Apps really become lekker when they turn local
ALONG-HELD mantra in publishing is that the demand for local news will always outstrip the appetite for national or global news. The problem is that local news attracts mainly local advertising, which results in a parochial approach to both content and quality. Online media is no different and suburban-style news is usually housed on websites that look more homemade than most.
That trend is slowly being turned on its head in the world of apps. Mobile applications, it seems, work best when they help to operate the world in your back yard. The app may even be global, but when it gives you command over your local environment, it comes into its own.
Mapping apps are the obvious examples, but in themselves they are merely location tools. When an app is built on top of mapping, it harnesses the power of local knowledge and resources.
For example, the global Uber service for summoning a private driver provides a dazzlingly effective local service once professional drivers are signed up and use the app. It pulls in local maps, indicates the location of every Uber car and allows interaction with the driver while the customer is waiting for the pickup. In Johannesburg and Cape Town, it has changed the way many people plan their travel.
The Ster-Kinekor app, developed by local outfit Prezence, has received widespread acclaim for allowing patrons not only to find and preview movies, but also to view a seating plan and book an exact seat. This was previously only possible if you went to the booking counter.
This lesson has been taken to heart by the Johannesburg Roads Agency (JRA), which launched Find & Fix, an app for reporting issues such as potholes and broken traffic lights. Developed by Intervate, it draws on Google Maps and the GPS functionality of a smartphone to pinpoint where the user is, allowing for one-click logging of a fault with the agency.
Capable of operating worldwide, it is for now “geo-fenced” to Johannesburg. Like the SterKinekor app, it works far better than the web-based version.
Best of all, these apps present customers with an enhanced image of the organisation behind it.
As 702’s traffic guru, Aki Anastasiou, put it during the launch of the Find & Fix app: “There is a new energy in the JRA. I’ve never seen the JRA so efficient in the history of my covering traffic.”
Skhumbuzo Macozoma, managing director of the JRA, confirmed that the app symbolised the organisation’s turnaround and said it was “one more way of improving engagement with the citizens of the city”.
On a national level, thinking local inspired the creation of a phrase translation app called Aweza, produced by Cape Town developers Speak Mobile.
It allows fluent speakers of local languages to “teach” other South Africans how to pronounce phrases in each language.
“Aweza aims to leverage mobile technology to bridge the language divide in South Africa and encourage intercultural engagement,” said founder Glenn Stein.
And that’s about as local as an app can go.
Goldstuck is founder of World Wide Worx and editor-in-chief of Gadget.co.za. Follow him on Twitter @art2gee