is now being used by farmers in India, Egypt and Australia to remotely monitor and switch on irrigation pumps is helping them to save water and time.
Potential and Economic Impact :
Until now little effort has been made to package information about water and sanitation in a way that the ICT community can engage with and apply their expertise. By opening up data and linking it to specific problems facing WSS communities, a water hackathon aims to bring together the best minds in the WSS sector and the IT sector.
Deepak Menon of India Water Portal.said:
There are 600 million mobile phone connections in the country. We’re working on how this can be tapped. The hackathon evolved after two brainstorming sessions, including the one with the World Bank.
Between the two sessions, participants identified 50 problems. From these, a list of 14 workable problems have emerged and will be addressed during the WaterHackathon, some of which are:
- tools for the mobile user to locate public toilets.
- Rating of Public Restrooms in Indian Cities.
- Water Lottery: Linking Water Meters to Mobile Phones.
- Locating, contacting and tracking Water tankers etc.
The event is being simultaneously held in 10 cities around the world namely Bangalore, Cairo, Kampala, Lagos, Lima, London, Nairobi, Tel Aviv, Washington D.C. and Toronto. Bangalore is the only participant from South Asia.The response has been tremendous so far, especially among programming enthusiasts, software professionals and Mobile application developers. Winners will receive exciting prizes and an opportunity to develop their solution into a full-fledged application.
0 comments: