At F8 this past May, Developer Circles launched the 2018 Community Challenge, an online hackathon calling for developers to create solutions that help build community and bring the world closer together.
Utilizing at least one Facebook developer product, over 5,000 developers around the world participated in the challenge. We were impressed by the variety of solutions we saw. For example, developers in Mexico used React Native to built an app that allows women to create meeting points to attend tech meetups together safely. And, others in the United States built a bot for Messenger that connected students to mentors.
The challenge provided a chance for developers to explore new technologies to build solutions of impact. The “Evenius” team spoke about their experience:
When I started building Evenius, truth be said, I knew nothing about bot development... So, the whole journey was a learning one, I got to learn new technologies, frameworks, libraries and languages. I also got to learn new techniques of coding, styles and design patterns. I got my hands dirty into video editing and voiceovers in order to come out with the 2-minute demo video, as well as UX and user surveying to know how to make the bot as human-like as possible and knowing what are the most categories users prefer.
– Team Evenius
In August, we announced the regional winners of the Challenge. Participants were given a month to update their solutions for the final global round. Today we're excited to announce the top prizes, with the first-place winner taking home $30,000.
Winners of the 2018 Community Challenge:
$30,000 First Place: Enlive (Austria)
An online directory of augmented reality effects that can be experienced through the Facebook Camera Effects at specific timeframes and locations. Enlive aims to bring communities together offline and provide individuals with a fresh new way to enjoy cities together.
$20,000 Second Place: Blitz (Austria)
An instant business networking app that connects freelancers and creators based on skills within a 24 hour timeframe. Blitz aims to help creators connect, network and share their skills across industries and countries.
$10,000 Third Place: ballUp (United States)
A chat feature that enables individuals to easily find basketball courts near them and connect with other players. The feature can help individuals build in-person basketball communities.
$7,500 (pre-existing) SOMI Sign Language (Jordan)
A solution that integrates AI-based avatars to Facebook Pages to make content accessible in sign language.$10,000 LiveCoding Circles (Argentina)
Build and grow community (solutions that enable people to connect in communities)
$10,000 We Connect (Senegal)
Drive engaging communities (solutions that facilitate and improve community interactions)
$10,000 DonorFu (India)
Bridge on and offline experiences (solutions that help bridge connections from online to offline and vice versa)
