On October 23 a bunch of geeks and designers got together at a school for the annual CCDC, Copenhagen Cocoa Developers Conference. After mingling a bit and finding empty seats around the tables to set up a computer, the introduction came along with the announcement of this years theme: COP-15, the FN Climate summit in Copenhagen ’09.

We quickly agreed around the table that we had a good feeling about our team, so it became:

Alex Voigt-Hansen    twitter.com/alvoha

Ulrik Flænø Damm    twitter.com/gereen

Henrik Mohr    twitter.com/luposlip

Anders PJ    twitter.com/anders_pj

After exchanging ideas for a while, we agreed on creating a service for people who want to share a ride. But where car sharing usually means making steady agreements with co-workers about picking each other up and going home at the same time every day, ECO Ride builds on the idea of ad-hoc and on-location ride search.

The idea originates from Regin Kopp Pedersen, linkedin.com/in/reginkp

How it works:

“Want a ride”

- Input your destination.

1. -Set how long time you are willing to wait for somebody to pick you up.
   

2. -Review the request and approve.
   

3. -The server now stores your request, and knows where you are right now, waiting for a ride.
   

“Give a ride”

1. -See a map of the area you are in, and see any requesters’ locations.
   

2. -Tap on the requester pins to see their destinations.
   

3. -If a destination matches yours, see their details and give them a call.
   

A server talks with the app and keeps track of requests and accepted rides. The app also talks to Twitter, so the @ecorideapp account automatically posts any accepted rides, showing the usernames of requester and driver, and where they are going.

This is the functionality we got working during the two days of CCDC ’09. On the longer run, we off course want to build in more “brains” in the application, so it automatically can pair requester and driver based on proximity and routes. Also security and confidence should be improved through user identification, and the ability to rate each other after a ride.

As deadline sunday 2pm was closing in, we experienced some minor issues in merging the different parts of the app, even though all the pieces were working. Through our presentation we showed of the individual functionality through Simulator, websites and even Photo Booth for quick and dirty on screen documentation (even if mirrored...), and explained the long term vision.

In the line of other presentations, we saw a lot of beautiful and polished apps, and we thought that our chances were pretty non-existing. But apparently the three wise judges were able to abstract from the presentation form, and said that.. well, watch the video for yourself. Sound is a bit low, blame iPhone.

The guy talking is the well known gadget reviewer Nikolaj Sonne, from DRs “So Ein Ding”.

The winning team (thanks to Willi Wu)

So recently we have been working on ensuring that the functionality really works, and setting up a beta website: www.ecorideapp.com

We really want to get the app on the App Store, and get it boosted through media, ideally connected to the COP-15 meeting in December.

So now we are looking for funding through companies, and even government funds. So Vestas, DONG, Better Place, Connie Hedegaard, please call us ;)

Be sure to follow us on Twitter for the latest updates.

Thank you from all of us to Aron Allen for arranging CCDC, and to all the other participants for inspiring input.