FrontlineSMS:Medic and The Extraordinaries Win Big at NetSquared

by Nathaniel Whittemore · 2009-05-28 11:16:00 UTC
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First and second prize-winning teams from n2y4: 2nd place project: The Extraordinaries: Mr. Mystery, Ben Rigby, Jacob Colker / 1st place project: FrontlineSMS: Medic - Isaac Holeman, Alex Harsha, Dieterich Law (photo from elstudio)

NetSquared's annual spring conference has become the go-to place to discover innovative social change technology products. Each year, they sponsor a project challenge that gives social tech innovators - usually grouped around some theme - the chance to win cash prizes, mobilize peers, and get great advice. Last year's big winners at the "mapping" themed challenge were crisis info crodwsourcers Ushahidi. While I wasn't able to attend this year, it was clear even from afar that it was all about FrontlineSMS:Medic. The scrappy team of big thinking undergrads, hacks of Ken Banks' FrontlineSMS software in tow, pitched their way to $45,000 in total prizes. They won first place in the Mobile Challenge, where the placement is determined by attendee voting, first place in the Microsoft Mobile Challenge, and were one of five winners of the French American Charitable Trust (FACT) Social Justice Award. FrontlineSMS:Medic will use that money to scale up their model of using mobile phones and simple coordination software to help rural clinics provide higher quality and more comprehensive home health care with lower travel costs.

Also rocking the casbah were on-demand mobile volunteer shop The Extraordinaries. I've been so excited to see how persistent these guys have been, how much more developed their ideas have become, and how much traction they've started to get. For my money, they're doing some of the best thinking about how to find and supply small, meaningful tasks to people who want to contribute. I love their screenshot with resume review. I would review 20 resumes a day. The Extraordinaries won second prize in the Mobile Challenge and were also awarded with a FACT Social Justice Award.

For anyone looking to fund innovative new projects or just looking for a does of inspiration, it's worth checking out the whole list of featured projects. This year's featured projects may be next year's winners (just ask The Extraordinaries). Congrats to all who participated and NetSquared for another great conference. FrontlineSMS: Medic describing their project:

The Extraordinaries:

Nathaniel Whittemore is the founder of Assetmap. Previously he was the founding director of the Northwestern University Center for Global Engagement.
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