Connecting citizens with government in Indonesia – Team Antarmuka
The following guest post comes from Antarmuka, a team of finalists for the Imagine Cup Rural Innovation Award from Indonesia. Antarmuka developed a reporting system, Butterfly, which allows users to immediately report environmental problems that they discover via voice, SMS, MMS or alternatively, mobile or web applications. After problems have been reported, Butterfly will classify them according to category, priority and location. It then alerts the responsible local authority.
We chose to participate in this category as we think that our project can help people in rural areas save the environment and improve their lives using technologies that are accessible. Technology is not only for people in the cities with modern gadgets, but also for people in rural areas; as shown that even the simplest technology, when available for the rural society, can help them to improve their lives, just the same as it has improved the lives of those in cities.
Butterfly addresses the late reporting problem. Reporting local environmental problems that often occur in developing countries is the first stage in the process of solving them. Butterfly allows developing countries to get early warning of environmental problems.
To make our project a reality, we are currently in the process of implementing our project with the Republic of Indonesia’s Ministry of Environment. Since our project can be used anywhere, we welcome any country that is willing to implement our project.
Video: Butterfly Demo Video
