This month’s Netsquared Nonprofit + Technology Meetup was a lively discussion on Mobile Apps. We talked both Mobile Apps we can’t live without and Apps ideas we would love to see created.
We started with a simple question: What app are you addicted to right now? (My answer was Instagram). This led to a conversation on the psychology behind what addicts us to apps, and what we can do to make our internal technology “addicting” to further social causes – particularly when it comes to gamification (adding elements of games like avatars, badges, points, etc. to encourage people to engage with a cause through time or donations). More reading on that below:
What Makes Technology Addictive?
- The Social Behavior Incentive by Robert Scoble
- Gaming Can Make a Better World TED talk by Jane McGonigal
- Gamification: An Introduction to Its Potential from the Huffington Post
- 10 Secrets to Creating an Addictive App from Creative Bloq
We then brainstormed what App or tool we would like to see created. Not so surprisingly, a lot of the features requested already exist in some form or another. Below are 10 Apps I discovered or found out more about crowdsourced from our discussion. Some of them are content creation and productivity related… and some are just fun!
10 Cool Apps Crowdsourced from Netsquared Houston June Meetup
For Productivity
1. Hello (by Evernote) – Contact Management
Evernote’s new contact management app allows you to “remember everything about people” with tools like business card scanning, importing contacts from your calendar, LinkedIn, Facebook, etc.
The coolest feature is “Hello Connect” – your phone emits an audible tone that sends a signal to phones close to you that shares your contact info automatically. Pretty cool.
Available on iTunes and Android
2. trello – Collaborative Task Management
Trello allows you to create collaborative task lists with “cards” that you can drag and drop to move around to keep your tasks organized. You can add images, color coding, dates, etc. to keep track of projects big and small.
3. Google Keep – Simple Notes and Task Lists that Sync in the Cloud
Add task lists and “post it note” style notes to keep organized through Google Keep. You can label items and identify notes by category or color. The notes live within Google Drive so you have access to them from your desktop, tablet, phone, etc. The notes have very little formatting options, but that’s the idea. Keep it simple and keep it in one place.
4. Doit.im – Task Manager
Doit.im is a GTD Task Manager that lets you quickly add, process, and organize tasks. Built in labels like “Today,” “Next,” “Tomorrow,” etc. let you organize your day and prioritize easily.
5. Delivery Status – Keeping Track of Things You’ve Ordered
The Delivery Status plugin is a Mac Desktop Widget that keeps track of what you have ordered online. It syncs with lots of services including Amazon, UPS, and Fedex to let you know what is on its way – and when to expect it. A simple little tool that can save you a whole lot of remembering!
6. Google Now – Time + Location Based Alerts
Google Now takes advantage of everything Google knows about you and feeds you time-sensitive “cards” throughout the day. The idea is that if your calendar says you have a flight at 2 PM, Google pops up directions to the airport a few hours early so you’ll be sure to have time to make your flight. It feeds things like traffic conditions, weather, news alerts, etc. throughout the day.
This app combines time and location based alerts to give you the right information at the right time.
Download on iTunes or Android.
For Content Consumption & Distribution
7. If This, Then That – Workflow Automation
This powerful tool allows you to create workflow “Recipes” for virtually any online service that has an API. Define Triggers (if this happens) and Actions (then do this) based on everything from posts on social media to email to the weather. This tool can help “integrate” things that otherwise would not be integrated – and save a lot of time in the process.
Some example IFTTT recipes:
- Every time I post to Instagram, save a copy of the photo in Dropbox
- If the weather calls for rain tomorrow, send me an email alert
- If the National Weather Service updates their sever weather alerts in my area, send me a text message
- See more Recipes!
8. Flipboard – Visual Content Aggregation
Create a personalized digital “magazine” with Flipboard by aggregating content from social media, RSS feeds, news sites, blogs, etc. in a visual way.
My favorite feature of Flipboard is setting up your feeds and then visually “flipping” through content and stories to see what’s going on around the web.
Available on iTunes and Android
9. Backupify – Social Media Data Backup
Is the content you post on social media sites really yours? It lives in a place that you can’t control, and could disappear tomorrow. Backupify saves your social media data so you at least have a copy of posts on Facebook, Twitter, etc.
For Fun
10. Yipit
Yipit aggregates daily deals (think Groupon, LivingSocial, TravelZoo etc.) in any city to give you one place to go for deals. One Netsquared attendee recommended it for traveling – even internationally – to discover activities and places to visit in a new city.
Bonus: Yipit also aggregates the data from deal sites and posts interesting stats and infographics like this one:
What Killer Apps are you obsessing over right now? Share in the comments!
Join Us July 9 for the Next Houston Netsquared Nonprofit + Tech Meetup
Join Us for Netsquared Houston July Meetup Tuesday July 9 on Mastering Your Crowd-Fundraising with GroupRaise.com at Stag’s Head Pub at 7 PM!
See you there!
