SCCyberworld

Wednesday, November 28, 2012

DiGi’s Challenge for Change spotlights good ideas to bring Malaysians together for positive change

Introducing the special Prime Minister’s Innovation Award for the best idea

SHAH ALAM, 28 November 2012: DiGi Telecommunications Sdn Bhd (DiGi) launched the fourth edition of its annual DiGi Challenge for Change today. This year’s programme focuses on challenging Malaysians to develop innovative ideas for mobile applications that bring Malaysians together for positive change, while introducing for the first time the grand prize of the Prime Minister’s Innovation Award.

Henrik Clausen, DiGi’s Chief Executive Officer said this year’s competition continues to be guided by DiGi’s ambition to enable Internet For All. “We know that mobile internet can be a powerful tool to drive real socio-economic opportunities for local communities and businesses. Our Challenge for Change programme builds on this philosophy, and takes our Internet For All mission into a very important area of our business today – mobile applications. Through this challenge, we leverage the collective expertise of DiGi and our partners to empower Malaysians to unearth good ideas that foster the spirit of community to benefit fellow Malaysians.”


DiGi  TELECOMMUNICATIONS SDN BHD. Henrik Clausen, Chief Executive Officer.


The programme capitalises on the cumulative ‘Malaysian mind’ to enable this meaningful social change, effectively building apps for Malaysians, by Malaysians. DiGi will support the further development of these apps by promoting them to its 5.5 million mobile internet users through various customer touch points, and through the partnerships with Microsoft Malaysia and Google Malaysia, through MDeC’s ICONApps platform, and through the support of PEMANDU and selected platforms under the Economic Transformation Programme.
(L to R) GOOGLE MALAYSIA, Sajith Sivanandan, Country Manager; ECONOMIC TRANSFORMATION PROGRAMME (ETP, PEMANDU), Dr. Fadhlullah Suhaimi Abdul Malek, Director NKRA (RBI) and NKEA (CCI and Agriculture) PEMANDU; DiGi  TELECOMMUNICATIONS SDN BHD,  Henrik Clausen, Chief Executive Officer; 
MULTIMEDIA DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION (MDeC), Ng Wan Peng, Chief Operations Officer; 
MICROSOFT MALAYSIA, Dinesh Nair, Director, Developer and Platform Evangelism.

DiGi Challenge for Change is open to all Malaysians above 12-years-old to participate in two main phases of the programme:

Ideation challenge (28 November 2012 to 27 January 2013)
This phase calls for Malaysians to share good ideas for mobile apps that help bring Malaysians together and make life better for local communities. Ideas can be submitted online at www.dgcfc.my for the following five (5) categories: Learning Together, Healthier Together, Working Together, Discovering Together and Sharing Together.

These ideas are open for public voting. The 20 most popular ideas and an additional 10 finalists selected by DiGi will qualify for a final round of judging. The top 5 winning ideas will be chosen from this pool and will proceed to the next phase, to be developed into mobile apps.

App development challenge (25 February to 22 May 2013)
This phase invites Malaysian developers to build mobile apps of the 5 winning ideas from the ideation challenge. Each app will then be made available for download and review by the public. The most popular apps for the 5 ideas, with the judges’ final decision will win this challenge. DiGi will then market these apps on its online store, giving developers a head-start by providing direct access to our base of 5.5 million mobile internet users and the entire user ecosystem on the Google Play Store, and Windows Store and Windows Phone Store.

The Prime Minister’s Innovation Award will be presented to the individual whose idea best represents the philosophy of this year’s Challenge for Change in effectively bringing communities together through the power of mobile internet. The winner for this special award will be announced by May 2013, and will receive a cash prize of RM25,000.

Over RM175,000 in cash and experiential prizes are up for grabs this year, which includes:
RM5,000 for the top 5 idea finalists
RM25,000 for each of the top 5 developers
RM25,000 for best idea and winner of the Prime Minister’s Innovation Award
Access to Industry and DiGi Mentors
Opportunities for app development with key partners.

“This year’s challenge is bigger as it consolidates many exciting elements: ideas, innovation, creativity, diversity, collaboration and communication onto a single platform – mobile internet. By the end of the year, the number of mobile app downloads globally will have doubled to nearly 46 billion, and in four years, this number is predicted to grow more than six times to 310 billion downloads . In Malaysia, we see an increase of smartphone usage due to low barriers of entry for devices, an uptrend for local content and a vibrant developer ecosystem.

“Combined, these trends make mobile internet and apps powerful tools to engage and deliver social innovations to every community in Malaysia. Our vision for Challenge for Change is to unearth and spotlight these good ideas as they are being developed so it becomes visible and beneficial to as many Malaysians as possible, and to start bringing Malaysians together, one app at a time,” Henrik concluded.

