It’s something that a number of people have thought of. But in February, a group of people met at the Garage48 public services design competition and actually did it – visualized the Republic of Estonia’s budget.

Coloured spheres that open on MeieRaha.eu shows the structure and proportion of the revenue and expenditures in the state budget. The MeieRaha.eu page not only shows where the state earns its money and what it spends it on. It is also possible, in an entertainment-oriented yet very business-like fashion, to “play around” with various revenue and spending items to get an idea of how they affects budget balance.

One of the project initiators, Hille Hinsberg, said it is also a way to visualize also each local government’s budget, company’s budget or even a family’s budget.

British site serves as a model

The idea to make the state budget somehow more comprehensible, interactive and illustrative has been mulled over in people’s heads for a longer period of time already. The British site WhereDoesMyMoneyGo.org serves as a model, showing on the basis of the total amount of wages how much a given person’s taxes go to health, social welfare, education, culture and other fields.

Developed in 48 hours, MeieRaha.eu is far from perfect, Hinsberg admits, but it is a “touchable” visualization of a 500-page state budget document. It is also a springboard or a intermediate step.

Hinsberg envisions various possibilities for taking MeieRaha.eu even further. The plan is to involve the Ministry of Finance and local governments as well to examine whether it could be useful for them. For instance, the environment would allow the cost of campaign pledges to be calculated and offset against major investments and EU assistance.

Skype Estonia’s CEO as the biggest fan

Skype Estonia’s CEO Sten Tamkivi is one of MeieRaha.eu’s biggest fans and supporters. One reason that “something as boring as the state budget” should be visualized, according to Tamkivi, is the fact that major sums of money are difficult to grasp and compare for many people – over a certain amount it just seems like “a very large sum of money”. He also notes that it is important to understand the budget balance to help make sense and parties’ major, tempting but ultimately too costly pledges in the run-up to elections.

Possible developments of MeieRaha.eu mentioned by Tamkivi include, for instance, versions in Russian, English and other languages automated data linkup with government agencies, and interlinked budget line items (unemployment and tax revenue) to better illustrate the connections.

The prototype for the 112 Mobile service was developed by a five-member team comprised of Maarja Mõtus, Mihkel Güsson, Jens Kasemets, Tanel Ainla and Steve Perkson. The service consists of an alternative to calling an emergency dispatcher – now visually and hearing impaired people can also get help by sending a message to the emergency centre or pressing a big red “panic button”.

The location of the person in need of assistance is displayed on the map and the person and the operator can exchange short text messages. A webcam image can also be sent to the emergency centre. The app, which is for iPhone and Android telephones has met with positive interest from disabled people.

The ice in terms of enthusiasm is melting

One of the members of 112 Mobile, Tanel Ainla, said the idea of integrating emergency response in a manner other than voice telephony and fax dawned on them a few years ago. Back then it was proposed to the Ministry of the Interior as a civic initiative –Ainla’s company Teadusmosaiik was poised to become the service developer – but officials did not show particular enthusiasm. Two years later, the idea was brought to life at Garage48 and it met with a great amount of attention.

“Our goal was to show that it was possible to address many issues specifically with smartphones, such as a preset user interface based on a particular user’s health problem, or displaying a big red button on the screen that can be used to summon the Rescue Board, or a caregiver or neighbour,” said Ainla. “It can also be used in non-standard hazard situations, such as allowing the disabled – or a person who has been gagged by a kidnapper, say – to summon help.”

Ainla says the 112 Mobile app actually stands a chance of being implemented in Estonia, as it has met with positive interest from the Rescue Board.

The Ministry thinks about it

Ministry of the Interior spokesperson Kristina Leer says that the ministry and the response centre are thankful that the Garage48 event took on a modern solution that disabled people can use to summon emergency services. In the near future, meetings with the 112 Mobile team are planned to discuss cooperation.

Some wags have said that even if the service could be developed scot-free and in 48 hours, the state would order a similar service (SMS emergency service) from the market for more than 300,000 euros and it would only be ready by late 2011. But of course, an emergency service needs to undergo thorough reliability testing before implementation, and the 112 Mobile application is not yet ready for that.

