Three Apps that bring social change

Despite the emergence of Application (App) developers, Malaysia is still not perceived as a country which are capable of producing softwares and Apps.

“Local companies are still the underdogs... I guess we (Malaysia) are more interested in building buildings,” said Ravishanker, founder of the Blood R2 System App.

Despite the perception, App developers such as Ravishanker are still passionate about creating Apps that make a difference.

His App connects blood donors, blood recipients and blood banks. His effort are not just for Malaysia, but is also helping blood banks around the world.

“It’s a different case in Malaysia, but in countries like Africa, the resources, the time, the effort and the doctors... these efforts are very expensive,” he said.

Also using technology to bring social change is Ker Jia Chiun, who is the founder of the EPIC Hope App.

“It’s a crowdsourcing platform whereby we find volunteers to help build houses for the orang asli. We try to make it fun by introducing badges, and we want to make volunteering fun,” he said.

Finally, Choong Chong Yew has created an App to benefit educators, students and parents.

His App, called Gnowledge, was created after realising some of our students are memorising facts and information.

“This is the best way to assess knowledge. Parents are busy these days, and educational issues arive without parents knowing it. Plus, educators do not want to spend all night long marking papers.

“Now knowledge can be assessed at your finger tips. Why do we need to go back to the dark ages when there’s technology around,” he asked.

Knowing that their App would bring social change, the three gentleman are already in talks with the relevant government agencies and corporations for a possible collaboration.

“There’s a new health Minister, so we are definitely in talks with the Ministry of Health,” said Ravishanker.

Chong Yew continued, “We plan to generate revenues through enterprised versions. If we are not making any profit than I might as well turn my company into non-profit.”

Jia Chun also said that PR1MA (Perumahan Rakyat 1Malaysia) is aware of his initiatives and see a collaboration in the future.

“We do not want it to be a one-time thing for our volunteers. We also notify of any updates. It’s also not just about building houses as we want to do other works as well,” he concluded.

The three gentlemen are winners for the Apps for Asia competition organised by Microsoft and Asian Development Bank to encourage the development of locally-produced Apps.