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| The App aims to alert users in real time about what is happening in the neighbourhood. Source; wandering iPhone |
It is not all information that can be found at the tip of
your fingers, especially real time information happening in your neighbourhood.
Lebogang Moholo and Lunga Mthombothi from Tembisa have developed
an application (app) built on Google’s Android platform which serves the sole
purpose of notifying, sharing, announcing, informing and helping people share
activities/events happening around them in actual time.
The idea came about when they went to buy food with friends
and found the local store closed and the ATM where they were going to get money
was offline. On their journey, they experienced heavy traffic, load shedding
and a heightened police presence. “I suggested the concept of creating a device
which will inform the community of such activities happening around them,” says
Moholo.
Moholo and his friends prototyped one and found out that the
device was going to be expensive and by then the app market was booming. They
started researching on how to make an app, and successfully generated Outdoor
Alerts. “The mission is to crowd source and map activities. We are up and
running and connecting people to the world around them,” he says.
The app running on the Nougat version of Android and is
accessible free on Google’s Play Store and has regular updates and upgrades. The
activities/events are not limited to Tembisa, users who download the
application also get to share or suggest activities based on criteria. “All
people need is a working email address to register and you are good to go,” adds
Moholo.
He explained that there is no centralised application that
caters to travelers and locals when it comes to mapping and informing them
about what’s taking place in real time. “Our app has been differentiated in a
crowded market in two ways, introduction to our core feature that no one else
has, and have targeted a specific niche, which is to get the app into the hands
of people who need it most.
“By doing so, we have enabled ourselves to live alongside
other information sharing services like Twitter rather than competing with
them,” he said. In five years’ time, Moholo and Mthombeni see their app leading
the travel and local mobile application industry. Moholo’s message to young
people is if you’re not chasing the dream you are wasting your time.
Source: The Tembisan
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