Mobile app for disaster management launched

LEGAZPI CITY , Philippines  â€“ Smart Communications, Inc. and the Albay provincial government have launched Pindot, a mobile application that specializes on disaster management.

Albay’s geographical location makes the province vulnerable to all sorts of disasters, such as earthquakes, volcanic eruption, typhoons and flooding.

Short for Provincial Information Network on Disaster Occurrences and Threats, PINDOT is a pro-active, comprehensive and rational disaster management mobile and web application adopted by the Albay Public Safety and Management Office (APSEMO) as a communication tool to help reduce and mitigate the effects of natural and man-made calamities with the help of mobile technologies.

The mobile app can give government agencies, organizations and individuals immediate access to disaster warnings, advisories, location data and disaster mappings. It features step-by-step instructions that can guide users to safety during disasters. The app also enable users to contribute information to emergency agencies more easily and quickly.

PINDOT was developed by Cebu-based Tudlo Innovation Solutions, a technology start-up founded by Vince Loremia and his team, assisted by APSEMO.

The start-up came up with the mobile app, TUDLO (Cebuano for “to teach, guide or point”) during a coding marathon organized last year by the Smart Development Network. It emerged as one of the 20 finalists in the first national competition for the best tech start-up idea of the IdeaSpace Foundation. Tudlo was among 10 Young Innovators worldwide chosen by the United Nations-backed International Telecommunication Union (ITU) last year.

“Albay has the absorptive capacity for this. Smart knows that the technology will be optimized here because the adopter is engaged, which means we know what we want so the technology can deliver exactly what we need rather than dictate what it can do,” Albay Gov. Joey Salceda said.

“Timely and accurate communications before, during and after disasters and emergency situations play a crucial role in saving lives. Linking the developer and tech start-up community with local governments and institutions ensure that innovative mobile applications are put to good use and actually benefit the people. This is ‘apptivism’ or use of mobile apps for social good at its best,” said Ramon Isberto, head of Public Affairs at Smart.

Smart also donated free smart phones to Albay’s 15 towns and three cities as part of the launching of PINDOT.

One of the beneficiaries of the technology is that the weather forecast, advisories of the Southern Luzon regional office of the Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) can now be accessed.

PINDOT can be downloaded for free from the App Store and Google Play Store suing the following links: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/pindot/id719320028?mt=8 https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.disaster.tudlo.