Applications For Good

Personal Story – Apps might have kept me in school

Arthur Grau IV — Tue, 15 May 2012 21:54:07 +0000

Let me tell you a little story. The year was 1995; I was twelve years old and attending the seventh grade in San Francisco’s Bayview Hunter’s Point District. The school… the neighborhood… it was all new to me, and I did not like it one bit. So when my mother started working the early shift, I saw an opportunity and took it. I. STOPPED. GOING. TO. SCHOOL.

At first it was every once in awhile, increased a smidge, then until I just stopped going all together. I’d chill at home, erase the voicemail messages from the school, get dressed and head over to my grandmothers house at around the end of the school day. the same time that I would be getting out of school. She was usually my first after-school stop. After spending an hour or two there, I’d head home. Usually then my mom would be there.

This routine continued for about a month until the school made an evening phone call to my house. After about a three-minutes conversation, she my mother knew everything. We were scheduled to see the administrators at school the next day. The next day came, and after the meeting was over, I admit I was a little scared to arrive home after that meeting, but we did. I went to my room and waited…. I waited for that talk and possible spanking punishment. . I waited and waited and then the scariest of things happened something worse actually happened.… Absolutely nothing happened–no talk about how my behavior was unacceptable, no telling me to go to school the next day–nothing. almost as if that meeting didn’t happen.

This was the beginning of my battle with truancy. Looking back I wish there were alternatives tools out there, like apps, that could of have helped us before the situation got out of control. For future students and their parents that may be dealing with this same issue, I uncovered a few apps that might help. Unlike 1995, today they make apps for everything and there are plenty that could help people in this situation. Here are a few:

Apps for parents and students

TruantToday.com
Truant Today is an app that sends a text message to parents the minute the student skips class. This app was designed by a high school student!

KickboardForTeachers.com
Kickboard is an app that gives teachers and administrators the ability to collect and analyze academic performance efficiently and in real time so that they can make appropriate and timely interventions.

Edmodo.com
Edmodo is an app that allows students to access homework, class discussions, and grades. Teachers and parents can even use it to collaborate.

Apps to help students stay engaged with school:

iStudiez Pro

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/istudiez-pro/id310636441?mt=8

iStudiez Pro helps to manage your school schedule, assignments and will even sound alarms when you are in danger of being late to class.

SwipeStudy

http://www.apple.com/webapps/productivity/swipestudy.html

SwipeStudy is a flashcard app that allows you to quickly go through your set with the ease of swiping.

GPA Calculator

http://www.apple.com/webapps/calculate/gpacalculator_holywebdesign.html

Scientific Calculator

http://www.apple.com/webapps/calculate/scientificcalculator.html

As for my own story, I continued to skip class until it carried on all the way until the eleventh grade and I because apps cannot do everything, I just have a few words of advice for all parents… Be there. If you suspect something like this might be going on with your child, call the school and check to see if they have been attending. Get involved with their schooling. Pay attention and f Find out why your child doesn’t want to go to school, use incentives or discipline to keep them interested and in class. address the issue with them and let them know it’s not okay even to cut a single class. Follow up negative behavior with discipline.

Sometimes the only way you can show love is by putting your foot down. It’s easy to get caught up in work and miss out on the in’s and out’s of what’s going on with your child. Kids may not act like it, but they do care when you get involved. Do anything but let your to combat you child possibly falling through the cracks of the school system. Give them a fighting chance.
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Code for Change – Innovation pipeline launches June 28th

Arthur Grau IV — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 01:15:39 +0000

Code for Change is a competition that links technologists with nonprofits, public agencies, and real-world social challenges. This is a unique take on an apps contest that promotes cross‐sector problem-solving and continuing partnerships after the Code for Change competition.

Starting June 28, 2012, nonprofits and community partners enter your Challenges here at the Applications for Good site.
Contact us to find out how to become a Code for Change nonprofit.

Facilitated by Code for Change, developers, designers and innovators propose Solutions at the website culminating in two-week collaboration in New York, starting Sept 28th. Teams with the most promising ideas win cash, incubator opportunities and other prizes. Register here as a technology partner.

After the two week collaboration and Oct 12 Expo, Code for Change applications are built. Cash and product prizes are awarded for those who complete the process. Applications are recognized with our App Catalog and other promotional venues (tba).

The creativity begins June 28, 2012 when we begin sourcing and developing challenges from the public sector and nonprofits. We will present the challenges during the summer through our website and invite teams to commit to solving challenges. Anyone can play.

On Friday, September 28th, at NYU’s Wagner School, we kick off the competition with an afternoon and evening of team matching and gathering, giving both technologists and social service agencies a chance to meet face to face, pitch ideas and challenges and form working groups. Over the course of the next two weeks teams will meet on their own time to work collaboratively on their solutions. On Friday, October 12th, all participants will reconvene at NYU Wagner for a “demo day” when they present their solutions for judging at our exposition.

Prizes will be awarded in multiple categories. Top award recipients will win the support to continue working with their civic and community partners, bringing their concepts to full development by the end of 2012.

Prizes include mentor sessions, VC lunches, introductions to national foundations, space with business incubators, general support for project development, cash, and more. At the end of the year, we’ll present final results and products.

