Google I/O Develop for Good Hackathon 2012 Winners Announced

Google, the internet's most visited website made another achievement on their participation for the common good of the population through the Google I/O Develop for Good Hackathon. Google announced earlier the Extended Events for I/O 2012, a hackathon in which teams were invited to enter submissions that would "improve the world" in one of the three topic areas, covering political and environmental issues. The contest was announced and started on June 14, 2012 with the deadline ended last June 29 giving developers 2 weeks for submissions. For more than two months after careful deliberations by technology-inclined judges, they made their selections and announced the winners in each category. The winning entries in Google's Develop for Good Hackathon have been announced and released to the public. Here are the winning entries in each category: Google Ideas: Conflict reporting for blackout situations in repressive regimes. (Silent Lens) Won by a team from San Francisco with a product concept of Silent Lens; an Android application which would allow citizens to safely send encrypted image-based messages over multi-modal ad-hoc mesh networks. The app would allow citizens to anonymously report issues or violence in repressive regimes when other phone or Internet connections may be temporarily limited, or intermittently severed. Google Politics & Elections: Citizen Engagement for Politics & Elections (Assembly Bills) Won by a team from the Lagos, Nigeria for a prototype for Assembly Bills; a web based platform that can help Nigerian citizens provide input on legislative bills and policy remotely, without having to fly across the country to the capital of Lagos to provide input in person, as is currently necessary. Google Green: Help us all be a little bit greener! (Green it) Won by a team based in Karachi, Pakistan with Green it, a Google+ based app that would allow users to report local environmental concerns, gain validation of the issue via nearby smartphone users and aggregate reports in a public online interface. Users would be encouraged to participate through a rewards system. All the three winners of this year's event have received tickets to attend the upcoming Google I/O 2013, along with the honorary title of "Google Developer for Good, 2012".