Launch of ‘The teams behind the apps’ series: meet TrackMyEU
'The teams behind the apps' is a series of videos made by the EU Datathon finalists. Discover the people and their proposals for apps over nine episodes, once a week, in a run-up to the final event. At the competition finals in November the teams will pitch their apps to the jury who will select the winners.
In the first episode, meet the team behind TrackMyEU, an app to 'explore EU policies, track your interests and make your voice heard in Brussels'. They are competing with two other teams in challenge 3: ‘A Europe fit for the digital age’.
Who is the team behind the app?
Chiara Girardelli and Raphaël Kergueno form the TrackMyEU duo. Chiara is a self-employed developer and consultant specialising in front-end and data visualisation. Raphaël is a Policy Officer working in EU integrity at Transparency International EU. In last year's EU Datathon, we had the chance to meet to discover their work with another app EU Integrity Watch.
We have recently asked the team how TrackMyEU was born, who it is intended for and what’s the status of their work.
- How did you come up with the idea for this app?
Having worked together for over 5 years in projects closely related to the EU, we are well aware of how key information is scattered across multiple EU databases and websites. We thought of a user-friendly app that would bring all this information together while targeting a large audience. As a core feature, we designed a visually interactive dashboard directly generated by citizens’ preference in any EU policy area. We hope that this very personalised approach will bring Brussels slightly closer to home and entice direct participation.
- Who is your app for?
Our app primarily targets citizens without prior knowledge of how the EU works, how decisions are taken on their behalf and how they can make their voice heard. It's the reason why our app has a strong educational aspect, with a dedicated ‘Explore’ section that guides users though every step of the EU legislative process and informs on the top priorities. We also encourage anyone with an active interest in the EU such as journalists, academics and public affairs professionals to discover our versatile ‘tracking’ function.
- How are you doing with the app? What's the status?
After an intense summer, we’re happy to report that we already have a first functional alpha version. We completed the core work on the main part of the tool: the personal dashboards that allows users to track any EU policy area and associated legislation as well as all MEPs and countries involved. We’re particularly pleased that our algorithms are now capable of dynamically generating interactive graphs based on the hundreds of searchable criteria. Readers will spot it in action in our promotional video. While there are still plenty of additional features to add, so far our app is definitely on track!
To find out more about TrackMyEU, watch the 1-minute video in which the team introduce themselves and present their app.
Curious to learn more? Discover all teams and apps via the EU Datathon website and follow updates on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook or via our newsletter.