Digital Communities

Digital technology is enhancing our lives - we have new ways of interacting with friends and colleagues. There is an abundance of young talent in Edinburgh and at the Scottish Government we want to be part of that. 

So, we teamed up with our friends at Product Forge and decided to hold a Hackathon. 

16 participants gathered on Friday evening for 76 hours of Hackathon. The theme - Digital Participation. The teams assembled and chose their topic - Social Housing, Libraries and Saving money through digitisation.  

The presentations were due at 8p.m on Monday evening, the rest was up to them.

Change Card

"Keep your coins, we want Change"

We live in a society where physical cash has been over taken by contact-less payments. People no long have coins in their pocket. 

Change Card is a contact-less donation card for the homeless. Customers pre-pay for the card and leave it at the shops, (similar to the Floating Coffee movement). The card is then available to the homeless and can only be spent of clothes and food. Any money that isn't spent on the card is then pooled into a wider fund which will go towards helping homeless charities such as Shelter.

This scheme means that in the cashless environment people can still give to those who need it with the reassurance that their donations will make a positive impact and not be used for illicit purposes.

For the full Change card presentation follow the link. 

Rehab Easy

Rehab Easy is an online platform for drug addicts to track their own recovery process. The site provides an online community for recovering addicts and councillors to communicate and track the recovery journey. Virtual meetings could solve current challenges facing rehab clinics (capacity, funding, resources, time restrictions) and increase the availability of  virtual rehabilitation across the country.

For the full Rehab Easy presentation follow the link.

Socialize - Occasion

Occasion is a platform that alerts elderly people to social events and clubs in their area. Studies indicate that those who are more active in later life live longer and have a better quality of life. Some event sites can be saturated with events and difficult to navigate. Occasion lets you select your interests and uses the I.P address to find events in the area. 

This service not only aims to get the elderly online but also acts as a means of digital infusion. 

For the full Occasion presentation follow the link.

Two Guys - The Bridge

"Bridging the GAP to getting online"

The Bridge is a simplified online search engine aimed to provide those living without the internet the opportunity to use and navigate the web devoid of complications. Interactive stands would be set up in local community hubs. The application asks questions to the user (age, location, interests) so as to filter search results and present the most relevant findings to the user. 

The product would mainly target the elderly given that only around 30% of them are currently online. Expansion strategies would include opening out the product to catering for those with specific disabilities such as blindness or motor-difficulities. 

For the full Bridge presentation follow the link.

And the winner is........

 ChangeCard!