Social-driven blood drive app idea wows ‘em in DiGi challenge

  • Social blood drive idea wins PM’s award; best developer team to attend Digital Winners Conference in Norway
  • DiGi to promote winning apps to its customer base, including 5.7 million mobile Internet subscribers
Social-driven blood drive app idea wows ‘em in DiGi challenge

THE idea for using social media and a mobile app to connect blood donors to hospitals and medical centres came out as one of the big winners at the fourth edition of the DiGi Challenge for Change (DGCFC) programme, winning the Prime Minister’s Innovation Award.
 
Organised by DiGi Telecommunications Sdn Bhd, DGCFC is a competition that aims to unearth innovative, community-centric ideas that are then developed into mobile applications.

This latest edition was held in partnership with the Performance Management & Delivery Unit (Pemandu) of the Prime Minister's Department, the Multimedia Development Corporation (MDeC), Google Malaysia and Microsoft Malaysia, DiGi said in a statement.
 
The company awarded over RM200,000 (US$63,000) in prizes to idea creators and app developers for local community-centric mobile apps, built on the theme ‘Bringing Malaysians together, One App At A Time.’
 
The Prime Minister’s Innovation Award was presented to Leow Aik Peng, 41 from Shah Alam, for the best overall app idea, DiGi said.
 
Leow’s Social Blood Drive idea was aimed at increasing the success of blood donation drives by connecting blood donors to hospitals and medical centres. His idea best represented the Challenge for Change philosophy of bringing communities together through the power of mobile Internet for a greater good.
 
Over the past months, Leow had worked closely with participating developers by providing clear insight on his idea to the app development process. For this award, Leow received RM25,000 (US$7,870).
 
The Prime Minister Najib Razak was however not on hand to present the award.
 Social-driven blood drive app idea wows ‘em in DiGi challenge
“I believe the Internet brings positive changes to Malaysians particularly in connecting relevant content, convenience and economic opportunities to Malaysians of all walks of life,” said Che Azemi Haron (pic, left), Deputy Secretary General at the Communication & Multimedia Ministry, who officiated at finale.
 
“Programmes like Challenge for Change help promote local content development, which is a key component in this value chain,” he said.
 
Since the launch of the fourth edition of DGCFC last year, a total of 2,000 mobile app ideas were received in the ideation phase. Seven winning ideas were then chosen and presented to the local developer community to be transformed into working mobile apps, DiGi said.
 
Also, 50 mobile apps were then received in the app development phase, seven of which were announced as winners in their respective categories last week, with each developer or team winning RM25,000 each.
 
Going forward, DiGi said it would support these winning apps by promoting them to its customer base, including 5.7 million mobile internet subscribers across various touch points.
 
“Mobile apps are a fitting platform to connect people and drive socio-economic opportunities, as more and more Malaysians first experience the Internet on their mobile phones,” said DiGi’s chief executive officer Henrik Clausen (pic, right).
 
“Together with our partners, we are pleased to have worked with the local developer community to build mobile apps that meet the shared needs of Malaysians, are readily implementable, and encourage greater use of the Internet and participation in the digital economy,” he added.
 
DiGi also announced a Telenor Group Award for the best overall mobile app, which was was presented to the developers of the greeting app ‘YO!’ – Muhammad Nazrin Almi, Shafwan Mohd Radzi and Muhammad Muhaimin Juhari.
 
The team wins a trip to the Digital Winners Conference in Oslo, Norway in November 2013, and the opportunity to meet global industry experts, learn new development skills and gain new insights on trends relevant to digital services and mobile application development.
 
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