Fixed Mobile Convergence

Most of us believe that mobile and telecommunications technology can help us connect with our loved ones and friends. But the ever expanding applications of these technologies have been proving there is much more to be explored, achieved and even fought for than we can imagine using these simple looking mobile devices.

The Philadelphia Zoo has announced it will invite university students to support its efforts to save the orangutan, an endangered species, from extinction. By offering their contribution to the Philadelphia Zoo initiative, these students from across the U.S. will be able to compete to win the 2012 University UNLESS Prize.

Under the challenge, university students will have to create an innovative mobile device application that can connect users with palm oil product manufacturers, which will further boost the market adoption of certified sustainable palm oil. Students of university degree programs from across the U.S. can compete in the “2012 University UNLESS Prize Challenge,” the winning team to be awarded a sum of $10,000.

“The Philadelphia Zoo believes that doing leads to caring,” commented Kristen Lewis-Waldron, director of Education at Philadelphia Zoo. “Through the 2012 UNLESS Prize, we hope to engage the creativity, innovation and social entrepreneurship of university students across the United States and have a direct and positive effect on orangutan conservation efforts.”

Well known as the most abundantly produced vegetable oil in the world, palm oil is used to prepare a number of consumer products such as cookies, crackers, breakfast cereals, chips, chocolate and ice cream. Additionally, it is found in around half of the all varieties of packaged food and is used to manufacture various other items as well, such as shampoo, cosmetics, lipstick and lotion, reported the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil. Across the globe, enormous areas of forests are being cut down for cultivating palm oil on a large scale, put a number of species including orangutans at risk of extinction as a result of the rapid destruction of ecologically-complex rainforests in Sumatra and Borneo. According to an estimate, there will be no wild orangutan left in the world after 25 years if the production of palm oil is continued this way.

The Philadelphia Zoo has named the year 2012 as “The Year of Orangutan,” and throughout the year it will fulfill its commitment of a variety of cross-disciplinary activities to save these wild orangutans from extinction. The organization has been collaborating with various programming, marketing, exhibition and interpretive efforts to create awareness among the consumers to drive the market demand for sustainable palm oil in the U.S. and the world.

In September 2011, The Montreal Gazette reported that the Milwaukee County Zoo’s orangutans are happily using four donated Apple (News - Alert) iPad tablet computers to play with monkey-friendly apps, including finger painting and seeing photos of other zoo animals. Zookeepers also reported that they are using Skype (News - Alert) to connect their orangutans to other orangutans in other zoos.

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