Gijima and UWC launch “Code_Jam 2012”

It’s an indisputable, very well established fact — Mobile app development is the hottest thing right now. Given the ever growing successes of platforms such as IOS and Android, which have seen the creation of new economies, it’s not that hard to believe the many analysts bold predictions of mobility’s future.

For once, the future of mobile in (South) Africa truly appears as bright as analysts predictions claim — it seems they are about to be vindicated.  That’s because, this week, The University of the Western Cape in conjunction with Gijima and it’s partners, have launched a brand new initiative called CodeJam (Not to be confused with Google CodeJam which by the way also starts very soon).

According to Gijima, CodeJam “… will bring Students from all disciplines to solve real world problems…”.

What is Code Jam?

Code_Jam is an initiative to empower young people to write/create mobile apps, but it’s also a competition. Students will be trained on IOS programming, user interface design and user experience design, etc … which will then culminate in the best apps developed receiving awards.

How codeJam will work:

Phase 1: Idea Inception and Evaluation

Students are encouraged to register and log their ideas. More importantly, students do not have prior programming knowledge. By simply having an app idea, they can team up with another student developer, or vice versa. The app idea will then go through an inspection and evaluation checkpoint conducted by fellow peers and a panel.

Phase 2: App Design

Once the idea has successfully passed the evaluation stage, it will then further be enhanced thence proceed to the design phase, where student will design the UI and UX for the app. Thereafter, a combination of peer reviews and panel voting will decide the finalists for Phase 3.

During Phase 3: Implementation

Successful App designs that will make to the final phase, which will then be implemented/coded , and will subsequently  be demo’ed / presented to a live audience. This will culminate in with audience along side judges deciding the eventual winning apps.

Final thoughts: I believe this is a great initiative and definitely a first of It’s kind. Also, the success of this particular initiative will induce or drive many more similar projects. We will probably see organisations looking to inspire and empower communities following this model using other platforms such as Android and WP7.