In future, when the application starts paying off, Ainla says it is not ruled out that the team will go into business for themselves and pitch the solution to other markets as well.

One of the founders of the start-up, a former key figure in Skype, angel investor and “citizen of the world”, Taavet Hinrikus (pictured below) says that Transferwise will bring lower prices and greater transparency to the world of currency exchange.

The way it works is simple. If you want to exchange, say, 1000 euros into pounds sterling at a favourable rate, just visit the site, register as a user and enter your request. Then transfer the money to the Transferwise deposit account. The company will pair another user who wants to exchange money with you.

The pounds sterling will be transferred to the account you specify, either in the same or a different country. It could be a friend’s account or a completely unrelated account, or even an invoice for payment in GBP. One exchange transaction costs 1 euro or 1 pound sterling – full stop.

Considerable save on commissions and fees

Hinrikus: “We aggregate demand and supply, i.e. all euros looking for pounds and vice versa. And we exchange at the central bank rate of the moment, which is 3-6 percent less than the highway robbery rates charged by banks.” On a 1000-euro exchange, Transferwise thus offers savings of 60 euros – quite a noteworthy amount. Banks would keep that sum in the form of commissions and fees. After all, it’s no secret that service fees are how large banks earn their huge profits and maintain their huge office networks.

As to the size of Transferwise’s customer base after a few weeks in operation, the company does not wish to say. But Hinrikus says the new and innovative finance service has met with much positive feedback and has drawn an active clientele primarily comprised of people who live, work or study in different countries – all over Europe, Estonia included.

The currency exchange customers also want US dollars and Swiss francs and the possibility of repeat transactions. Support for CHF is a matter of time, but the biggest goal for Transferwise right now is to reach the US great (albeit complicated) market.

“We currently have local importance. If we could exchange dollars, we would reach the world level. There is great demand for exchanging dollars,” says Hinrikus. “While Europe has a Single European Payment Area, service fees in the US are not standardized. And moving money from one bank to another costs much more on average than it does in Europe. We won’t be able to offer the same one-dollar service fee.”

No tellers behind mahogany tables

Hinrikus thinks Transferwise is indicative of the future trend in the field of financial services. “We will prove that it is possible to bring innovative financial services to market. We will take the part what the banks usually skim off and give it back to the people. We don’t need a 30-storey headquarters in the middle of the Tallinn city centre; we have no tellers sitting behind mahogany tables. We offer better, more cost-effective service,” he says.

The one-euro or one-pound service fee covers the company’s expenses, Hinrikus says, but will not make them rich. Larger profits will hopefully come with service enhancements for different customer groups, such as for business customers.

The web-based mKool application prototype was developed in 48 hours based on an idea conceived by a student Markus Villig, in conjunction with Indrek Vain, Henrik Peinar, Rene Reose, Rene Rebane and a number of IT specialists. The mKool team reached the conclusion that the eKool environment, which is used actively by students, teachers and parents and which ranks third in Estonia in number of visits per week with 240,000, is above criticism in some respects. To name just a few problems, eKool has reliability and connection speed issues, students cannot enter data, and the tools for social networking are primitive and are not used.

mKool follows student interests

Along comes mKool, initially developed based on student interests, which represents a completely new level in the eyes of team member Indrek Vain: it not only shows eKool information on smartphones, it also operates in parallel on mobile phones, and computers and can be integrated with Facebook, allowing students to use common tools such as Google Calendar to display their class schedule. Later on, it is planned to develop a viewing mode for parents and teachers as well.

In the current demo version of mKool, grades and assignments can be viewed. So can attendance record (unexcused and excused are shown in different colours etc) and the class schedule is displayed using Google Calendar.

The author of the mKool idea is upper secondary student Markus Villig. In the autumn, he switched to a new school – transferred from the English College to the Reaalkool. While the old school had its own separate e-learning environment, the new school uses eKool.

The idea came from bad experience

“The English College system had useful functions, is user-friendly and rapid. I have heard that eKool is a poor solution but now I will have to actually use it. This led to my idea to develop a new system or least launch a mobile version of eKool,” says Villig. The eKool problems mentioned by Villig include a low level of organization and the fact that it does not work all that well on mobile phones.

