Heippa Service wins the Everyday Innovations of the Future competition
19.05.2014
A new mobile and online service - Heippa (Hi there!) - is helping tackle problems associated with loneliness, marginalisation and mental health.
The service has been developed by Claudia Treuthardt from Aalto University's Department of Media.
The service's concept – a low-threshold source of help for dealing with everyday problems – rose to the head of the field in the competition aimed at finding the everyday innovations of the future.
Using the Heippa service is like making a call to a wise acquaintance or grandparent and not to a health or pastoral care professional. The intention is that help can be sought via Heippa before the questions and doubts going around one's head have a chance to cause anxiety or distress. Heippa functions as a social search engine that lowers the threshold when seeking help at the same time as creating an ethical code for voluntary work.
The competition's jury praised the simplicity of the service's look. The Heippa concept has a lot of development potential as a stand-alone service in which associations and individuals can operate on an equal footing. The self-assessment and controls are functional and the e-authentication of the helpers increases the system's security.
– The service has been planned for use in Finland but the technological platform and approach are also internationally scalable. Different languages are supported in the service, with minority language speakers in Finland being able to benefit from the service just as much as the Finnish-speaking majority. I primarily see Heippa as a non-profit service that could be backed, for example, by a charity or foundation, Claudia Treuthardt remarks.
The inaugural Everyday Innovations of the Future competition is aimed at students, with solutions being sought for environmental problems, climate change, population ageing, loneliness, youth unemployment, mental health issues, poverty, clean water preservation, and the position of women in society. In judging the entrants, the panel focused on their level of innovation, problem-solving, ability to stand out from the crowd, visual appeal, and future orientation.
The competition is part of the Future Infinite conference, held at Wanha Satama, 11 to 13 June 2014. The winners will receive their prizes at the conference on 12 June 2014. The winner will receive an award worth 2 500 euros. The award has been kindly donated by Suomen Messusäätiö.
Source: Messukeskus
Further info on the conference: http://www.wanhasatama.com/Sites1/FutureInfinite/en/Pages/default.aspx