Borwe:
Hmm, here is another way.
Instead of basing your app on power how about job vacancies.
So lets say like some small shop has a shop keeper needed, they can pay you a small fee and you post there details on your app about their vacancy. Now any user who downloads your app and opens it with internet connection enabled, he would see the details of job vacancies, and because its android the location can be mapped into google maps. Think about it, you will have billions of customers looking to hire someone, and this app will allow for the common none-skilled person to be able to applay for a job with other people in the same category and the small company or shop has a wider variety to choose from off potential employees, so they choose the best.

I live in Kenya, would be happy to work with you to create this app and use it in my country also.

PLUS: Once the company gets a vacany filled they inform you and you take them off, hence increasing efficiency, pottential employees won't go there anymore and waste their time instead look for another vacant job location.

I live in Kenya too, am abit rusty in java, and am abit busy, but when I finish what am doing by march, and study a little android, I will look for you here, about that app, it sounds. like a very good idea, with the rate of unemployment in Kenya, who wouldn't what to check out there luck in an app that maps where all the appropriate jobs are..

lordZOUGA:
We don't have steady power in this country, this implies that we don't always have power when we need it. But an app like this will help us find power even if we don't have it.

That is a step in the direction of having power all the time. If you can't get the power, you go to it.

The data to be used for this will be crowd sourced of course. It will take time to build up the data but that should not be an issue.

The data will be open-sourced and so is this project. I think.

From what I can see, there is no reason not to build this app.

What do you think? or Who is interested in developing it?

I know of an App like that when I participated for the MTN developer challenge.

The name of the App is NepaSituation

Search for it on nexva.com

The App is based on user generated data.

phatjoe50:


I know of an App like that when I participated for the MTN developer challenge.

The name of the App is NepaSituation

Search for it on nexva.com

The App is based on user generated data.

Oh.. Yeah. I just saw it. Thanks.

It is quite similar But not the same to what this project will achieve.
NepaSituation was built for a different purpose. To predict power outage. So, installing the app didn't offer much to the user. I mean, the app can't even tell me if my favorite places have power or not.

And it is vague. if the app is to tell me a place has power, it should at least tell me how accurate the data it is giving me is.

WhiZTiM:

*Fall's off the Moon* .I have to break my silence on this one... . . ...Ingenious!

--------
Great idea. Simple anonymous beacons for electricity. . .
I think, when you plug your phone, the App should ASK 'every' time whether or not You want to share power source... <<The App should naturally have a bias for "No">>
-------
Funjosh, I will get back to you when I get to the moon.

I think asking every Time will break user experience. We can choose to steadily remind the user of their choice in the notification drawer.

lordZOUGA:

Oh.. Yeah. I just saw it. Thanks.

It is quite similar But not the same to what this project will achieve.
NepaSituation was built for a different purpose. To predict power outage. So, installing the app didn't offer much to the user. I mean, the app can't even tell me if my favorite places have power or not.

And it is vague. if the app is to tell me a place has power, it should at least tell me how accurate the data it is giving me is.

As I clearly stated, the App is based on User generated data.
User generated data can't give up to 30% accuracy, the only way to solve the problem is not get data when the device is charging as someone clearly stated here.

Well, cool idea, I'm interested!
My idea is that:
1. Upon installation, ask user to share their location, tho actually, it won't be their own personal location.
2. Upon sharing their location, one can make a Web server that user's location will be updated to.
3. Once the phone is plugged, charging location will be updated.
4. updated location should be filtered and updated to available power source.
5. All users can then view the available power source and navigate to area upon choice.
This may seem like an example of torrent where we've got seeders n leechers.

phatjoe50:


As I clearly stated, the App is based on User generated data.
User generated data can't give up to 30% accuracy, the only way to solve the problem is not get data when the device is charging as someone clearly stated here.

At least a user that'll enable his/her data will be present in a district and that should be enough.

Talking about accuracy, that'd be certain, of course the app can make use of a very low network(maybe a sock) - just embrace the idea by thinking realistically.

Crap idea.
There is already one called 'Nepa Situation'.

Personally I love the idea. OP, can you please explain more of what features this app may have? Im in.

phatjoe50:


As I clearly stated, the App is based on User generated data.
User generated data can't give up to 30% accuracy, the only way to solve the problem is not get data when the device is charging as someone clearly stated here.

By accuracy, I meant that you could tell the user that "Out of 5 sources in an area, 3 of them are using PHCN power". that can of course be replaced with maybe an indicator that changes color depending on the validity of the information.

I hope you can see how that can put information gotten from this app in a better perspective for the user than that given by Nepasituation that only tells the user whether there is power or not.

