MobileActive.org

Forum Nokia has announced a new global contest: "Calling All Innovators" for developers to create mobile applications that will help to better society.  Nokia will award up to USD 150,000 in cash and prizes, in addition to helping the winning developers distribute their mobile applications.

In its announcement of the contest, Nokia notes that

"technology can be a key driver of significant social and environmental change, particularly in emerging economies, where conflicts over scarce resources often impede the potential for human development. Nokia... challenges developers participating in Calling All Innovators to think about the possibilities. What if a mobile device could test the potability of water, or enable people in remote villages to access, manage or distribute scarce resources such as electricity or water?... Calling All Innovators is not just about making mobile applications that could help society; it's about developing mobile applications that will help society.  Imagine if an application could help relief workers reallocate resources in real time for disaster-torn areas - how much could that help both those in need as well as the relief workers in the area?"

 
Calling All Innovators challenges mobile application developers worldwide to create applications in these categories:

• ECO-Challenge: mobile applications to minimize mobility's global environmental impact and develop ways to offer mobile solutions that help consumers make sustainable choices such as reducing their energy consumption or carbon footprint.
• Emerging Marketsa: Applications and services impacting the daily lives of poeple in developing nations, such as solutions for education, health data access, infotainment, rural agriculture, or any other application that improves lives in emerging markets.
• Technology Showcase: Applications that run on Series 40 or S60 devices, such as Flash Lite, Java, Python, or open source. From a single-purpose application to completely community driven, this developer's showdown will help open consumers' minds about what an application can do.   

 First place winners in each category will receive USD 25,000, a trip to Mobile World Congress 2009 in Barcelona, and distribution of their application through a variety of Nokia channels. Second place winners in each category will receive USD 10,000 and third place winners will receive USD 5,000.
 
All entries are due by December 15, 2008. Finalists will be selected and notified in January 2009. More information and application procedures can be found here.