Code for Change is a partnership between NYU’s Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, One Economy, Code for America, NPower and the Blue Ridge Foundation.

Register for Updates

More about Code for Change

More about the Competition and Expo

Code for Change’s lead partners and supporters

Public Sector and Nonprofit Organizations

Submit a Challenge, Get a Solution.

Do you have a challenge that could benefit from an innovative technology solution? At no cost and with the support of the Code for Change team, nonprofits and public agencies are invited to submit “Challenge Briefs,” which technologists and innovators with big ideas will build solutions around. Code for Change is about impact. Challenge Briefs should address bold, systems-oriented issues, the solutions to which could substantively improve services, accessibility of programs, and how an organization does business. Code for Change welcomes agencies to pitch their toughest problems with field-wide relevance to innovators and technology experts. Many of the Code for Change prizes will support organizations in the full development of new prototypes. How to Enter a challenge.

Technologists, Innovators, & Designers

Show Your Skills, Do Good.

Are you an expert coder with technology chops you want to share with the world? Do you have innovative ideas that could make a difference? Do you think good design can change the world? Put your skills to work for a better world and compete to win cash and prizes. Code for Change matches you with the leaders of nonprofits and public agencies in New York City. These organizations may focus on kids in NYC or access to water in developing countries – what they have in common is that they’re all in the Big Apple and in need of technology interventions and innovative solutions to their challenges. That’s where you come in to compete. Prizes include mentor sessions, VC lunches, introductions to national foundations, space with business incubators, general support for project development, cash, and more. Recently, the White House has become interested in this effort; one winner may also have the opportunity to work with the Obama administration to take this work to the national stage. How to Enter a Solution

Code for America launches new Accelerator

Arthur Grau IV — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 02:22:53 +0000

Starting today Code for America is officially accepting applications for its civic startup accelerator. The accelerator is designed to disrupt the massive $140 billion government IT market and provide new and better services to citizens.

This first-of-its-kind, four-month program will “turbo-charge” select civic startups by providing them a springboard to amplify market awareness of their product, additional funding, business mentoring specific to the “government 2.0” space, and introductions to a broad network of civic leaders and potential investors. Code for America has recruited experienced telecommunications and consumer software entrepreneur Ron Bouganim as program director.

Applications will be accepted starting today until June 1: codeforamerica.org/accelerator

The accelerator has an estemed list of mentors and advisors including CTO of the United States Aneesh Chopra, Caterina Fake, co-founder of Flickr and Pinwheel,Peter Schwartz, author and founder of the Global Business Network, and Ron Conway, angel investor and partner at SV Angel. (Read the full list.)

How the Accelerator works:

Three to five companies will be selected to participate in the program
The program will run for four months, beginning August 1, 2012
Each team will be granted $25,000 in funding as well as access to CfA office space for the term
Teams will receive guidance from high-profile civic and industry mentors and advisors
Teams can reside anywhere in the country, but will gather in San Francisco one week a month for “retreats” featuring intensive training and networking

Snapfresh Gets an iPad Makeover

Arthur Grau IV — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 23:22:25 +0000

For use at points of sale and with service providers, SNAPFRESH opensource project now has an ipad version. It’s great to see the snapfresh team really take this to the next level. SnapFresh.org is a free sms-based app that helps food stamp recipients find healthy places that accept SNAP (food stamps). Most recipients have money in their accounts, but many are embarrassed to go to farmers markets and nice stores and ask if they accept SNAP.

We Go, rideshare pilot launches in San Francisco

Arthur Grau IV — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 22:02:53 +0000

Last year we wrote about Avego as a model for what rideshare could look like. Citing the high population density of places like government housing and inner city neighborhoods, we could easily see the benefit for several of the interrelated basic needs we cite to bring people out of poverty. Apparently it did not take long for Avego to see some of the Bay Area transit issues as a perfect testing ground and to design some pilot studies with the Metropolitan Transportation Commission. Though not directly serving the audience at Applications for Good, this pioneering work should only push the envelope to bring these tools to more people who need them.

The first approach is to target thousands of commuters traveling north on Highway 101 between Petaluma and Santa Rosa where limited bus services are available. The newly constructed HOV/carpool lanes in Sonoma County will allow WeGo rideshares to bypass gridlock, shaving time off their commute. The WeGo rewards scheme for Sonoma County will be announced in the coming weeks on www.wegoridesharing.com.

Later plans are to test a number of different commute concerns through Avego Real-Time Ridesharing technology across three counties. Among these concerns are the “last mile” issue and overcrowded parking at BART stations in Contra Costa County and communities losing bus services in Marin County. For now the Sonoma project starts in a few weeks.

Avego Blog

Proud to support TechCentral SF and military veterans

Arthur Grau IV — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 21:23:12 +0000

As part of our regular outreach to the Bay Area developer community, we are happy to support and promote Tech Central SF and their work to bring new media skills to military veterans. This work directly supports our goal to help people get quality jobs.

The objective of the event is to support returning Bay Area veterans, through education, re-integration and by connecting them with the tech ecosystem in the San Francisco Bay Area.

