by shings | Jan 28, 2016 | Blog Post
Atma Connect—a California-based technology organization focused on connecting and empowering people in the developing world—has won the 2016 Global Amplify Urban Resilience Challenge with their AtmaGo.com urban resilience app. The Amplify Urban Resilience Challenge is a partnership of The Rockefeller Foundation, USAID, the Swedish Development Agency (SIDA), the UK Development Agency (DFID), OpenIDEO, and IDEO.org.
“Atma is thrilled by the opportunity to work with IDEO.org’s Amplify Program and the Global Resilience Partnership to improve the resilience of low-income urban communities,” said Founder and CEO Meena Palaniappan. “We know that thousands of communities around the developing world face great risks from floods and other extreme weather events—and we know that climate change is going to make many of these threats more severe in coming years. But we also know that local communities have ideas and solutions that they can share with each other and the world.”
The AtmaGo web app, which was launched in January of 2015, now has over 20,000 users in three Indonesian cities—Jakarta, Malang and Lamongan. These users are sharing solutions, reporting problems, and posting information with the goal of “warga bantu warga” or neighbors helping neighbors.
“Thank you to IDEO and Amplify for this great opportunity!” said Alfan Rodhi, Atma’s Indonesia Field Director. “People in our cities have ideas on how to respond to floods and build stronger communities—but we need to unite them using technology so we can truly be ‘neighbors helping neighbors’.”
When terrorists attacked Jakarta on January 13, 2016, AtmaGo users shared news and updates. When floodwaters inundated Jakarta in February of 2015, users posted messages on how to protect essential household items before the floods, which neighborhoods to avoid due to floodwaters, and then posted updates as the waters receded. But AtmaGo provides more than just timely disaster information—users can find jobs, post community events, share recommendations and report problems.
“The IDEO-Amplify win couldn’t have come at a better time,” said Sergio Paluch, Chief of Product. “As we embark on creating an Android application, we are excited to be learning from IDEO and working together to improve AtmaGo.”
by shings | Jan 22, 2016 | Blog Post
Just a quick update today: AtmaGo has reached 20,000 users in Indonesia! Big thanks to all of our Indonesian staff for driving this forward—and to our new users for creating posts on everything from the recent terror attacks in Jakarta, to jobs, events and so much more.
We are also excited to announce that Atma Connect, the organization behind AtmaGo, is a finalist for the Amplify Urban Resilience Challenge. This is an amazing opportunity to participate in a collaborative design bootcamp and get funding from a great coalition of organizations.
by shings | Nov 30, 2015 | Blog Post
Since our last update in June, AtmaGo has reached over 10,000 users! Our users and staff in Indonesia deserve a big round of applause.
Along with expanding to new cities in Indonesia and improving our web-based software, we are very happy to report that the Cisco Foundation has pledged to help us develop an Android application next year.
In 2014, the Android operating system had a market share of 60% in Indonesia and smartphone usage is growing quickly. Given the rapid growth, users have been asking us to optimize AtmaGo for smartphones—and to provide solutions for dealing with intermittent internet access. Thus we will be building asynchronous capabilities into our app that will allow people to compose posts “offline” and then have them go live when their phones find a connection. We also want to ensure Emergency Warning Systems (EWS), which have failed poor communities in the past, can reach the last mile in poor urban communities by connecting them to AtmaGo.
With the help our new community manager David Khoirul and our field director Alfan Rodhi, we started an AtmaGo user video contest and users have uploaded nearly 30 short videos showing what challenges they face and what is interesting about their neighborhood. Check out some of the submissions. Our Facebook page, now managed by Jimmy Welles has also been very active.
Thanks to all of our donors, staff and friends for making 2015 a fantastic year—we can’t wait to show you what we are working on for 2016!
by shings | Jun 26, 2015 | Blog Post
In early April, we rolled out a new version of AtmaGo that adds user profiles, improves the navigation and updates the user interface. And since then, activity has been strong! We now have nearly 3,000 active users who are connecting with their neighbors to share vital information. People are using AtmaGo to find water and supplies, post about education and jobs, and report problems from fires and floods, to traffic and crime.
As we rolled out the new design, we flew to Indonesia to meet with our field director, Alfan Rodhi and our new community manager. While in Jakarta, we also met with power users in low-income neighborhoods, and held a gathering in an Internet café in the Kalibata City neighborhood.
