Back in November, Eric Schmidt helped us
announce in Tokyo that the
Google Impact Challenge was coming to Japan. At the time, we invited Japanese nonprofits to send in their ideas for how they’d use technology to improve people’s lives, and we promised that 4 of the best ideas would receive a ¥50 million grant and mentoring from Google.
The response has been incredible, and today, we’re delighted to share with you the 10 Google Impact Challenge Japan finalists.
These ten nonprofit teams (full list below) will now have the opportunity to pitch their ideas to an impressive panel of judges - including First Lady Akie Abe, MIT Media Lab Professor Hiroshi Ishii, astronaut Soichi Noguchi and Change.org Japan Director Emmy Suzuki Harris, as well as Miki Iwamura from Google Japan and myself - on March 26th.
But starting today we also want to hear from you. Which of these projects do you think will have the biggest impact? By voting now for the four ideas that most inspire you, you can help decide which projects get ¥50 million in grant funding, and support from Google to help turn their idea into reality.
Here’s the full list of finalists, including links for you to vote for your favorites (if you can’t read Japanese, just click the blue check box, then the blue button that pops up):
- Mission ARM Japan - Low-cost 3D printed prosthetic limbs for people with disabilities (vote now)
- Homedoor - App and data analytics to reduce crime and employ the homeless as night safety patrols in high-crime areas (vote now)
- Madre Bonita - App to provide postpartum care for new mothers and to enable friends and family to give postpartum classes as a gift (vote now)
- Nobel - Online network to support single-parent households with a single location to access basic resources such as childcare and affordable housing (vote now)
- PADM - Crowdsourced accessibility map for Japan to help individuals in wheelchairs more easily navigate their communities by documenting barrier-free locations (vote now)
- Sodate-Age Net - Digital skills training for disadvantaged youth to increase their employment opportunities (vote now)
- Fukushima Internet Television - SMS outreach to provide mental health peer support and improve the accessibility of suicide counseling (vote now)
- Nijiiro Diversity - Digital outreach campaign to build tolerance for sexual minorities and educate on LGBT issues in the workplace through training courses and certification (vote now)
- Smile Club - Mobile gym and data-driven health coaching for the elderly to encourage active lifestyles and healthy living (vote now)
- Dot JP - Data analysis and visualization to make political funding flows transparent by leveraging a cloud-information system (vote now)
So what are you waiting for?
Click here to visit the site and cast your vote directly (in Japanese) or you can click the ‘vote now’ links after each of the project descriptions above to help push your favorite ideas to the top. You have until 11:59 pm on March 25th.
Posted by Jacquelline Fuller, Director of Google.org
1 comment :
If we're not Japanese or of Japanese descent (like myself), is it appropriate to suggest ways to improve their nation/culture?
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