This is a brilliant and innovative idea that I would like to be a part of. Now lordzouga this is my own contribution to it. What if the app, instead of giving out people's address, shows the user which part of the power grid is having power based on user generated data. In other words, the map to be utilized by the app should be based on the map of the power grid and at a certain point in time, tell us which part of the distribution power grid is having electricity. This way the app
1. Keeps the address of the other users safe and
2. With the appropriate algorithm and good knowledge of how the power grid works, filter out those who are using generators from those using power from the power grid.

Caracta:


3. Does that mean any random person(s) can be directed to my house to stalk me, steal my generator or maliciously cut off my power source because they don't enjoy same? (Bad belle thingz)

4. Good idea I must confess. I'm only concerned about the security breach. Or do you have a way around it?

Again, nice one. Very brilliant.

Have you ever heard of AirBnB before? I don't know what could be of greater security concern than that in a world filled with serial killers, rapists, mentally-disturbed people, etc.
LordZouga, ride on bro. Nice initiative! Maybe we can work on something cool together

my contribution is that the app will voilate privacy and security issues, because there is no need of restricting location to just street or town like you said. How can I go to a street and start asking people if they know someone that has electricity?
except if the app is made for business people who provide electricity to collect money, they will be happy to share their location, and beside everybody knows how to source for electricity these days.

Now, this app can function in a way that it disables other app that either consume battery or sync with internet which drains battery also.

This is such a lovely idea and i know it is possible especially with the android os and all it offers us that develop their apps but for other operating systems am not sure because android exposes virtually all of its hardware functionalities to us when developing to the point of even when a user shakes their device.

Brilliant idea! I think most of what Tresz said should be considered. There also needs to be a way to determine when power is no more available in a particular location that has been updated to have power. I believe searching for power would be inorder of 'closest location'; so someone in Surulere doesn't get updated of available power location in Badagry. For security purposes, users should be given the right to share their location. I do Ruby, else I would have signed up for this...nevertheless, I'll do well to follow closely. Kudos!

you are just another genius seeking or somehow getting unnecessary public opinion. most of those who have commented did so seeking profit. but friend profit is not the first ting to me as a self made app developer like mark Zzz.
this is a great app, what platform/language do you suggest we use.
what you need is co developers. not people who will complain and complain yet be the first to download it from G play. I have deeper insights on how to monitize this app. lets get started...
********* at gmail.com
234*********

Kidstell:
you are just another genius seeking or somehow getting unnecessary public opinion. most of those who have commented did so seeking profit. but friend profit is not the first ting to me as a self made app developer like mark Zzz.
this is a great app, what platform/language do you suggest we use.
what you need is co developers. not people who will complain and complain yet be the first to download it from G play. I have deeper insights on how to monitize this app. lets get started...
kidstell at gmail.com
0816 069 5656

I let this project go because I felt that it would not be as useful/efficient as I thought it would be.

yeah I get the point. a whole lot of matured people would not be compelled to use it. but students and teenagers. yet the issue of privacy arises too seeing that there are only few honest persons around here. so many times phones get missing wen crowd charging is in progress. though sooner or later when android gets closer to the meaning or the word "droid" phones will not only say battery low but will say "click here to view a list of power supply nodes nearby".
what platform have you been using for android development

@ZOUGA nice idea but one quick question will the data be centralized or distributed? In my opinion I think a distributed data approach will be more reliable as there will be no single point of failure becos each node or device will be responsible for maintaining its own data and also avoids all the bells and whistles of setting up a server.

harryobas:
@ZOUGA nice idea but one quick question will the data be centralized or distributed? In my opinion I think a distributed data approach will be more reliable as there will be no single point of failure becos each node or device will be responsible for maintaining its own data and also avoids all the bells and whistles of setting up a server.

I don't think a distributed data source is ideal for this. You are probably talking about something like a p2p protocol. P2p is not ideal for long running applications on mobile. Think of the battery drain implications.

I don't think there are any bells and whistles in setting up a server. I think it is simpler than setting up a distributed approach like you suggested. For a distributed system like that, data would have to move from node to node, one by one before it gets distributed to every device on the network. Also, you would have to keep track of states of the devices and the data being sent. That seems complicated to me (unless, I am wrong in which case I urge you to educate me).

But for a server, server gets data, send data to other devices.

Kidstell:
yeah I get the point. a whole lot of matured people would not be compelled to use it. but students and teenagers. yet the issue of privacy arises too seeing that there are only few honest persons around here. so many times phones get missing wen crowd charging is in progress. though sooner or later when android gets closer to the meaning or the word "droid" phones will not only say battery low but will say "click here to view a list of power supply nodes nearby".
what platform have you been using for android development

Yes, I wanted that too but what good are those power sources to you if you can't use them.

An effective solution would have involved more funding. Providing permanent charging posts at different parts of a city or town but then in doing that, the app will be somewhat redundant since you already know where all the charging posts are.

This can be done by a company looking to advertise, while people charge, they look at the company's advert.

