DiGi HACK!@DGCFC – The First Open Standards Mobile Hackathon in Town

DiGi Challenge for Change hackathon receives good response from app developers, designers and industry partners

SHAH ALAM, 5 – 7 April 2013: Last weekend, DiGi Telecommunications Sdn Bhd (‘DiGi’) hosted HACK!@DGCFC, the first open standards mobile hackathon in Malaysia. This is the first hackathon that enables developers to code across all mobile platforms, namely Android, Windows Phone 8, Blackberry 10, HTML5 and iOS. The milestone event held in conjunction with the App Development phase of DiGi’s Challenge for Change Programme (‘DGCFC’) saw participation from over 150 new and seasoned developers and designers between the ages of 18 to 48.

The non-stop 36-hour session was abuzz with activity as developers and designers worked tirelessly to transform the 7 winning ideas from the Ideation Phase, into actual mobile apps. To help participants in their development process, key players from the mobile internet community and the winning ideators dedicated time to provide valuable insights on a variety of mobile app related topics, including:
• Google Malaysia, featuring latest trends, investments and  focus of the Android ecosystem;
• Multimedia Development Corporation’s (MDeC) ICON programme, on spurring entrepreneurship within the mobile developer community;
• UX Malaysia, on designing user experiences that matter;
• App clinics on Android, Windows Phone 8, HTML5, and iOS, with experts from Apptivity Lab and WiredIn;
• National Blood Centre, on functionalities that would help make blood donation apps effective;
• Sessions with the 7 Ideation winners to gain more insight into their ideas.
Some Ideation phase winners also chose to form their own teams to personally develop their ideas into apps, with hopes of also becoming a winner in the App Development phase, complementing their earlier winnings.

Joachim Rajaram, Head of Communications and Corporate Responsibility said DiGi’s first mobile hackathon truly embodies DiGi’s Internet For All mission. “HACK!@DGCFC saw all segments of the mobile internet community come together for one intent: to create the right conditions to fast track development of mobile apps that meet specific Malaysian needs. We believe this collaborative effort with our partners on HACK!@DGCFC and Challenge for Change will help us extend the benefits of mobile internet to as many Malaysians as possible.”

“It was very exciting to see the enthusiasm level among the developers, designers and ideation winners as they worked closely to bring the winning ideas to life. We saw a wide variety of apps in different development maturity cycles during the demo sessions. Some teams demonstrated a lot of foresight by presenting long-term plans to market their apps through peripheral business opportunities with advertisers, accessory retailers and other strategic partners. We are pleased to see the vast talent pool that gathered at HACK!@DGCFC and look forward to see the great apps that will be submitted by the end of the month,” Joachim added.

Apart from the coding marathon, HACK!@DGCFC participants also enjoyed 3 fun-filled days of activities such as movie screenings, basketball shoot-outs, desktop and console games such as XBox 360 Kinect pod, racing arcade games, and more.

While the final winning apps will only be announced in June 2013, five ‘Mini Challenge’ awards were given out at HACK!@DGCFC to deserving teams for their efforts over the weekend. The awards were awarded for the best use of Android, Windows 8 and HTML/BB API platforms; the app with the best User Experience (‘UX’) or User Interface (‘UI’); and the best overall app.

The apps developed at HACK!@DGCFC will be available for download and review by the public on the respective app stores until the Application Development phase closes on 30th April 2013. Subsequently, a panel of judges comprising DiGi’s main programme partners will select seven apps - one from each idea - that best capture the theme of the Challenge in bringing Malaysians together through mobile internet. These winners will be announced at the Challenge For Change finale in June 2013, and will each walk away with RM25,000 in prize money.

HACK!@DGCFC was made possible through the support of official broadband partner TIME dotCom, and supporting event sponsors Blackberry, Nokia, Game Axis, Apptivity Lab, 1337 Ventures, WiredIn, Doof Beanbags and Mountain Dew.

For more information on DiGi Challenge for Change, please visit www.dgcfc.my or Facebook at www.facebook.com/dgcfc.

Below are what some of the partners and participants had to say about HACK!@DGCFC:

“These hackathon events provide interested parties, especially young people, with insights into the start-up environment - for example, operating on shorter turnaround times compared to more traditional industries; and also celebrating failure as a process to achieving success. HACK!@DGCFC was a great effort by DiGi that will definitely help the local app development industry move in the right direction as it will help uncover much needed raw local talent."
- Izwan Ismail, Founder of UX Malaysia who spoke about “Designing Mobile Interfaces that Matter”

“My colleagues and I look forward to the final Social Blood Drive mobile app that will be developed from Challenge for Change. Such an app would help create mass awareness of blood donation activities in locations close existing blood donors or those who are keen to become donors. I found HACK!@DGCFC to be a very “cool” event and the participants, very motivated. They seem to sincerely want to help society at large by making it easier for the public to save lives by becoming blood donors, or at least to spread the spirit of donating blood.  The Challenge for Change platform provides a good opportunity for brilliant minds to come together to create new ideas that can benefit Malaysian communities.”
- Dr. Norris B. Naim, Head of Recruitment and Publicity Division, National Blood Centre who offered an industry perspective on what functionalities would help make blood donation apps more effective

“I am a self-taught programmer. I learned programming from various online and YouTube tutorials.  Programming is sometimes a very lonely pursuit.  So, it is nice to have events such as HACK!@DGCFC where people like me can get to know others in the larger community. I made a lot of valuable contacts at this event like representatives from Microsoft, Google and various mobile platform experts.  Beyond technical skills, I learned more about the business related aspects of the mobile app development industry.  Talking to the ideation winner of the mobile app idea I have chosen to work on also gave me greater insight into his vision for the app.  I am excited to see where this process will take me.”
- 18 year-old student Arvind Naidu, one of the youngest participants at HACK!@DGCFC

“Mobile apps are a trend that is here to stay as everyone these days has a smartphone and data plans are quite cheap. The mobile platform also works to app developers' advantage as individuals can now make money more easily from this area - your market is much larger and you do not need to have a company to develop such apps.  There are also now in-apps purchases that can provide an additional source of income.  For users, they can have easy and affordable access to many useful apps on their mobile phones - for example, GPS or mapping services.  Before, such services were only limited to the tech-savvy.  It is encouraging to see DiGi moving into such events as I believe this is the first hackathon they have organised."
- Vincent Wong, Software Development Manager, the oldest participant at HACK!@DGCFC

“We met through MDeC's ICON Apps Programme, and enjoy participating in hackathons.  We are glad to be able to apply our app development skills to assist Malaysian communities in this challenge.  We were impressed with the organisation of HACK!@DGCFC. This is one of the best hackathons we have participated in so far. The environment and facilities were very conducive to participants’ needs. The DiGi team has been very helpful and this hackathon provided us with good networking opportunities with key players in the industry."
- Seet Daniel, Tan Yin See and Sim Chia Tek,a team of developers who travelled all the way from Penang to participate in HACK!@DGCFC

“We enjoyed the experience as we have never worked on apps from scratch before within a given time deadline. DiGi's Internet For All campaign and its related initiatives are good as more people now use smartphones, and mobile apps can bring convenience to the lives of many Malaysians.  These days, we see more than only game related apps, such as apps that can enhance productivity. Events like HACK!@DGCFC provide a good stage for Malaysians to showcase their talents.”
- IT student Chin Wan Jing and programmer Gan Hansson, team participants at HACK!@DGCFC