Meena and Alfan discuss AtmaGo with a user in the Halim neighborhood of Jakarta.
At the user gathering, people gave us great feedback about AtmaGo and how it fits in with the Indonesian concept of gotoroyang — or community building. Social media is huge in Indonesia, but AtmaGo provides Indonesians with something different: it’s an antidote to typical “ego media” as one of our power users told us.
During our Indonesia trip we also learned that there’s a lot of interest in AtmaGo in two large cities in East Java: Malang and Lamongan. And we had the chance to hang out with David Khoirul, who has been helping us with design. So, in June we launched in two new cities—Lamongan and Malang—and added David as the AtmaGo community manager for East Java!
We’ve got a lot more in store for the second half of 2015 and we are grateful as always that you are taking the ride with us.
Memiliki Musim panas yang hebat (have a great Summer)!
-David, Alfan, Sergio, Nick and Meena
by shings | May 18, 2015 | Blog Post
“I love AtmaGo because it gives me a way to help other people. All the other social media is ‘ego media’—look what I am wearing or look what I am doing. AtmaGo is something different.” — AtmaGo User Fajri
Terikah kasih to all the people who came out to support our work!
Just a few weeks ago, Meena and Nick were in Jakarta, Indonesia to meet with Atma Connect’s Indonesian staff, talk with users and launch the new version of AtmaGo. Pictured above is a group of key users who came out to tell us what they love about AtmaGo—and how we can improve.
Along with holding our first user meeting in Kalibata City, we also met families and small business owners in the low-income neighborhoods of Bukit Duri and Halim—both of which had been inundated by recent floods. What we learned is that smartphone ownership has taken off in Indonesia but that, despite rapid economic growth, the country still faces a host of challenges relating to infrastructure, transportation and economics.
Many thanks to everyone who came out to our first user gathering in Kalibata City— and a special thanks to our Indonesian Field Director, Alfan Rohdi, and our Indonesian Graphic Designer, David Kohriel, for all their great work.
by shings | Mar 20, 2015 | Blog Post
“To the citizens and residents of Bukit Duri, do not give up in the face of floods! When the floods come, unplug all cable, save important documents and jewelry, and make your family and yourself secure” — AtmaGo User Comments from February, 2015.
On February 10, the Wall Street Journal reported that heavy rains had inundated the capital city of Indonesia.
What they didn’t report is that the day before, neighborhoods such as Kebon Pala in East Jakarta and Bukit Duri in South Jakarta were already experiencing problems. How can we be sure? Because AtmaGo users had reported problems — and posted photos, like the image below — 24 hours before the WSJ report was posted.
Two days later, AtmaGo users posted, “be careful guys, still flooded in Glodok” and to stay clear of the area around the Manggari Flood Tunnel. The good news is that by February 12, users were posting that the “floods begin to recede” and that West Jakarta was drivable again.
Flooding is a perennial problem in Indonesia and existing communication systems are not well used. In 2002, 2007 and 2008 floods inundated almost 60% of the poorest communities in the city. Among the 72,000 households at highest risk in Jakarta, a survey found that the Jakarta Flood Early Warning System had failed to reach the most vulnerable communities.
Although flooding is never good news, we are excited to report that the new version of AtmaGo.com has created a way for people living in urban poor neighborhoods to share strategies, exchange information and solutions, and build the resilience of their community.
Since we launched the expanded version of AtmaGo in January, nearly 400 users have created over 1,000 posts and replies, which have attracted 13,400 pageviews. Users have posted ideas on staying healthy, promoted educational opportunities, listed items for sale and posted complaints about public transportation. And users are finding our new site engaging — over half have become members who have created accounts, provided email addresses, and get regular daily updates.
Why build a hyper-local community app? Because we know that people are far more likely to survive serious disasters when, in the words of Nicole Lurie, President Obama’s Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response, “they have good social networks and connections.” We also found, through our field work late last year, that although Indonesians are avid users of Twitter and Facebook, they are hungry for local news and information and lack reliable digital channels to share it.
Given the level of engagement we have been seeing and the positive feedback we have gotten, we know we are on the right track — but of course, we are also continuing to learn from our users.