Many students, teachers and parents have grown used to the eKool system, despite some questions about its user-friendliness, architecture and services. Schools have complained however that eKool is relatively expensive (the price is expected to rise even further this year) and there is no alternative to it. Some of the data in eKool – ones that schools themselves enter – are available to schools only for a fee for some additional applications.

To cooperate or not to cooperate?

Will the operator of eKool, Koolitööde AS, buy mKool, will they develop their own system further, based on issuses raised by a challenger, or will there be a possibility for cooperation in some form? It isn’t quite clear. The Head of Koolitööde AS, Üllar Jaaksoo has no public comment on the topic.

“My goal is not only to offer the best possible display and convenience of use for the school software,” says Vainu. “If the developers of mKool were linked to the schools’ information systems, mKool would immediately be released for end users for free-of-charge use.”

The originator of the idea is Sven Tiirusson. A veteran figure in car racing circles who is no longer involved in the project, considers the prospects of LapLab being very good.

Lap times are key in the world of track racing. Consistently fast lap times are the sine qua non. There are a number of possibilities to do so. For instance, to just be a talented driver and own a fast car. Or make a car even faster, which is the most expensive way. The easier path is to simply drive and practice.

Racers in need for a one-stop type of place

The amateurs who take their hobby cars out on the track on weekends save information on their lap times on their GPS systems. Unfortunately there is no convenient, one-stop type of place where the lap history can be saved. Log files end up deposited in a folder somewhere on their computer and could only be read with a special program.

“My idea was to make it possible to compare various log files and write other information to them as well: the car’s parameters at that moment – tyre pressure, suspension etc – what the weather was like and also track conditions,“ says Tiirusson.

Professional race cars give more and a wider variety of information (and are equipped with a GPS as well) such as pedal sensors, or engine performance. But even in Formula Renault class, drivers complain that they lack good ways of checking what the parameters were for a given lap on a specific track.

Starting from Estonia, moving on to Germany

LapLab team member Daniil Harik adds that whereas the Garage48 event saw a simple prototype completed in 48 hours, from here on out the team has dealt with what sort of data the program should elicit and in what order. Among others, professional drivers are aiding in this effort, and contacts are in place with the Estonian motor sport federation and Western Europe. LapLab says it has received much assistance from the developer of the RaceChrono software (meant for motor sport enthusiasts), which, Harik says, is not a direct competitor.

LapLab says it will make its market debut in April or May of this year. Sales are aimed at amateur drivers, first in Estonia, then in Germany and elsewhere, and after a 30-day pilot it will start charging a fee. More ambitious clients will have a chance to share their numbers with Facebook friends. “We would be completely satisfied if LapLab has 250 users with an active profile by year’s end,” says Harik. 

Photo from Garage48.org: LapLab team celebrating the victory in Garage48 Helsinki event.

TrackLog, spawned by Kalle Volkov (pictured) and Peeter Mõtsküla, bills itself as a use-friendly tracking platform aimed at outdoor event organizers. The service consists of SIM-card-based GPS devices that can be hired, and a Web environment that allows the organizers and spectators to track the competitors in real time. The events can be experienced more vicariously – gone are the days when the spectators were clustered only at the start and finish, in the dark about how the race was progressing. Now it is also possible to replay the action, as the data is saved.

Evolved from a hobby

Kalle Volkov, whose day job is developing Allan Martinson’s new start-up Posterbee, says his hobby is off-road ATV racing, where he is a co-driver.

“I often go adventuring in the forest and no one knows where I am and what I am doing there – it would be great if my friends were up-to-date with where I am. And that is how the TrackLog idea began,” he says. Volkov prototyped the service, and entered it in the Ajujaht competition where it met with good reviews.

Tartu Marathon was a valuable learning experience for TrackLog. With more than 8000 skiers at the event, the number of mobile telephones was many times more than the optimum level and the GPS signal was weak and patchy. Volkov promises to draw his own conclusions and improve the service.

Finland and Sweden in mind

He has already demonstrated TrackLog to organizers of orienteering competitions and regattas, and the organizers of the Erna military endurance competition. Development plans call for the service to move to smart phones so that it would be easy to monitor the tracking devices from one’s mobile.

