IIM Kozhikode Students Launch Makeourkerala Mobile App

KOZHIKODE:
IIM Kozhikode (IIMK) students recently launched an android mobile app, Makeourkerala, an initiative towards a cleaner, greener and safer Kerala. Makeourkerala’s vision is to enable any individual around Kerala to expose issues around their locality and create actionable directives to mobilize additional support from public at large.
The app lets users, tag their location and post social issues or activities nearby. Users can also share their sentiments, follow an event and track any social issue from the application. Individuals, government bodies and NGOs can create an invite for a social event with activity details, location and date to seek public participation. The app brings together like-minded people towards a common goal, i.e. Making Kerala Better.
The initiative will focus on major issues, for example, issue of stray dog attacks in Kerala. There is an upward trend in the number of attacks in the state. According to the public health department, Kerala recorded 1, 19, 191 dog bite cases in 2014, 1, 25, 385 cases in 2015 and 91, 052 cases by August 2016. Makeourkerala sees an opportunity to reduce stray dogs by clearing garbage, adopting dogs, providing assistance to victims etc. This app will have dedicated flow of data, reports and support for issues through its application. The app will use the power of people collaboration and strive to address such issues with its various features like pledge support, awareness etc.
“Through this app, we hope to achieve a strong platform where people come together for common goals that they have pledged to support. Our vision is to empower the people with the right data and tools to ensure accountability.” says Prof. Sidhartha S. Padhi, Assistant Professor, IIMK.
The app will closely follow a Wikipedia based admin model that ensures crowd sourced accountability model which is answerable to the public. It means that all posts will be approved by admins selected b
y the users themselves. There will be periodic renewal of admins to ensure that the process is as democratic as possible. The founding team met with leading NGO’s, Administrative officers and political leaders to better structure and streamline the app process.