2010, March 23:
Chembe Ventures attends Cape Town Developers Day


Chembe Ventures attended the Betavine Social Exchange (BSX) Cape Town Developers Day at the Lightbox Daylight Studio on March 10th. The event was organized by Betavine in association with Vodacom South Africa and the Praekelt Foundation. The aim of the Developers Day was to introduce the BSX and encourage ad hoc groups to come up with innovative solutions for the challenges listed on the site.

After introductory presentations by Steve Wolak, Gustav Praekelt and Marlon Parker, attendees formed teams based on which challenges they wished to work on. The teams were given 5 hours to come up with a solution and each group had to give a short presentation at the end of the day. A panel of judges including representatives from the sponsors and organizers then chose the best entries.

No fewer than 3 of the 11 teams opted to work on solutions for the Chembe Urban Security Competition, and one of those teams went on to win first prize on the day. The winning entry, a.OK SMS, is a “panic button with a difference! Instead of relying on your loved-one to actively invoke an emergency notification, a.OK intelligently takes certain configurable conditions into account and performs a notification on their behalf.” a.OK SMS allows companies and families to receive notifications asking them to check up on their employees or loves ones if they do not report to a pre-arranged number at by a certain time.

Not only did Herman and Ashley from Mocality win mobile phones for their efforts on the day, the team subsequently submitted their entry by uploading it on BSX. They now stand a chance to win US $ 5,000. We wish them and all the other teams and individuals who submitted solutions good luck.


Mimi, Ashley and Herman present the winning entry



Teams hard at work creating innovative mobile solutions

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