Original URL: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/11/26/mwomen_competition/
'Mad captain' sole entrant in Vodafone compo
Arrr! Third world women, your pirate champion has arrived
Posted in Mobile, 26th November 2010 14:08 GMT
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A competition to find mobile apps for women appears to have received received no entries, so an ex-pirate has knocked one up to help women in the third world enter similar competitions more easily.
Ridicomp is only one of Tom Scott's pair of entries [1], the other being an application to help those who've received billions in tax breaks decide how to spend them. The competition is sponsored by Vodafone who is stumping up $20,000 in prizes a month – presumably out of its £6bn tax break [2] – and at the time of writing, the "mWomen BOP* App Challenge" has received no other entries [3], so Tom should be on his way to victory.
The good Mr Scott, as regular readers will no doubt remember, confused supporters of the (anti-copyright) Pirate Party UK by dressing as a pirate and calling for the removal of duty on rum [4], but now he's turned mobile app developer in search of easier loot.
We don't know there haven't been any other entries - we've asked the GSMA for confirmation - but there are none listed on the competition website and there is only a week or so until the competition closes so Tom's entries are surely in with a good chance:
The competition is part of the GSMA's programme to promote mobile phone use in "middle- and lower-income countries", which garners our respect by being backed by Cherie Blair as a way of improving the lives of women. That's despite apparently being a transparent effort by an industry body to promote its industry. The GSMA reckons women in third world countries could be spending £13bn annually on mobile phone calls, if only they could be encouraged to do so.
But enough cynicism, and on to other problems that a mobile phone app might be able to help, in the Smartphone category:
There's still a week to go before the judges have to decide to award Tom Scott the prize, but if we all restrain ourselves from entering then he can't possibly lose.
* "Base Of Pyramid", just so you know.