“The main challenge is to get as many event organizers as possible to use the service. Otherwise the devices will not pay for themselves (each GPS tracking device costs 60-90 euros),” says Volkov. “If the service proves itself this year, we will go ahead to Finland and Sweden, which have adventure sport markets that are many times larger.”

This wonder gadget has already drawn the attention of many of the world’s top directors, including James Cameron and Werner Herzog who used it for shooting his latest documentary last summer. 

The Kallas brothers have successfully busted the myth according to which the making of a 3D-film takes a truckload of special equipment, at least three technicians and that setting up a scene takes half a day.

Actually, the 3D-camera is not a camera in the traditional sense of the word but a modular system comprising two camera heads and a recorder. The set is portable and can easily be adjusted for special purposes. Without a lens the device weighs four kilograms and enables the playing of a recorded 3D-picture at the film set.

Until today, the production of a 3D-picture took two separate cameras and a special device to merge images from different cameras into a 3D-image. The cameras had to be synchronised for the timing of each frame to be exactly the same. It was all rather complicated and there was always a risk that the quality of the 3D-effect would be poor. And more importantly, the solution was neither mobile nor cheap.

Cameron showed interest

Kaur Kallas says that the 3D-camera was produced by the US company, Silicon Imaging. Estonians developed the mobile hardware solution or the recorder for Silicon Imaging camera heads that enables the recording of a 3D-image and also helped to create the necessary software.

The camera set costs approximately 64,000 euros. So far Silicon Imaging has sold one to the world famous director, James Cameron, whose film “Avatar” broke all box office records.

Fast technological development, however, does not favour the sale of these camera sets. It is more practical to offer the service which includes equipment rental together with the services of a specialist. And that is what the Kallas brothers are now focusing on. Panasonic and Sony have also used the same business model with their high-end digital cameras.

The camera heads and recorder rental costs 980 euros a day and auxiliary equipment, such as a mirror rig, wireless HD and 3D monitoring, wireless follow focus, lenses and a work station for viewing recorded material costs another 1500–2000 euros a day.

The very first work

The new technology was used for the first time in December 2009 in Finland to make the 3D commercial that was shown before “Avatar”. In summer 2010, Werner Herzog used this novel camera to record his first 3D documentary called “Caves of Forgotten Dreams” that premiered at the Toronto Film Festival in September.

The European premier is scheduled to take place in February at the Berlinale. In Estonia, the Acuba 3D-camera is used in the production of a documentary and a 3D short feature, both of which should be out this spring.

The Kallas brothers also co-operated with the artist Raul Rajangu in the making of an experimental 3D short film, “Luminous Darkness”, which was recently premiered.

“It was a great recognition for us that Werner Herzog chose us and our equipment for his new film. I believe it is one of those exceptionally rare cases when film-making equipment and know-how has been exported for reasons other than cost,” says Kallas. “In addition to working on the set we also did all the post production of the film right down to the 3D-master.” Negotiations are currently under way with several well-known directors who would like to use Estonians’ equipment for their upcoming projects but Kallas is unwilling to name any names yet.

Camera is in Poland

The target group for the new camera includes producers of feature films, documentaries, and commercials as well as others interested in the development of cinematic art. One of the 3D-cameras is presently in Hollywood and another in London. The set belonging to the Estonians is in Warsaw where the company owned by the brothers, Digital Sputnik, recently expanded and where Kaspar Kallas, the main architect of technical solutions lives. Digital Sputnik’s camera is being tested for the Polish film industry as the Estonian market is too small for it. A further goal is to take the camera to the Indian film market. “Estonia lacks the market for this kind of equipment and therefore we focus our efforts outside,” says Kaur Kallas.

Meanwhile the brothers continue to work on optimising the camera casing. Within a year the entire system has become more compact and it is now possible to monitor and operate the camera with no wires attached.

