The idea behind the event is to encourage ideas that can help in addressing the challenges the humanity faces these days, both on a local and global scale.

To deliver creative solutions for the good of humanity, OpenHack will run for 48-hours with a variety of cases to focus on:

• Developing tools and methods that would enable in a simple and systematic way measure the multiplier-effect in humanitarian contexts
• Developing an interactive information app that will raise awareness, spread knowledge and reduce stigmatized perceptions of mental illnesses
• Creating a framework for charity organizations to increase transparency and feedback to individual donors on their donations

Participants are also encouraged to contribute with their own challenge ideas.

Hackathon will end on Sunday afternoon with a prize ceremony. This time the jury consists of the representatives from the Open Source projects, corporate sponsors and organizers. The participants will be rewarded with valuable prizes, public credit and recognition in the spirit of Open Source.

OpenHack is open for collaborations with companies on many levels and always eager to discuss potential partnership. So if you want to join or contribute in any way, contact them.

“A collaboration will benefit your company through a unique combination of CSR and Open Source. You will have the possibility to show your company culture and interact with developers, entrepreneurs and students from all over the region.”

Among last year’s hack sponsors were IBM, Neo4J, Jayway, Swedsoft, FooCafe and VentureLab. This time the event is backed by Engineers without borders and sponsored by Microsoft, Accenture and in partnership with IBM, Ingenjörs utan Gränser, VentureLab, Lunds Universitet, Ideon Meeting, Creatify Media, Futurion.

OpenHack is also looking for volunteers. Want to contribute? Then reach out to sahand.hesar@openhack.io.

The event will take place 2 – 4 of December in Lund, at Ideon Meeting, with registration now available at www.openhack.io. Participation is free, so everyone who has an idea or a problem concerning disaster management or information sharing may sign up for the event and bring this problem to OpenHack. And of course, it is going to be lots of fun!

When: December 2-4, 2016
Where: Lund, Scheelevägen, 223 63 Lund

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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.

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