Today the average smartphone has more computing power than NASA needed to send people to the moon in 1969. And today more than 20 million individuals use the high-performance electronic devices they carry around in their pockets to play Candy Crush. Has information and communication technology (ICT) become so ubiquitous in our lives that we fail to recognize its potential for actual impact? Countless young Europeans who use ICT for social good are giving us hope that the answer is 'no'. An annual contest honors them for their commitment.

Are you young and do you feel like you could change the world?

Then get your digital toolkit out and do it! The European Youth Award (EYA) is looking for websites and apps that harness the power of new technology to solve real-life problems. The contest invites young developers under 30 to submit their innovations that address topics such as health, education, cultural diversity, sustainability, financial literacy and urban development and help shape Europe's future.

Let’s change the world!

The idea of employing technological progress for common good is nothing new. In 2003 the UN World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) began looking for ways to make ICT and the rapid exchange of information that goes hand in hand with it accessible to everyone. Eleven years later, the theoretical framework provided by the WSIS, combined with the enthusiasm of millions of developers not afraid to take action, has blossomed into a number of achievements.

Today the average smartphone has more computing power than NASA needed to send people to the moon in 1969. 

More and more people around the globe have access to ICT and shared knowledge. It is no longer unusual for farmers in Botswana to use a solar-powered notebook to search the internet for the perfect fertilizer for their crops, for example. Apps that track the heart rate of people with cardiovascular disease, or open-access Harvard lectures are also becoming commonplace.

But there is still a long way to go and even with more and more 'digital natives' reaching maturity the kind of technophile utopia, so many sci-fi writers have envisioned, the change needed might be many generations away. So EYA is providing an incentive for young people to take action on WSIS-targets, encouraging them to produce digital innovations with high potential for tangible success.

"Young people who enter the competition are actively using the Internet and mobiles to change the world for the better, while others are using them solely for entertainment and distraction", says Peter A. Bruck, Honorary President of EYA. With the Healthy Life, Smart Learning, Connecting Cultures, Go Green, Active Citizenship, Money Matters and Future Living categories, the contest addresses the goals defined by the Council of Europe and the European Digital Agenda 2020. Young citizens of 49 European countries are eligible to participate, which amounts to over 200 million people.