The 3D-camera was developed on the basis of the 2D-camera that was also produced by Estonians in co-operation with Silicon Imaging and used for filming Kadri Kõusaar’s controversial “Magnus”. The same technology was used for the Hollywood feature film “Slumdog Millionaire” that last year won the Academy Award for Best Cinematography. The camera head of a 3D-camera actually consists of two 2D-cameras one of which records for one eye while the second records for the other eye. As eyes see images differently a 3D spacious effect is created in the brain.

The story was initially published in March 2011 edition of “In Time” magazine

Imagine you go to a larger dining establishment during the lunch rush and manage to find a table. It turns out you wait ten minutes before someone brings a menu. Or if the menu is already on the table and you have made your pick, you have to wait 20 minutes before someone comes to take your order. All of the waiters are buzzing around and it seems that everyone else is being served but you.

So be it. When the food is finally brought to the table and you have finished your meal, you might want to order a cup of coffee or a bit of dessert. Once again the server is busy doing something else.

You get ready to leave. You want the check. But again, where is the waiter – never where you want him to be. Once again attending to another table. You wait. The waiter appears. You ask for the check. He goes away. More waiting. The check finally comes. Again the waiter leaves. You lay the money on the table and wait. The waiter re-emerges, takes the money and heads off in the direction of the cash register. More waiting. Finally he comes back with the receipt and change. But all this took so long and so much awkward waiting. Ordimo wants to ease this, even if a little bit.

Hatching the ida for 18 months

The man behind the concept, freelance software architect Jaak Sarv says he has been hatching the idea for 18 months, gauging interest in such an innovation. “No doubt it seems like a completely alien concept in the beginning. Ordering by cell phone? People want to interact with wait staff, especially if they’re an affable type. But this can be only so if the are available and are not busy with other customers,“ says Sarv, who is related to legendary Estonian digital guru Henn Sarv.

Ordimo, which well-known start-upper Jüri Kaljundi helped develop, basically gives diners self-service if they are equipped with a smartphone or computer. Using the telephone’s barcode reader, you load the menu information to the phone and go through the selections on the screen. The information is sent to the establishment’s cash register where the orders from various tables can be seen. After the meal, the check can be paid by m-payment in the same environment.

Now, a couple weeks after the Helsinki Garage48 event, Sarv says Ordino is in a busy development phase. He’s also looking for some more forward-thinking restaurant or bar where the system could be piloted. He has a few candidates in mind but if there are any more, let Jaak know!

He likes to try it out in a cafe

 “I would like to test out the system in some outdoor café in the Tallinn Old Town come summer,“ says Sarv. Various barcode solutions are expected to have a great 2011 worldwide. Ordimo is latching on to the trend with all ten fingers.

The company’s income from the app should amount to a small cut of total sales, says Sarv. But before that, restaurateurs have to be convinced that they really need Ordimo. Various pro and con arguments have been voiced – some have said Ordimo could work for customers who want the menu du jour during the lunch rush for instance; while others say it’s pointless as people come to restaurants partly because they want attractive, polite, human service.

But Sarv is thinking up new add-ons for Ordimo: why not use it to book tables or order food ahead of time?

Ordimo seems to have that certain something, even though the first impression may leave one sceptical. Do all interactive workflow-related problems necessarily have to be solved with online apps?

Last year’s Tartu Garage48 resulted in the ultimate anti-game – Smashr, which measured how fast players could smash their phones against the ground, and determined who was Chuck Norris or Rowan Atkinson, as it were. This January’s Helsinki Garage48 brought Blow’em – “The game that does not suck” – into existence.

“Have you ever wanted to smash a tomato on one’s face?” ask the developers. “Or lacked the courage to express your feelings for a sweetheart? Now is your time to act, no need to pretend! This is a chance to express yourself! We empower you to Blow’em!”

The point of this somewhat silly mobile game is that it gives you the power to blow a tomato into the face of your friend or foe (provided their visage is on the screen courtesy of the built-in cam or a saved image). The person who “gets it” later sees the video of themselves getting hit by the fruit. It can then be sent out across the social media.

Touchscreen has something to do with it still

The question immediately comes up – how on earth does the touchscreen respond to blowing – but actually it has nothing to do with the screen. The telephone responds to the sound that reaches the microphone. Blow’em can incidentally only be used in telephones with touchscreens.

