Apps for Development tasked the public and developer communities to take the World Bank’s data and create tools, games, apps or analysis to solve the global issues. A gallery of the submissions can be found here.
All the submissions were required to use World Bank data and work to solve the Millennium Development Goals, a list of philanthropic targets to be reached by 2015. The goals are linked to topics such as world poverty, education, health, gender equality, sustainability, and HIV/AIDS.
Started in October of 2010, Apps for Development received 107 submissions from 36 countries. Submissions included SMS services and children’s games for the iPhone, as well as educational and statistical modeling tools. While a panel of experts will determine the final winners, the public can start voting on the Popular Choice award at the competition website.
The winners will be announced at the joint meetings held by the World Bank and International Monetary Fund in April.
The competition is part of the World Bank’s Open Data initiative meant to connect its resources with a talented pool of professionals. It’s also a huge resource for developing nations where access to free and transparent data can be limited.
“Think of it as a new kind of R&D, done without traditional fundraising and project management — a way for, in this case, an [international organization] to innovate in full view of the public, and in collaboration with highly-engaged technologists, no matter where they reside,” said Aleem Walji, Practice Manager for Innovation at The World...
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