Indonesia’s ICT Awards Support an Open and Thriving Ecosystem for Young Entrepreneurs

  • Article

Posted by Heriyadi Janwar
Microsoft Indonesia, Product Marketing Manager

Last month in Jakarta, Microsoft was proud to sponsor the seventh annual Indonesia Information and Communications Technology Awards (INAICTA) ceremony, held to honor innovative local technologies and support a thriving ecosystem of young entrepreneurs in Indonesia.

With the rapid growth of the information and communications technology (ICT) industry, INAICTA aims to support an open, competitive, and transparent ICT ecosystem that creates both local and global opportunities for Indonesian developers and companies. Award winners are provided with additional resources, including Microsoft BizSpark and a coveted spot in Digitalpreneurship Program, a new technology accelerator that supplies training and networking opportunities to support sustainable business creation.

ICT Minister, Tifatul Sembiring, watching applicative robot demonstration by one of the junior entrepreneurs. "According to the vision and mission to support the formation of digital ecosystems in Indonesia, this year INAICTA winners will participate in the Digitalpreneurship Program so that their work can be introduced to the market faster, improving their chances of success," said Andreas Surya, 2013 INAICTA Chairman.

After visiting several cities across Indonesia to promote the program, INAICTA received more than 1,000 applications, of which around 15% were chosen for the final round of the competition. The contestants’ proposals were judged on innovation, uniqueness, quality of features, as well as the benefits associated with commercial or public use.

The winning technologies ranged from games to healthcare and agricultural applications and showcased cross-platform interoperability and open standards, like HTML5. Here are a few examples:

  • Ahada is an educational games application that supports therapy goals for children with ADHD or Autism Spectrum Disorders. The Windows 8 application has various features to support the learning process, making learning fun and using technology to overcome potential communication barriers.
  • Quadcopter helps emergency responders locate victims after a natural disaster and aide in search and rescue operations. This system utilizes a Quadcopter flying robot controlled by a remote pilot to search the disaster area, utilizing Google Maps and GPS for tracking.
  • Spyder's Web is a laser-tag game using a Microsoft Kinect sensor as the input method and haptic suit (costumes vibrations) as a method of feedback. The goal of this game is to avoid the deadly lasers from approaching secret agents.
  • GameMarbel.com has online educational games developed by Educa Studio with HTML5 technology. The focus is on academic materials for children under eight years old, supporting early reading and math skills.
  • E-fish is web-based automated system for fisheries that integrates across mobile platforms. This tool gives farmers guidance on timing and quantity for feeding fish to maximize yields.

Congratulations to the 21 winners and an inspiring list of finalists! For more on their stories, please see the INAICTA site.