Data Apps and Mash-Ups for the World

The World Bank is opening the doors to thousands of its global development indicators and inviting the public to use the data in mash-ups, smart phone applications, and other tech tools that can help support clean energy and fight poverty.

"This will allow policy makers, researchers, and civil society to track the impact of policies, develop new solutions, and measure improvements more accurately," says Shaida Badiee, director of the bank’s development research data group.

To encourage software developers, the bank is holding an “Apps for Development” contest with $45,000 in prizes and financial support. Entries are due by Jan. 10 and must include data from at least one of the bank’s data-sets and relate to one of the bank’s eight key development goals that range from environmental sustainability to reducing childhood mortality.

Sounds like this will move us a step closer toward solving some of the world's most pressing problems.

Learn more:  The Global Muckraker - International Consortium of Investigative Journalists

Which Apps are Global?

We've been a long time fan of John Yunker over at Global by Design and last week did a blog post about which apps are "international ready." Here's a snapshot of his tally thus far:

• PayPal Mobile: 15 languages
• Google Mobile: 15 languages (shown above)
• Facebook Mobile: 7 languages
• Monopoly: 6 languages

Read more here. Interesting. What's your take on it? Is he missing anything? Be sure check out his Web Globalization Report Card 2010 -- worth a look.