In this two-day event Teams of approximately 5-10 people will be formed with a variety of skills. Veterans can have the idea, help with business plan, marketing or just sit in to audit/participate for educational purposes – vet coding skills are NOT required – however developers from the tech community are encouraged to attend!

Check it out! Eventbrite

Returning veterans find career support with energy tech course – Auburn Journal

Tech Jobs for Returning Vets (Infographic) | Dice Blog Network

Moving forward on civic engagement with CAAM

Arthur Grau IV — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 22:41:06 +0000

At Applications for Good we are proud to support other agencies as they help people thrive in diverse circumstances of life. We understand that media plays a vital role informing, inspiring and educating people to make positive change. To this end we co-authored a Challenge Brief withCenter for Asian American Media to develop a mobile engagement app that will accompany their upcoming film festival. And now the app is getting built. “It has been an exciting experience to work with CAAM to develop a mobile application that facilitates community outreach and engagement”, claimed Julien Bassan from ShivaMedia. Here’s to hoping excitement leads to engagement.

The iOS, Android native and webapp will engage users with both the media they are watching at the festival and with the issues underlying the subject matter. Features of the app include live poling, action and activity links, social sharing and follow up engagement through push. The application is being produced with Shivamedia and the staff at CAAM.

Applications for Good, CAAM and ShivaMedia are working together to create skinned, portable versions of the app for other engagements. Our goal is to create a template app that will be useful across multiple festivals and for a variety of outcomes. An app like this could be used to engage specific niche audiences like those who resonate with the SFIAAFF opening film White Frog. In the film Nick, who lives with Asperger’s syndrome, struggles to survive his family’s neglect and misunderstanding. We believe an app like ours will help those in similar situations to access and act upon vital information long after the film festival is over. We see the app being versatile so that webisodic shows like Urban Organic on our Public Internet Channel that shows viewers tips on growing their own food or a film feature like Bang Bang that focuses in on gang violence and immigrant culture, would each be able to use the app in their own way to get the word out about issues underlying the subject matter.

Join us as we look forward to the March festival launch of this next generation of civic engagement.

Salon.com talks apps for shadow economy.

Arthur Grau IV — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 21:55:46 +0000

Andrew Leonard for Salon.com

Could the right smartphone app help bring light to the shadow economy? The Department of Labor thinks so. Last May, the DoL announced the release of a new iPhone app: Timesheet. The purpose of the app is to help combat the off-the-books plague of “wage theft” — the increasingly common practice in which employers shortchange their workers by denying them overtime pay or break time, or failing to pay the legally mandated minimum wage.

Timesheet, says the DoL, is an app that will “help employees independently track the hours they work and determine the wages they are owed. Available in English and Spanish, users conveniently can track regular work hours, break time and any overtime hours for one or more employers.”

2012, The year of code?

Arthur Grau IV — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 20:56:34 +0000

Now for anyone who wants to build Applications for Good there is a simple solution. CodeAcademy is asking you to commit to a lesson per week for 2012 at CodeYear. They are offering lessons in a stepped progression so that anyone can learn. A fantastic opportunity for people of all walks of life to dig in and make their own applications. Who best to design the next app for your neighborhood or for a specific Challenge. Much like the movement of html into common usage among people from a wide range of backgrounds, from myspace hobbyists to accidental hackers in marketing, pr or product development, javascript, and other programming languages are becoming essential to being media literate. We are planning to make this year a code year. What fun.

Code Year draws 200,000 aspiring programmers (money.cnn.com)
New York mayor learning to code (bbc.co.uk)

More americans have a mobile phone than a passport?

Arthur Grau IV — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 18:18:03 +0000

Might as well build a free mobile site… A boon for small business owners and the underserved, who traditionally are using mobile phones to access the internet, introducing Google’s GoMo. Now without coding, anyone can build a mobile splash page too. According to Google’s GoMo loading page, “more Americans own a phone than have a passport”. So what google has done is created a marketplace to build mobile sites. In a different approach than the original google sites, Google mobile features third party vendors alongside their own free mobile site creator. They also give users a test drive of any website in their own litte web-based simulator. It shows you. here’s what your site would look like on mobile and what you should do to make it better. Nice motivator for the small business or established brand. We’ve known for a long time people are going mobile. So it’s nice to see the giant stepping up to make it easier for all of us. Let’s hope they keep this shop open!

Bee Local on Your Desktop (applicationsforgood.org)
How many Life’s does a Mobile Phone have? (mobilegyaan.com)

Applications For Good

Personal Story – Apps might have kept me in school

Code for Change – Innovation pipeline launches June 28th

Register for Updates

Public Sector and Nonprofit Organizations

Submit a Challenge, Get a Solution.

Technologists, Innovators, & Designers

Show Your Skills, Do Good.

Code for America launches new Accelerator

Snapfresh Gets an iPad Makeover

We Go, rideshare pilot launches in San Francisco

Proud to support TechCentral SF and military veterans

Moving forward on civic engagement with CAAM

Related articles

Salon.com talks apps for shadow economy.

2012, The year of code?

Related articles

More americans have a mobile phone than a passport?

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