The weapon of choice doesn’t have to be a tomato. There are there options – Retarded Tomato, Angry Egg (that you’ll feel the stench, long-distance) and Deep Throat (helps build the bridge for a sustained relationship.) You get the point.

The game is the brainchild of an international team consisting of Vladimir Grigor, Jaak Laineste, Hannu Leinonen, Liis Peetermann, Kalev Külaase, Evija Zauere and Ilze Pētersone. All of the team members were newcomers to game development.

Android and iPhone release coming soon

Jaak Laineste says they plan to release the game for Android and iPhone users in the near future. The goal is simple: million download status. “We are currently testing a beta version and the official release will be any day now,” he says. The development process is slow and steady, as all of the team members have their day jobs to attend to. But it really is a hobby for the team.

“It seems that real projects cannot really evolve out of Garage48, as first of all there is no financing to make it a full-time affair. An even more crucial problem is that everyone have their day jobs and they’re not going to quit overnight. If some did — some don’t even have work right now – the likelihood of assembling the requisite staff would be extremely low. Thus it is like a one-night stand – a one-off, fun project and the simpler and the less need for follow-up, the better,” says Laineste, who works for Nutiteq for his own livelihood.

Imagine that you are rich and want to give a poor African nation a library with an Internet hotspot to improve the local quality of life. You make a large donation and six months later the site is up. An honorary plaque with your name on it goes up.

Then it turns out that two other similar centres were built in the same small town at the same time, financed by other wealthy people from the same industry as yours. Now there are three libraries with public Internet access in the town but the next town a couple hundred miles down the road has none!

A group of Finns and Estonians (among them Ahti Heinla, former Skype hand) and one Ethiopian are making sure that unenviable situation doesn’t happen. In mid-January, they developed a new site likened to the Facebook of development assistance – called AidBook48.

Changing the way people communicate

AidBook is a social networking and collaboration platform for development aid projects and aid workers. The aim is to change the way communication and collaboration is conducted by development workers.

A prototype could be glimpsed in Helsinki three weeks ago, quickly drawing the first client – Community Development Association from Ghana. The site is now being polished and fine-tuned before it goes public.

AidBook is looking for capital and reportedly intends to make its voice heard by the world’s biggest aid organizations, with the UN chief among them.

One of the initiators of the project, a Finn named Ilona Mäkinen who has volunteered in Africa and come face to face with various communication barriers, says after the competition, the AidBook team repaired to the cinema to watch “Social Network” movie for inspiration. Then they laid out the development plan: find seed capital to take AidBook into a beta version. The beta would feature various functions ranging from an interactive map (showing the locations of the projects in progress) to various interactive elements such as a Twitter-like message feed.

All aid projects would benefit

AidBook, says Mäkinen, is intended for anyone who is tied to some development or humanitarian aid project. “It can be a small local organization distributing malaria nets in Burkina Faso, an Estonian organization educating teachers in Ghana, or a Finnish lady who donates one teacher’s salary monthly to a school in Gambia – they would all benefit greatly from Aidbook48,” Mäkinen says.

The aim is to collaborate with Finnish and Estonian umbrella organizations for development organizations as well as those working in the grassroots when developing the application so that it would meet the users needs as well as possible. At this point Aidbook48 has partnerships, but it doesn’t really have clients.

One of the AidBook team members, Taavi Raidma, says the goal is to get “nearby projects talking and collaborating with each other to avoid overlap.” With AidBook, it will also be easier for volunteers to find a suitable project and track its progress.

What are white people doing in Africa?

“Even when I am in Africa, I look around and I see white people moving but there is no easy way of finding out what they are doing and where,” says Raidma. AidBook fills in that information.

Raidma says what is also important is that AidBook will increase financing for aid programmes, as use of money will become more transparent and clearer. The result may foster greater boldness in contributing financially to various programmes.

As to how to use the social network to earn money, Mäkinen says that is not the goal. “Aidbook48 is not about making money but about making development efforts more effective, and giving this power to the individual projects and organizations. We’re looking into setting up either an NGO or a social enterprise with a functioning business model in order to sustain the site and provide its users further value. The goal would naturally be to make the site self-sustaining,” she says.