App It Up – Curation of Cool Apps for NGOs and Libraries

There are now one million different apps in the world according to The New York Times, including those created by NGOs and developers who are customizing software to allow people to connect, educate and stay engaged with their constituencies.

What exactly are nonprofits and NGOs doing with these apps? With a generous grant from Microsoft, TechSoup Global’s App It Up project did a survey to find out.

We found that a large percentage (46% of respondents) of US-based nonprofits who do use apps, generally use them to engage with their communities via social media, photo sharing or apps specifically tailored for an organization’s use, like finding pets at your local humane society. A surprising number (56%) use apps to do their daily work, like file sharing and collaboration with co-workers and volunteers.

For the purposes of this project, we looked beyond mobile phone-based apps to include any small piece of software that extends the functionality of another software tool or platform. Apps we included were widgets, webparts and templates, which can be used online (a web app), on a mobile device (a mobile app) or as an add-on to existing software tools (plug-ins).

We found a variety of tailor-made community-focused apps developed for specific organizations, which could be generalized for a wider NGO audience.  Two notable examples (taken from TS.org blog posts by Ariel Gilbert-Knight and Jim Lynch):

Fire Department is an innovative app created by the San Ramon Valley Fire Department. The app alerts CPR-certified individuals to cardiac emergencies in their area. In response to a cardiac incident, emergency dispatchers can send a notification message to Fire Department app users, including the victim's location and the location of the nearest Automated External Defibrillator (AED) device. The hope is that CPR-trained Good Samaritans nearby may be able to respond even more quickly than emergency services, in some cases. The San Ramon Valley Fire Department has recently launched an initative to extend the reach of the app beyond San Ramon.

EpiSurveyor which enables organizations to perform health surveys in rural areas without regular internet access. EpiSurveyor is a mobile data collection tool that lets you design data collection forms, fill out the forms on common mobile phones, then upload the data when you have Internet access again.

Not surprisingly, the biggest barrier to innovation is lack of funds or just the lack of understanding about the possibilities apps could bring. And some believe they need to invest in a customized app but do not know that the right app may already be available.

So we have started to curate Cool App Roundups of apps that nonprofits and libraries are already using as well as educating developers about what’s needed so they can fill that need.   Here are some of the apps we found – examples from TS.org blog posts (once again by Ariel Gilbert-Knight and Jim Lynch):

Disaster and Emergency Response Apps  - J-ResQ was developed in response to the tsunami in Japan. The app was developed on the Windows Azure platform, a cloud-based platform for building and hosting web applications. It allows anyone in a disaster situation to easily record and send a voice message and email from their mobile phone, telling friends and family about their status. A GPS-based location is also included with the message.

Arts Organization Apps -  Yerba Buena Center for the Arts has developed apps with both educational and social components: they created a mobile exhibition guide to complement an interactive multimedia exhibition, exploring connections between the artist's influences and the exhibit, in the artist's own words.

Apps for Libraries - North Carolina State University's Red, White & Black African-American history mobile tour uses GPS technology to pinpoint historically relevant campus sites nearby. Mobile tour users can then access related text, images, audio, and other content from the university library archives. OCLC has helped create a variety of apps that aren't linked to a specific library but do help make library resources more visible to app users.

Green Apps - Ecorio which uses the GPS system on your phone to track your carbon footprint as you travel. PedNav tells you how to walk, bike or mass transit to wherever you're going and sets you up with an itinerary. The iRecycle is Earth911's app helps you find recycling locations for more than 240 types of materials.

With the birth of all these great apps, we’re also considering an “App Challenge” which would solicit entries from both nonprofits and developers in an effort to get people on the same page (or app), in a similar manner to TechSoup Global’s NetSquared challenge model pioneered in recent years.  

If you have ideas on a role TechSoup Global can play in the emerging app movement, please post a comment.

Photo: Gesa Hemelmans