Mozilla joined forces with the National Science Foundation in June for Ignite. The project asked for app ideas from the general public that would help humanity in a positive way. These apps were to be envisioned with the “faster, smarter Internet of the future” in mind. The winning ideas have now been announced, and Mozilla now wants to make the ideas a reality.
Mozilla announced that the development round of Ignite is now open. The winning ideas from the Brainstorming Round have been decided, and Mozilla is sitting on $485,000 in funding to help turn these ideas into real apps that will help humanity embrace the future.
The list of winning ideas are all worthy goals that any altruistic developer would love to help with. The ideas range from helping firefighters save lives to creating smart streets to compliment the driverless cars that will soon dot the roadways of California.
Here’s the full list of winning Mozilla Ignite ideas:
Real-Time Emergency Response Observation and Supervision
Real-time 3D Interactive Telepresence
Remote Process Control Using a Reliable, Real-Time Protocol
Long-Term Monitoring and Crisis Management System
High Quality Open Source Web Conferencing
Kinect Health 3D
Smart Streets for Smart Cars
The Rashomon Project: “Multi-Perspective Chronology”
These ideas are just the beginning of something greater. The National Science Foundation has said that their goal is the creation of 60 “transformative apps” over the next three to five years. It’s an ambitious project that may just succeed if Web technologies and Internet speeds continue to grow at their current rate.
Interested developers can submit their bid to help start building one of the above apps right now. They can also submit entirely new ideas for the next round of funding. Mozilla and the NSF are in this for the long run. You can help shape the future of the Internet and how it impacts our lives in a positive way. Might I suggest an app that displays pictures of cute animals to give depressed office workers a glimmer of hope in their otherwise abysmal existence.