How can coding, like sql beautifier, solve the challenges of society and help people in emergency situations?
From the 4th to 6th of December, OpenHack will address this issue through an open-source hackathon in Lund, bringing together ideation, design and coding to deliver creative solutions for humanitarian aid.
“The goal is to create a unique opportunity to reconnect with our humanity, using technology as a foundation,” says Linda Malmgren, Head of Communications at Mobile Heights.
To deal with humanitarian emergencies awakened by natural disasters, war or social conflicts, like the current refugee crisis, it is important to use technology that can support humanitarian efforts. Nowadays, large amounts of data are available everywhere thanks to the reach of mobile phones and social media. The problem is then how to handle this data to produce something useful and beneficial for these situations. That is the challenge that over 200 designers, engineers, programmers and motivated people will tackle during this full weekend hackathon in Lund.
“Participants will be able to choose between developing their own projects
from scratch, or build on and get inspired by two existing projects that are in place,” says Johan Linåker, Project Manager, OpenHack.
OpenHack encourages people interested in working together with humanitarian organization to develop creative ideas and solutions. Ushahidi, a crowd-platform from Nairobi, and Node-RED, an open-source tool for data visualization of Internet of Things, are two established projects which will bring expertise, support and inspiration to the participants. The open platform which will be used at the hackathon is IBM Bluemix.
More than just an event, OpenHack intends to attract people and organisations to raise awareness about how technology can be used to contribute to humanity. The growing community of OpenHack already includes organizations, sponsors, startups and universities alike.
The application to participate in the hackathon closes on November 15. For more information, you can visit www.openhack.io.
