How I built an SMS & Web service in less than 24 hours and got voted 1st @ Hackweekend
Photo from Hackweekend Album
So I participated in this awesome Hackathon hosted by Weekend.my last weekend. I wanted to build a crowd-sourced application that allows people to check Taxis out before they get in. 60 Developers & Designers built 15 Applications in this Hackweekend.
Project URL: http://molv.com/taxi/ (This is a temporary location. I'm working on a proper branding, UI and adding more stuffs).
How I got the Idea
Recently me and my wife went to Ikea and we grabbed a taxi from a near by LRT station. As the taxi started the meter kept spinning like a Spinning Roulette wheel. Since it was raining we couldn't just stop and get out. I asked the driver what is wrong with the meter, why is it spinning so fast? He kept saying nothing is wrong with the meter. I was sitting silently, furious about this situation. Took my phone and started writing an idea to build an SMS based application to track taxis like this. So next time I can run a check on them before I get in. And we ended up paying 16 Ringitts for just 8 kms, which is twice more than it's supposed to be.
Not surprisingly this was the fourth time I got scammed by Taxi drivers in KL.
Preparations for Hackathon
So a week before the hackathon I searched for Malaysian SMS service providers and found a company providing SMS service at an affordable price. I talked them into giving me a test Account. I did one final test of the gateway the day before Hackweekend to see if SMS is being sent and received and called the company to make sure their service will stay up in the weekend.
@ Hackweekend.
As soon as the hacking started, the first thing I did was setup a vhost on my local machine and created the DB (MySQL) and its tables. Also I created just a directory in my server (molv.com) so I can push the files as soon I finish working on them. After about 4 hours of hacking I was able to get the SMSd to insert into the database and retrieve records from the Database.
It took me almost 2 hours to get the web interface working nicely. This was just the basic html page, so I needed to come up with a UI that looks clean and minimal. After three interfaces (in photoshop) I came up with one that looked ok. Since my app was already working I took my time in converting the PSD to HTML/CSS.
Once the template was completed and pushed to server I got some feedback from neighboring hackers that it looked nice.
Since I had ample amount of time before the deadline I just walked around. Even unsuccessfully tried to take a nap on one of the awesome bean bags.
Almost 30 minutes before the deadline I tested and found the SMSs are having delays. So I created a small log script that loads my sms activity from Database and found out those delays were from the Telecoms.
Demo hour
As time to demo our projects drew nearer I got a bit nervous. After getting some good pitching tips from @benjaminjoffe (His team built an iPhone App called Icebreaker for helping people to start conversations ) and asking myself "What's the worst that can happen?", I was able to chill. The pitch went ok (at least I think so). There were so many things I wanted to say in the pitch but couldn't. Got interesting questions and suggestions from the audience. To tell the truth I didn't expect to win anything.
Until the organizers said 'Taxi Watch' is in a draw with Projekr (An awesome Project tracking app built by Team CodeCrafters), I wasn't paying much attention as I was feeling pretty sleepy and tired. In the next few seconds someone voted up Taxi Watch and it won.
For being voted as people's choice I got a free working space (plus drinks) at the awesome alt.space. I have yet to decide what to do with it since I love working from my own bedroom.
I was interviewed by a TV crew from Astro Awani for a Tech Show which will be aired in the coming week(s).
What's next for TaxiWatch?
Since I got a lot of requests from people asking to continue the service as it can be used to track Good and Bad taxis, I plan to continue it.
In a business point of view it would make sense when/if I can get the telecoms to do a Revenue sharing and Taxi companies to collaborate with me so that they can get feedbacks regarding their service which can used to improve themselves.
Amaz.my coverage of TaxiWatch.
http://amanz.my/2011/12/taxi-watch-menjadi-pemenang-pilihan-ramai-pada-hackweekend-kedua/ (in Malay)
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