World Bank Apps for Development Competition Open for Public Votes

You are probably familiar with apps that allow you to access discount deals, check the weather and shop online. Now comes a series of apps geared towards raising awareness of development issues worldwide.

Last April, the World Bank launched its Open Data Initiative, making an array of data sets accessible to the public online at data.worldbank.org. The next task is of seeing how best that data can be used. In October, the World Bank launched a competition to find the best apps related to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) that use the online datasets. Participants had to develop software applications, be it for the web, a personal computer, a mobile handheld device, SMS or any other platform widely available to the public.

The two criteria for applications were i) raise awareness of at least one of the MDGs and ii) contribute to progress toward meeting one of the MDGs by 2015.

The deadline for entries has closed and now the judging will commence. There is US$45,000 in prizes up for grabs, and the public has 26 more days to cast their vote online. The World Bank has received 107 apps form 36 countries; 30 of which came from Africa. In fact, more submissions were received from Uganda, Nigeria, Kenya and Uganda than from all of Europe.

Here's my pick of the top apps in the competition.

Support MDGs, Indonesia

Enables users to monitor MDG progress in their country, and also to contribute their ideas to help make the achievement of the MDGs in their country successful. Users can then vote on ideas and discuss online. All user activity is linked up to Facebook, helping to encourage their Facebook friends to get involved.

WB Indicator Masher, Germany

A similar premise to Support MDGs that categorises and visualizes the World Bank data, but this app combines this with Google Language tools to offer the data in many more languages than the original data sets provide.

Maternal Mortality Portal, Ghana

A platform to aid interaction amongst health workers to facilitate the achievement of MDG5 - improvement of maternal health. Users can prepare surveys or polls as a informal way of collating data on maternal health for immediate past years before certified figures are published by the World Bank or other statistical authorities. Country profiles using the World Bank data sets are also available, allowing country comparisons and a blogging feature for health professionals.

Find Correlation in the World, China

What's the relationship between USA's energy use and USA's GDP growth? Will Japan's export influence China's industry? This app allows users to find potential correlations or relationships around the world, which can help to understand the world and reveal underlying problems.

World Citizens Census, Venezuela

A Facebook app that allows users to learn about the MDGs and determine whether the information they are given is good or bad with a "don't like" button, to counter the existing "like" button on Facebook. Users are also invited to become "World Citizens" - a symbolic label to show one's interests in global affairs.

For the full list of entries, visit the competition website.