The Ultimate Win8 Social Good Apps Voter’s Guide
Only one week left! Vote for the “People’s Choice Award” of the Windows 8 Apps for Social Good Contest and help an app maker win $10,000 and a Windows phone.
To vote, simply register an account with NetSquared, click on the project page and add up to three projects to your ballot. The “People’s Choice” judging periods ends at midnight PT on Friday, March 15th.
If you’re having a hard time choosing your top three favorite apps, then see below our handy voter’s guide. We’ve provided brief summaries for all the social good app entries and categorized them. You can click on any of the project names to go to their profile on the voting platform at NetSquared, our contest partner.
Animals
This app uses Petfinder.com data to let you search for dogs in your area and nationwide for adoption.
Civic Engagement
Do you know who your local representatives are and how they’re voting? With this app you will. Using your phone’s GPS, it will find your Congress representatives and share their contact information, committee memberships, recent votes, and more.
Crime
An application to report and monitor non-emergency problems in your community such as graffiti, vandalism, potholes, damaged sidewalks, broken streetlights, damaged street signs, dangerous intersections, and abandoned vehicles.
Not for the average person, this app is meant to help investigators better document crime scenes – capture photos or videos, organize evidence collected, document witness details and information, and more. There is even GPS functionality to more accurately detail the location.
Disaster Response
Emergency Kit stores your blood type, allergies, medications, any notes, and emergency contacts right in your phone. It also includes a myriad of tools including an SOS light beacon, the ability to send emergency messages that include your GPS coordinates and more.
By analyzing social media trends (processing over 5,000 tweets per hour), Outbreak Watch provides real-time information for public health officials and the general public about what diseases are happening where. Get recent alerts and track where outbreaks are happening, so you can be prepared.
Do you know what to do when an earthquake hits? Are you living in an earthquake-prone area? This app provides latest worldwide earthquake information to the users from USGS sources in easy-to-read format. It also shares guidelines on how to prepare for an earthquake and displays latest earthquake news information.
Environment
To increase public awareness of the excessive consumption of greenhouse gases, this app lets you locate all of the alternative fueling stations near you, or the location you specify.
Want to learn more about environmental issues impacting our world? Then this is the app for you. In addition to a lot of detailed information on everything from climate change to conservation, there are quizzes to test your knowledge and an easy-to-use emissions calculator to figure out your own impact.
Language
Break down cultural barriers and use this app to speak and understand 26 languages in a matter of seconds.
Nonprofit Services
A group app for nonprofit organizations that improves communication, member engagement, and enables mobile donations and fundraisers. Check out their overview video here.
Nutrition/Health
Whether you have specific food allergies, are concerned about local and organic food, or want to make sure that the food you’re eating was humanely-raised, Eatfindr can help you. See the nearest, latest, and the most popular places around you that match your food preferences, check out the menu before deciding to go, and then get directions from your current location.
Health Center currently lets you look up any medication you might be taking, finds out where you can get it and at what cost. There are special features to help underinsured and uninsured folks find affordable medication without membership fees.
Receive tips and advice on cooking, nutrition, green living food storage and more, in this game where you complete steps of varying difficulty and learn more about healthy eating.
Obesity impacts nearly 35% of adults and 17% of children and contributes to a number of health-related conditions including diabetes, high cholesterol, and more. YumvY aims to help by providing fast, easy, and high-quality healthy recipes. It also helps during the cooking process with step-by-step guides, timers, and reminders so that your dish comes out perfect – regardless of if it’s a romantic meal for two or a normal dinner for the whole family.
Philanthropy
Bao is a game the app creator came across this game on honeymoon in East Africa, visiting a small village in Malawi. The village kids taught them the game. All of the game’s ad revenue goes to an organization that works to improve the lives of people in Malawi.
Created by a high school tech club of 50 students in Oregon, this app lets you apply to volunteer and donate to student groups at their high school.
Public Engagement
All it takes is 21 days. Research shows that if you can repeat an activity for 21 days it will become a habit. Set a goal, track your progress, and Jolkona will motivate you along the way by showing you how you can also create positive change in the world.
Let your voice be heard. Make something happen. Find like-minded people. Seek help among your neighbors. This is your place for a hyper-local shout out. This is the new, old-fashioned way to interact. This local bulletin board is for you and your community to use – post, browse, and connect with your neighborhood.
This app lets you tag photos on a map based on the location coordinates of the upload. This lets people find visually report and see the social issues happening on-the-ground.