On June 2nd and 3rd, volunteers around the world are coming together for the Random Hacks of Kindness Global Hackathon. Born in 2009, Random Hacks of Kindness (RHoK) is the brainchild of a partnership among Google, Microsoft, Yahoo!, HP, NASA and the World Bank. The RHoK international community is over 4000 strong, encompassing not only computer programmers but also engineers, designers, web experts, project managers and other tech-savvy do-gooders, as well as subject matter experts in areas as diverse as disaster risk management, climate change, water, health care and human rights. This group of unlikely collaborators works together to define challenges facing humanity in local communities all around the world, and then to rapidly prototype solutions during an intensive weekend of round-the-clock work.
- A team at RHoK in Trento, Italy designed a mobile application that connects charities distributing food to needy populations with restaurants and businesses with excess food to donate.
- A team at RHoK Philadelphia designed a web platform enabling homeless service providers to easily identify empty beds and open soup kitchens for Philadelphia and New Jersey homeless populations.
- A team at RHoK Washington D.C. designed a tool to visualize complex landslide risk algorithms, making the information accessible to local mayors and urban planners making building decisions.
- A team at RHoK Sydney created a crowdsourcing tool to allow Australian citizens to rapidly report and respond to bushfires.
By Christiaan Adams, Developer Advocate, Google.org Crisis Response Team Permalink | Links to this post |