Nokia’s global “Calling All Innovators” challenges developers to make a difference

Forum Nokia has teamed up with Sesame Workshop, the producers behind Sesame Street, for the education subcategory of the life improvement category to encourage developers to create and offer applications to teach early literacy on Nokia devices to communities around the world. Sesame Workshop will offer guidance during the judging process and work with select developers to further enhance relevant projects.

"Today’s announcement is brought to you by the letter S," said Purnima Kochikar, vice president Forum Nokia. "Teaming up with Sesame Street allows us to inspire the imagination of developers to help educate children worldwide through advances in mobile technology with quality, branded content."

The collaboration will encourage developers to create educational applications, and possibly utilize the Sesame Street characters, for consumers around the world. As Sesame Street celebrates its 40th anniversary, this partnership helps to extend its “longest street in the world” into the digital one. With an expertise in using media to reach children, the nonprofit is looking to mobile as the newest distribution channel of literacy-based content through accessible mass media.

"With Forum Nokia’s community – over four and a half million developers strong – we’re challenging those particularly in emerging markets to create educational tools that make a positive impact," said Jeffrey Fleishman,assistant vice president for Media Distribution Business Development, Sesame Workshop. "We’re looking for creators who can bring a fresh perspective and local knowledge to the growing field of educational mobile applications. Our goal is to find some partners with which we can work to extend the power of Sesame Street to new platforms and places."

One example is the regional Calling All Innovators contest taking place in Latin America at this time, where developers have been encouraged to publish their apps to Ovi Store. Finalists in this regional competition will automatically be entered into the global Calling All Innovators contest.