DiGi Challenge for Change will be hosting four ideation workshops for the public on: 1 December 2012 at the DiGi office in Selangor and Universiti Malaysia Sarawak, and 8 December 2012 at Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang and Universiti Malaysia Sabah. For more information on how to participate or attend these workshops, please visit: www.dgcfc.my.


DiGi Challenge For Change 展现能团结马来西亚人做出积极改变的好构思
推介为最佳构思而特设的Prime Minister’s Innovation Award

(莎亚南2012年11月28日讯)  数码网络电讯公司(DiGi)今天为第四届Challenge for Change这项年度盛事进行推介礼。今年的活动主要挑战马来西亚人开发能团结马来西亚人一起做出积极改变的创意流动应用程式,同时推介新设的Prime Minister’s Innovation Award。

DiGi首席执行员克劳森(Henrik Clausen)表示,今年的比赛继续秉持着DiGi Internet For All的愿景。“我们知道流动互联网能成为强大的工具,为地方社区与经济提供真正的社会经济机会,我们这项Challenge For Change就是建立在这个信念上,并将我们Internet For All的愿景带入我们业务里一个非常重要的领域,就是流动应用程序。通过这项挑战赛,我们利用DiGi与合作伙伴共有的专业知识,启发马来西亚人开发能促进社区精神以惠及所有马来西亚人的好构思”。

这项活动利用“马来西亚人思维”的集体力量,推动这项有意义的社会改变,有效地让马来西亚人为自己开发应用程序。DiGi将进一步支援这些应用程序的开发,通过各种客户接触管道、与马来西亚微软与马来西亚谷歌的合作、多媒体发展机构(MDeC)的ICONApps平台、首相署表现管理及递送单位(Pemandu)以及经济转型计划(ETP)旗下的指定平台,向550万名流动互联网用户宣传它们。

DiGi Challenge For Change开放让所有12岁以上的马来西亚公民,参与活动的两个主要阶段:

构思挑战(2012年11月28日至2013年1月27日)

这个活动阶段呼吁马来西亚人分享好的流动应用程式,以团结马来西亚人让地方社区的生活更加美好。所有构思皆可通过www.dgcfc.my提交,五个构思组别为:一起学习、一起健康、一起工作、共同发现,以及共同分享。

这些构思将公开让公众投选。最受欢迎的20项构思加上由DiGi筛选的另外10位参赛者,将有资格晋级决赛圈。从中将选出最佳的5项构思以进入下一个阶段,就是将这些构思发展成流动应用程序。

应用程序开发挑战(2013年2月25日至5月22日)

这个活动阶段邀请马来西亚应用程序开发商构,为胜出的5项构思开发流动应用程序的初始原型。每个原型将公开让公众下载与评价,之后这5项构思当中最受欢迎的原型,经过评审的最终定夺后,就能赢得一笔资金将这些应用程序发展为商用品。DiGi将在其网上商店销售这些应用程序,让开发者直接接触我们多达550万名的手机互联网用户,以及整个谷歌网上商店(Google Play Store)和微软流动应用商店(Windows Marketplace)的用户市场。


Prime Minister’s Innovation Award将颁发给最能代表今年DiGi Challenge For Change 理念的参赛者,其构思必须能有效地通过流动互联网的力量团结社区。这个特别奖项的得主将在2013年5月揭晓,并将获得2万5000令吉的现金奖。

今年有超过17万5000令吉的现金奖等待赢取,其中包括:

•        5000令吉予入围5强的参赛者;
•        2万5000令吉予5强开发者以将应用程序发展为商用品;
•        2万5000令吉予最佳构思开发者以及Prime Minister’s Innovation Award得住;
•        有机会接触有关领域与DiGi的导师;
•        有机会与主要合作伙伴开发应用程序。

克劳森总结说,“今年的挑战赛更大型,因为它结合了许多令人兴奋的元素:构思、创造力、创意、多元、合作以及沟通,融合为一个平台,也就是流动互联网。到了今年杪,全球的流动应用程序下载次数将增加一倍至近460亿;在未来4年内,这个数字预料将增加超过6倍至3100亿1 。在马来西亚,我们看到智能手机的使用率因为使用门槛越来越低而提高、本地内容也不断增加,应用程序的开发环境越来越充满活力。

“这些趋势的结合让流动互联网和应用程序成为强大的工具,为每个马来西亚社区提供联系和社会创新。DiGi Challenge For Change 的愿景是要发掘与展现这些好构思,并将它们发展为具体的应用程序,惠及与团结更多的马来西亚人”。

DiGi Challenge For Change 将举办4场创造构思工作坊让公众参与,分别于2012年12月1日在雪兰莪DiGi办事处与马来西亚砂拉越大学各一场,以及2012年12月8日在位于槟城的马来西亚理科大学和马来西亚沙巴大学各一场。欲知如何参与工作坊的详情,请浏览www.dgcfc.my。

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