For android dev, I use Ubuntu or Windows but mostly Ubuntu. Android studio is way faster on Ubuntu. For design, I use Mac OSX.

lordZOUGA:

I don't think a distributed data source is ideal for this. You are probably talking about something like a p2p protocol. P2p is not ideal for long running applications on mobile. Think of the battery drain implications.

I don't think there are any bells and whistles in setting up a server. I think it is simpler than setting up a distributed approach like you suggested. For a distributed system like that, data would have to move from node to node, one by one before it gets distributed to every device on the network. Also, you would have to keep track of states of the devices and the data being sent. That seems complicated to me (unless, I am wrong in which case I urge you to educate me).

But for a server, server gets data, send data to other devices.

yeah, I understand your point regarding simplicity of centralized approach. I guess it boils down to making tradeoffs btw performance and scalability in which case the centralized approach would favor performance while the decentralized data source would favor scalability. At the end of the day, it all depends on your goal. As an aside I guess you could also address scalability concerns deploying your server in the cloud. All the same great idea.

I have developed a similar app, please check it out here and let me know what you think: www.locateit.metallicapps.com
Again, this is a nice idea except for security level which we are still struggling with in 9ja.
Why not for renting or other less sensitive alternative like the job vacancy on mentioned

seriously op, i dont really know if this your idea might sound like the next great thing to you, but seriously after implementation it will flop, yeah F-L-O-P
1. The userbase you
are targin is small.
i know our population is over 140m but it not the whole world, and majority lack a smartphone. Yeah dont speak 4 urself i know what am saying. Even those that manage to av an android phone still lack money 4 subscription and even after subscribing, they manage it like there life depends on it. So now tell will someone who manages his/her weekly 15mb carelessly keep his/her data on while charging?
2. Mentality
some nigerians have this mentality/fear of interacting with strangers, so i dnt think this set of people will benefit from the app.
3. Abuse
some nigerians like abusing things, wìth this app, dat is when u will see barchelor okobo will fuel his gen & plug his phone just to see d next girl dat wil fall victim (molestation).
.
.
4. POWERBANK
BATTERY LOW! Where is dat my powerbank sef.
.
.
5. There is a future.
i believe someday nigerians will enjoy 24/7 powersupply.

Hello lordzouga, my friend is a departmental exam officer in a school and he wants a windows program that would help him calculate cgpa automatically for his students on windows 7 platform. Can this be done? Do you know anyone who can do it? would like to know how much it will cost. Maybe later he might want an andriod app too. Know your moniker from glodge. its been a while i saw you there.

lordZOUGA:
We don't have steady power in this country, this implies that we don't always have power when we need it. But an app like this will help us find power even if we don't have it.

That is a step in the direction of having power all the time. If you can't get the power, you go to it.

The data to be used for this will be crowd sourced of course. It will take time to build up the data but that should not be an issue.

The data will be open-sourced and so is this project. I think.

From what I can see, there is no reason not to build this app.

What do you think? or Who is interested in developing it?

Hello lordzouga, my friend is a departmental exam officer in a school and he wants a windows program that would help him calculate cgpa automatically for his students on windows 7 platform. Can this be done? Do you know anyone who can do it? would like to know how much it will cost. Maybe later he might want an andriod app too. Know your moniker from glodge. its been a while i saw you there.

Xoo let's say I have the app and am charging my phone then some scruffy unknown fellow knocks at my door wanting to charge his phone too he could b a thief or a serial killer how is my safety guaranteed with this app?
Or is there something am missing on how it suppose to work?

op some South African dude is currently building the wireframe of this your idea you conceived years ago
https://www.behance.net/gallery/34306581/Loadshedding-app-Is-there-power

Maybe you should contact him or double up on the Nigerian version

I don't know how far the OP is willing to go but i think i have a little to add:

1) User installs app with privilege to share location. The location is stored to a database
2) when user is charging, the user is asked if he/she wants to share power source,
2a) if yes charging location is stored and populated on google maps
2b) if no nothing happens
3) There should be a general messaging page for all app users to communicate on where they are charging.

Well, thats my own little stepwise algorithm that can further be broken down

Nmeri17:
op some South African dude is currently building the wireframe of this your idea you conceived years ago
https://www.behance.net/gallery/34306581/Loadshedding-app-Is-there-power

Maybe you should contact him or double up on the Nigerian version

Thanks for bringing this to my attention.

I think the UI he showcased in the the link you gave is for an app that can predict power outages. I made a post about an app that can do that but it is not this thread. This thread is about an app that lets people know where to charge their devices.

The UI showcased is not really an ideal UI for this kind of app I think. For example: The bright background of the UI will cause a user's battery to drain faster than a dark UI. This is bad because people using the app will most likely have a low battery.

OP I.don't mean to put you down but powerbanks have solved this problem by 80 percent already...the remaining 20% is for u (when the powerbank don die and nepa never bring light)