Photo: Albern Murty, Chief Operating Officer of DiGi Telecommunications Sdn. Bhd. with the partners and winners of DiGi Challenge for Change 5.
We’ve been covering DiGi’s fifth annual ‘Challenge for Change’ program since its initial call for Malaysian to register last November. Following that, DiGi had its #IdeaJam phase to select four winning ideas, the announcement of the winners during the said ideation phase, with the last event being its 36-hour hackathon that aimed to accelerate the app development process.
This DiGiCFC5 program has finally come to an end two days ago on Tuesday, June 24th, 2014, where DiGi celebrates both the innovative ideas and all the mobile apps that were developed as a result of this. If you don’t know already, DiGi Challenge for Change is a months-long competition to unearth and nurture community-centric and innovative ideas, which are then made into full-fledged mobile apps.
There were more than 2,500 ideas received this year during the ideation phase. Those five winning ideas went on to be the foundation of 56 working mobile apps that were being developed during the hackathon, which covers the five categories determined earlier. More than RM200,000 in prizes have been awarded to both winning ideators and app developers.
Albern Murty, DiGi’s Chief Operating Officer were at the event, applauded the participants for their participation and their creativity in coming up with original mobile app ideas that could benefit the community.
“Together with our partners, we are pleased to have the opportunity to work with the local developer community to build mobile apps that have real potential for commercialization and adoption while addressing the social needs of Malaysians. The maturity of the ideas presented and the mobile apps developed show that more Malaysians recognize the power of connectivity and mobile apps in driving social innovations across communities. This underscores our vision for Challenge for Change, and takes us a step closer in our effort to deliver Internet For All by helping Malaysians find new and meaningful ways to experience the internet and benefit from it,” said Albern Murty.
Here are the winning apps in their respective categories:
Category: Learning & Edutainment (1Auto)
Winning apps: Carkis, by Boon Gee Wai
Category: Discovering Culture (Jalan Jalan)
Winning apps: Mini Malaysia, by Calvin Tam
Category: Connected Citizens (Tag A Price)
Winning apps: SmartShopper, by Tan Yin See
Category: DiGizens’ Choice (My Banjir)
Winning apps: Banjir Alerts, by Barry Loh
Each winner received RM25,000 in cash, and can be sure DiGi will continue to support the apps on its own base of 4 million internet customers, through its online app stores, retail outlets, and social media networks.
All four winners get to participate in the MSC Start-Up Accelerator Lite program, with a ‘Green Lane’ perk for top developer teams, where it’s a path for them to turn their apps into a start-up company, complete with a mentor, funds, and other market opportunities. Tan Yin See and Barry Loh were also winners for top Android (SmartShopper) and Windows Phone (Banjir Alerts) app developers respectively, and will each get to experience a three-day stint in Google Malaysia and Microsoft Malaysia respectively.
The DiGi Innovation Award goes to Alex Wong Kek Liang from Melaka, 27, for the best overall app idea (Tag A Price). He won RM25,000 in cash as a reward. The Telenor Group Award was given to Banjir Alerts, for the best overall mobile app winner. This app will be representing Malaysia at Telenor’s Digital Winners Global App Developer Challenge in Norway, where the winner for this challenge will walk away with a grant of €25,000 (RM112,000) to build their start-up business.
DiGiCFC’s program partners are: the Economic Transformation Program (ETP), the National Digital Economy Initiative (Digital Malaysia), Google Malaysia, Microsoft Malaysia, 1Malaysia for Youth (iM4U), and the Malaysian Administrative Modernization and Management Planning Unit (MAMPU).
To learn more about DiGi Challenge for Change 5, head on over to http://www.digicfc.my/.
The post DiGi’s Challenge for Change 5 has finally reached its grand finale with the winners announced appeared first on TechAttack.my.