Remember SOP Notify? The startup that claimed to have the technology to monitor power outage and restoration, in major Nigeria cities, using smart sensors pre-installed on power grids? Well the once web-based service with provider-generated content as been pivoted into a crowd-sourced app.
The SOP Notify App looks to provide real-time power outage status and notifications for just about any location in the country, using crowdsourced information from its users. Users have the ability to either update the power status in their area, if they’re within the vicinity, or access recent power status uploaded by other users.
The app tries to detect your exact location (it’s not very good at it) and then requests that you manually update the power status of that location – whether there is power or not, and for how long it has been on or off. And then you’re presented with this:
Brilliant idea but I must say, not very good execution. For one, I’m not sure muddling up power status of all locations in one place is a good idea. If I coming back home from a long day and I launch the app, all I want to see the power status in my area. Users should be able to add their favourite locations for quick access to updating and retrieving power status info. The app is also quite buggy, crashing ever so often and almost appearing to be confused whether the user is loggen in or not.
The crowdsourced nature of the SOP Notify app poses a challenge, as accuracy and availability of info is dependent on adoption levels. The team will probably need to invest a lot in creating awareness if they’re going to make this idea work.
SOP Notify is currently available for Android. iOS and Blackberry versions are in the works.
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