EZNet App

Overview

EZ Net is an application developed for rural internet users which are not tech savy and shows interest in the internet and the resources it has.

It contains simple images to assist the user to open a webpage by clicking through app pages. This app is supposed to help the user familiarize with the web, and it would serve its purpose for users who are also new to the smartphone.

Idea

We would have a main page with several icons of title type e.g. News Papers, TV/Radio, Recipies, Religious material etc.

When the user clicks one category, webpages related to that category open up. There should be a few notably easy ones to click, and then maybe a "more..." button which shows more links. The idea is to have all as icons with their usual logos.

When the user clicks the logo, the link should open up in the default browser. We need not complicate this app with browser capabilities.

Design examples

You may use the following as a guideline to build

Where did this start?

This project is done to assist a sustainability project done by Dialog Axiata to help out bridge the gender gap in internet users in Sri Lanka. The need for this app arose when sustainability initiatives saw that most users like to browse the net, but are reluctant or is uneasy to type using the on screen soft keyboard of the mobile phone.

Therefore we decided we would pitch in and help users to start their internet experience and help them get familiarized with webpages in their first stages of accessing the internet.

Why is Codelanka and GDG doing this? Isn't this some company's problem?

The reasons this project was taken up by codelanka are;

• If a commercial organization got this project they will try to earn money out of this and display paid ad-type links in the app
• Even if paid ad-type links are probable, it would be hard for someone to monetize this app, making it nonsensible for a for-profit venture
• Making the app will help a lot of people

Codelanka's core is to make software which help people but doesn't make any sense when it comes to monetization.

What can I do?

Fork, take up an issue, and then work on it. Then create pull requests. The usual deal. We want everyone who are interested to come and pitch in to bring our rural communities to the internet and the possibilities it offer.

Uh, wait, this is in React Native! I don't know React Native. (Can't we just use Java and Swift?)

Fantastic. You're exactly whom we're looking for! Me, the README writer even don't know the language. Isn't it great? You now have a real world problem to solve while learning something new.! You'll be able to learn React Native AND help a lot of people. Wouldn't that be fun?

How to start

This is a React Native app, thus you have to have tools neede for React and React native like NodeJS, NPM, ( Yarn ), etc. Android tools if you are building on Android. ( And iOS tools if you are building on iOS. )

Issue a yarn or npm install to get all the dependencies. Run with yarn start or npm start. You should have an Android virtual Device running.

Look at App.js as a starting point. ;)

Licensing

This application is licensed under the MIT license

Lets work together and make this possible.