ENLARGE
Lebanese civilians gather next to the site of a blast outside a mosque in the northern city of Tripoli on Aug. 23, 2013. (ANWAR AMRO/AFP/Getty Images)
BEIRUT, Lebanon — Around the world, smartphone apps are normally designed to make life easier: to count calories, keep in touch with friends, to organize busy work schedules or find the best slice of pizza in an unfamiliar neighborhood.
But in Lebanon, it's a different story. Here, plucky developers are designing apps not only for convenience, but also to keep people safe as spillover from neighboringSyria’s civil war intensifies.
Maa2too3a — branded in English as ‘Happin’ — is a free crowd-sourced application available for iPhones and Androids that allows users to geotag various disruptive events in Lebanon.
On quiet days, its map shows the locations of car accidents and heavy traffic. On others, it’s filled with pins marking armed clashes, protests, roads cut by burning tires and reports of gunfire and explosions.
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