DiGi Challenge for Change goes through with first-ever #IdeaJam

• Gathers idea contributors and industry experts to strengthen potential ideas
• Next phase is #HACK!@DiGiCFC, a 36-hour non-stop mobile app hackathon

MOBILE services provider DiGi Telecommunications Sdn Bhd (DiGi) recently hosted what it called the #IdeaJam, the first-ever idea accelerator session for its Challenge for Change (DiGiCFC) programme.
 
The four-hour interactive event gathered about 150 people including the Challenge’s best 60 idea contributors, together with industry experts to refine the quality and potential of these ideas in a bid to identify the season’s top 20.
 
On Jan 27, these shortlisted 20 ‘ideators’ pitched their ideas to DiGi and a panel of judges consisting of DiGiCFC partners, who then selected a winning idea for each of the four categories: Learning & Edutainment, Health & Wellness, Discovering Culture, and Connected Citizen.
 
The four winners, who will each go home with RM5,000 and a smartphone, will be announced in mid-February, DiGi said in a statement.
 
The 60 ideators for #IdeaJam were selected from close to 2,600 Malaysian-inspired mobile application ideas submitted for the Ideation Challenge, the first phase of DiGiCFC.
 
“I’m really glad to have the opportunity to mingle with great-minded people here at #IdeaJam,” said Lim Fern Yit, one of the Top 20 ideators, who proposed Jalan Jalan, an idea to empower local communities to become freelance tour guides through a mobile app.
 
“I believe the feedback from the mentors was relevant and helpful for me to further enhance my idea, making it stronger not only in terms of its commercial value, but also how it can impact Malaysians socially,” he added.
 
Stronger ideas
 
#IdeaJam was a development checkpoint to help augment the quality of the top ideas submitted for Challenge for Change, and maximise the potential impact of the resulting mobile apps, the company said.
 
It provided a platform for ideators to interact with 60 specially selected mentors from the fields of healthcare, education, culture and citizenship.
 
Input from the mentors helped build a social and technical context surrounding each idea, in the aims of making them more compelling, with stronger commercial value and a greater ability to address the social needs of Malaysians, DiGi said.
 
“We were impressed with the quality of ideas submitted for season five of the Challenge. We felt these ideas clearly reflected what Malaysians want in general, using the mobile Internet and apps to serve their needs,” said Joachim Rajaram, DiGi’s head of Communications and Corporate Responsibility.
 
“It was also interesting to note that easy access to public services on mobile apps seemed to be a growing interest amongst Malaysians. This was evident from the high percentage of submissions for the newly introduced Connected Citizens category.
 
“It would be exciting to observe how these ideas now evolve into full-fledged apps that leverage on functionalities like gaming, M2M (machine-to-machine) and social networking to name a few, and to see how well-received these apps will be,” he added.
 
Some of the mentors who attended the event included representatives from the National Heritage Board Malaysia, KPJ HealthCare, Macrokiosk, GBG Business Group, as well as Internet entrepreneurs and players.
 
“It is good that DiGi, via Challenge for Change, is providing people with the opportunity to share what they feel are great ideas for mobile apps,” said Rajiv Rishyakaran, Selangor state assemblyman for Bukit Gasing, who was one of the mentors for the Connected Citizen category.
 
The next stage
 
Following this, DiGiCFC5 will proceed to the App Development phase where local app developers will be asked to develop mobile apps based on the four winning ideas.
 
In conjunction with this second phase, DiGi will also host #HACK!@DiGiCFC, a 36-hour non-stop mobile app hackathon to help accelerate the app development process.
 
DiGiCFC5 programme partners include the Performance Management and Delivery Unit (Pemandu) of the Prime Minister’s Dept, 1Malaysia for Youth (iM4U), the National Digital Economy Initiative (Digital Malaysia), Google Malaysia and Microsoft Malaysia.
 
“DiGi Challenge for Change is an excellent platform for youths to contribute to society,” said Efny Johan, iM4U brand management group director.
 
“It is not uncommon for them to air their grievances online, so it is great that with this programme, they can now share their ideas on how to improve lives, via mobile apps. I believe the young ideators here are off to a good start,” he added.
 
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Fifth edition of DiGi Challenge for Change kicks off
 
DiGi’s Internet for All: From ad campaign to corporate mission
 
Social-driven blood drive app idea wows ‘em in DiGi challenge
 
 
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