After Team Mentor Erin ‘Ed’ Donohue was our first guest blogger, KissMyCountry had the chance to meet the MangoBunnies  at the Microsoft Imagine Cup US finals in Washington, DC on April 26, 2010.  The team placed second in Software.  MangoBunnies Malisa Vongskul and Ashley Myers are attending college in Indiana while mentor Ed Donohue, who graduated from college last year, is working for a defense contractor in Colorado.  They are a dynamic trio, and we know you’ll appreciate the use of their talents and creativity to make women safer.  Enjoy!

A Well-Prepared Presentation and Rapt Attention By The Judges
The Imagine Cup challenges young adults to use technology to solve the toughest problems in the world, and the MangoBunnies rose to the challenge as the team faced the judges.  Malisa Vongskul began while Ashley Myers kept slides moving from a laptop.  “I’d like you to meet two people,” Malisa said as she pointed to photos of a young woman attacked while going home from a prom, and a young man who’d committed a crime just hours before in the same area.  As Malisa cited statistics about the high likelihood of young women in the US to be a victim of violent crime, you could hear a pin drop.  The judges were motionless, listening.  A tough problem and a well-designed solution.  Thank you, Mango Bunnies.  You go girls, I thought.

Using a Cell Phone To Feel Safer
The MangoBunnies have developed a mobile application using GPS technology via cell phone to help women to be aware of recent crimes in areas they frequent.  LightAlert combines information from police reports with information sent by individuals in real time to create targeted broadcasts.  Women can use the broadcasts to check areas they’re in, allowing them to circumvent places that appear dangerous or questionable.   With LightAlert women can feel safer using something that’s with them all the time – their mobile phone. 

The idea for LightAlert came after the team heard about a program in development for women in Africa, based on access to a web site.  Thinking about young women in the US, the MangoBunnies knew they needed something that would give young women instant access to knowledge about crimes.  An application for the cell phone would be best – young women carry their cell phones everywhere and all the time.  Smart thinking, and LightAlert began to take shape.

Turning a Judge’s Question Into New Ideas
When it came time for questions from the judges – a fairly intimidating group – Malisa and Ashley responded confidently and in detail, and turned the judges’ questions into an active exchange – more of a conversation than a Q&A.  One judge asked if the MangoBunnies were going to create a system like eBay where individuals can achieve higher status as a known and reliable informant.  “We hadn’t, but that’s a really good idea!” said Malisa.  The MangoBunnies are open, using good ideas from others to make LightAlert as useful as possible.  I actually think Yelp’s Elite Squad is a better example, although the judge made a good recommendation, and I’ve got a question myself.  When is this in Beta?

Foursquare, Gowalla, Take Note
MangoBunnies, get ready for the world to come knocking at your door.  Geolocation’s been all the rage this year.  It’s the next everything.  But there’s debate.  The privacy issue is huge – do we really want to reveal our physical location to anyone?  Yet the MangoBunnies – young women at school in Indiana – have created a way to make us feel safer, not more vulnerable, using geolocation technology.  They’ve put control of our privacy and our safety right in our hands – literally.  Foursquare, Gowalla, take note.  The MangoBunnies have got some great ideas and you might want to reach out.

MangoBunnies, with LightAlert and CAMRA, the project that brought you to last year’s Imagine Cup finals, you’ve made a great start.  We know that Ashley will head to Seattle as she graduates this year.  Malisa, enjoy your last summer as a college student – you’ll be heading somewhere exciting next year for sure!  Ed, all the best as you continue to work in Colorado.  We want to stay in touch and see what you do next – we know you’re just getting started!

This post is part of a series related to Microsoft’s Imagine Cup.  To learn more about the Light Alert mobile application please visit their web site.  KissMyCountry also just published a blog post about Team Blob,  the other all-female team competing in the Imagine Cup US finals this year, and a post about the Gaming finalists by Mr. K.  We will continue to follow the Imagine Cup as the international finals in Warsaw, Poland approach in July!