This afternoon, Foursquare Co-Founder and Executive Chairman, Dennis Crowley, took the stage at the Bloomberg Data for Good Exchange to announce that once again, we’re calling for innovative uses of our location technology platform as we launch our 2019 Foursquare For Good Challenge.
Last year, for the first time in the company’s 10 year history, Foursquare hosted an open call for proposals around how to leverage our proprietary technology, our Pilgrim SDK and Places API, to make apps and services that would make a positive social impact and improve the way that people experience the world around them. Our 2018 winner was Objective Zero, the top suicide prevention, behavioral and mental health, wellness, and peer-to-peer support mobile app for military veterans in the United States. Objective Zero now leverages Foursquare’s Pilgrim SDK for location awareness and contextual understanding to help prevent veteran suicides.
On stage today, Dennis was joined by Objective Zero’s CTO, Luca Ventura, where together they highlighted the life-saving work that Objective Zero is doing, and how Foursquare’s understanding of location and movement patterns has helped them refine their machine learning risk assessment methodology to better assess mental health and detect early warning signs of imminent risk.
Objective Zero was just one of more than three dozen inspiring submissions. They all showed such tremendous insight and thought-provoking uses of location technology that we can’t wait to bring the program back again and see what this year’s applicants have in store. Some of our favorites from last year described how our tech could be used to do everything from informing prospective voters about the issues that matter most to them, to improving cardiovascular health and rewarding heart healthy choices, to solving complex public transportation issues in New York City.
Additionally, as questionable privacy and ethical tech practices continue to be at the center of the conversation about the tech industry, it’s easy to overlook all of the amazing ways that technology can, and is, being used to improve the lives of millions of people and make real social impact. That’s what the Foursquare for Good program aims to do. The mission of the larger Foursquare for Good program is to partner with developers, engineers, academics, non-profits, policy makers and data scientists to make the real world a better, smarter, safer, and more inclusive place through the power of location technology.
Now through October 18th, submit your proposal for how you would leverage location technology to uphold the Foursquare for Good mission. What you can win: free access to our developer tools, critical engineering resources to help get the idea off the ground, and a $10,000 donation to the winning organization’s cause.
The 2019 Foursquare for Good judges:
Victoria Cerullo
Victoria is the COO of global technology services and solutions for Bloomberg, in addition to leading Bloomberg’s Data for Good Exchange. Prior to this role, she served as Director of Business Strategy and Engagement for Data Analytics & Integration, oversaw global content coordination for Bloomberg Intelligence, the research arm on the Bloomberg Terminal, and led environment and sustainability programs for the company’s philanthropy team.
Dennis Crowley
Dennis is the co-founder and executive chairman of Foursquare, whose original vision of connecting people to places as they move through the world remains a foundational element of Foursquare today. Dennis has long believed in the power of location technology to help solve complex problems, and knows what it takes to build apps and service around location.
Natalie Hwang
Natalie Hwang is Managing Director and Head of Simon Ventures, where she leads all aspects of investment strategy and fund management. Natalie specializes in evaluating next gen commerce as well as the retail technologies that power or optimize those consumer experiences. She was named to Global Corporate Venturing’s Powerlist of the Top 100 Corporate Venture Investors in 2018 and 2017.
Shannon Farley
Shannon is the co-founder and executive director of Fast Forward, an organization that supports entrepreneurs who are using technology to accelerate social impact. Shannon was the founding Executive Director of Spark, the world’s largest network of Millennial philanthropists and also co-founded The W. Haywood Burns Institute, a MacArthur Award-winning juvenile justice reform organization.
Jeremy Tryba
Jeremy is the senior vice president and head of engineering at Foursquare, managing everything from product development and developer systems to core technology, R&D, and infrastructure. Jeremy knows Foursquare’s technology inside and out, and will be looking for proposals that utilize Foursquare technology to its fullest potential to make an impact.
Our tech can help create the next generation of life-changing apps. If you’re interested in effecting change and making an impact then submit your proposal now. Let’s work together to do some good.
