From fracking to birth control, food ingredients to encryption, seven apps were featured in the Apps4Change event. Caravan Studios , a division of TechSoup, hosted a breakfast in San Francisco's Chinatown neighborhood for nonprofits, app developers, and anyone interested in changing the world for the better. Each of the presenters showcased apps that allow us to better share data and take personal action to further social benefit causes. Focusing in on Local Issues Open Data San Francisco The lineup began with an overview of San Francisco's OpenData Program . Joy Bonaguro, chief data officer and Jason Lally, open data program manager, demonstrated the city's open data site features and highlighted opportunities for improvement. SF OpenData offers access to many datasets, including crime statistics, business listings, 90-day emergency shelter listings, and even a film location listing starting from 1924. The city's OpenData goals are to improve city services for residents and businesses, produce jobs, enhance economic opportunities, and increase resident engagement and empowerment. The site features information for developers, including tips for building apps and a guide for getting started . The site also features a location for developers to upload apps and view an app showcase curated by topic. Jason stressed that the city wants residents and organizations to access the data on OpenDataSF and provide feedback so staff can continue to develop and improve the site. Connect with OpenDataSF on Twitter @DataSF and check out its blog . Concrn for San Francisco's Tenderloin Residents Concrn , based in the Tenderloin neighborhood of San Francisco, channels compassionate care for alternate intervention when a resident determines there is a mental health crisis that may not need 911 intervention. With Concrn, volunteer responders are trained in crisis intervention and mediation by professionals, sign up for on-call shifts, and respond to text alerts. Here's how it works: incoming reports from the community are verified by a dispatcher monitoring the Concrn dashboard. Dispatchers text message volunteers responders to the Tenderloin location. The person reporting the mental health concern has transparency into the process and can view volunteer response. The app also tracks response time from report to volunteer arrival and is shared with OpenData SF. Check out the website today. Connect with Concrn @Concrnapp or during Hack Fest, April 1 – 3, Friday – Sunday at 171 California St. Supporting Healthy Choices Healthy Living Matt Ludeke from Exygy presented Healthy Living, a smartphone app that combines two existing apps, Food Scores and Skin Deep . Food Scores and Skin Deep are free apps that increase consumers' positive purchasing power by making food and cosmetic products' environmental and nutritional ingredients more transparent and understandable. Matt demonstrated the ease of using Food Scores to help consumers make healthier choices when shopping. Consumers scan the barcode or enter the product in the search box, and can then view a score on an easy-to-read dashboard that includes nutrition, ingredient and processing categories. The green, yellow, and red colors allow consumers to immediately view a product's level of concern in each of the categories. Both apps are free and downloadable for iOS and Android. Connect with Exygy on Twitter @exygy. Bedside Reminders Next, Jeremy Yum and Winston Wolff from Nitid Bit LLC demonstrated the Bedsider app , designed to help women remember to use their birth control. Bedsider was started as support network operated by The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy . Users simply select the type of birth control they are using — pill, patch, shot, or ring — and choose the time they want the reminder sent by text or email. There is also a convenient option for users to set a reminder to renew prescriptions. The app also has a choice to select discreet reminders that do not mention the term birth control and are rather cheeky and humorous. Find out more and set up your reminders at the Bedsider website or connect with Besider @ Bedsider . Tackling Global Issues Martus: Encryption for Human Rights Benetech 's product manager John Higgins showed how his organization helps human rights defenders manage information with the app Martus . The need for human rights groups to prove systemic abuse of vulnerable populations is often stymied by the destruction of paperwork referencing years of investigation. Martus provides an end-to-end encryption of data to ensure that this information is secured — from data collection to analysis. According to Higgins, the app is easy to use by anyone. Essentially, data is uploaded by a human rights activist via a mobile device, and Martus encrypts the data upload through the app. Users can determine how they wish to use the data they have uploaded by turning the data into a report, graph, or data visualization. Connect with Benetech @Benetech and find out more on its website . What the Frac? Kyle Ferrar, a Ph.D. candidate at University of Pittsburgh, demonstrated FracTracker , an app that maps impacts of oil and gas extraction sites through crowdsourcing. The app empowers community members to report concerns on oil and gas extraction activity that could negatively impact the environment. It uses the ESRI mobile platform so users can see oil and gas wells near them, and allows you to zoom in on your county, town, or well. Citizens can upload photos and reports to the app, which will be verified by the FracTracker Alliance. The website features a helpful app tutorial slideshow demonstrating how to install and use the app. The FracTracker Alliance is continuing to improve the app's mapping and datasets and hopes to add an RSS feed. The app is iOS- and Android-friendly. Download the app and connect with FracTracker @FracTracker . View more information on the FracTracker Alliance website . Tracking Career Paths Amanda Geary of Pathways Consultants showcased the CareerHub site, where schools, job training programs, human services entities, and other agencies can get better employment placement outcomes. Amanda explained that while agencies and organizations may be successful at getting people placed in jobs, the challenge is tracking and reporting on long-term success. With CareerHub, case managers and organizations can conveniently send emails, text messages, and voice messages directly from a desktop computer to their clients. Clients can receive incentives for responding to case managers and organizations' requests in the form of digital gift cards. Find out more @ CareerHubUS and the CareerHub website . Apps4Change's continued success largely depends on you downloading and using the apps to change the world for the better. Connect with Caravan Studios today to find out what else you can do for social benefit. Image 1: SF OpenData Image 2: Concrn Image 3: Environmental Working Group Image 4: FracTracker Alliance spanhidden