DiGi's Challenge for Change spotlights good ideas to bring Malaysians together for positive change

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DiGi's Challenge for Change spotlights good ideas to bring Malaysians together for positive change
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November 27, 2012
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https://digi.com.my/media/articleURLhereWhichCanbeReallyLong

DiGi's Challenge for Change spotlights good ideas to bring Malaysians together for positive change
Introducing the special Prime Minister's Innovation Award for the best idea

SHAH ALAM, 28 November 2012: DiGi Telecommunications Sdn Bhd (DiGi) launched the fourth edition of its annual DiGi Challenge for Change today. This year's programme focuses on challenging Malaysians to develop innovative ideas for mobile applications that bring Malaysians together for positive change, while introducing for the first time the grand prize of the Prime Minister's Innovation Award.

Henrik Clausen, DiGi's Chief Executive Officer said this year's competition continues to be guided by DiGi's ambition to enable Internet For All. "We know that mobile internet can be a powerful tool to drive real socio-economic opportunities for local communities and businesses. Our Challenge for Change programme builds on this philosophy, and takes our Internet For All mission into a very important area of our business today - mobile applications. Through this challenge, we leverage the collective expertise of DiGi and our partners to empower Malaysians to unearth good ideas that foster the spirit of community to benefit fellow Malaysians."

The programme capitalises on the cumulative 'Malaysian mind' to enable this meaningful social change, effectively building apps for Malaysians, by Malaysians. DiGi will support the further development of these apps by promoting them to its 5.5 million mobile internet users through various customer touch points, and through the partnerships with Microsoft Malaysia and Google Malaysia, through MDeC's ICONApps platform, and through the support of PEMANDU and selected platforms under the Economic Transformation Programme.

DiGi Challenge for Change is open to all Malaysians above 12-years-old to participate in two main phases of the programme:

Ideation challenge (28 November 2012 to 27 January 2013)
This phase calls for Malaysians to share good ideas for mobile apps that help bring Malaysians together and make life better for local communities. Ideas can be submitted online at www.dgcfc.my for the following five (5) categories: Learning Together, Healthier Together, Working Together, Discovering Together and Sharing Together.

These ideas are open for public voting. The 20 most popular ideas and an additional 10 finalists selected by DiGi will qualify for a final round of judging. The top 5 winning ideas will be chosen from this pool and will proceed to the next phase, to be developed into mobile apps.

App development challenge (25 February to 22 May 2013)
This phase invites Malaysian developers to build mobile apps of the 5 winning ideas from the ideation challenge. Each app will then be made available for download and review by the public. The most popular apps for the 5 ideas, with the judges' final decision will win this challenge. DiGi will then market these apps on its online store, giving developers a head-start by providing direct access to our base of 5.5 million mobile internet users and the entire user ecosystem on the Google Play Store, and Windows Store and Windows Phone Store.

The Prime Minister's Innovation Award will be presented to the individual whose idea best represents the philosophy of this year's Challenge for Change in effectively bringing communities together through the power of mobile internet. The winner for this special award will be announced by May 2013, and will receive a cash prize of RM25,000.

Over RM175,000 in cash and experiential prizes are up for grabs this year, which includes:

  • RM5,000 for the top 5 idea finalists
  • RM25,000 for each of the top 5 developers
  • RM25,000 for best idea and winner of the Prime Minister's Innovation Award
  • Access to Industry and DiGi Mentors
  • Opportunities for app development with key partners.

"This year's challenge is bigger as it consolidates many exciting elements: ideas, innovation, creativity, diversity, collaboration and communication onto a single platform - mobile internet. By the end of the year, the number of mobile app downloads globally will have doubled to nearly 46 billion, and in four years, this number is predicted to grow more than six times to 310 billion downloads. In Malaysia, we see an increase of smartphone usage due to low barriers of entry for devices, an uptrend for local content and a vibrant developer ecosystem.

"Combined, these trends make mobile internet and apps powerful tools to engage and deliver social innovations to every community in Malaysia. Our vision for Challenge for Change is to unearth and spotlight these good ideas as they are being developed so it becomes visible and beneficial to as many Malaysians as possible, and to start bringing Malaysians together, one app at a time," Henrik concluded.

DiGi Challenge for Change will be hosting four ideation workshops for the public on: 1 December 2012 at the DiGi office in Selangor and Universiti Malaysia Sarawak, and 8 December 2012 at Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang and Universiti Malaysia Sabah. For more information on how to participate or attend these workshops, please visit: www.dgcfc.my.