Hacking for Humanity around the world

By Christiaan Adams, Google.org Crisis Response Team

Every year, coders and designers have been gathering to meet with experts in disaster response and international development, to spend a weekend designing tools and hacking code for the public good. This weekend, December 3-4, 2011, the next Random Hacks of Kindness (RHoK) hackathons will be taking place in cities around the world, with the simple idea that technology can and should be used for good.

Led by Google, Microsoft, Yahoo!, Hewlett-Packard, NASA, and the World Bank, RHoK brings together hackers of all stripes to create open source software solutions that address issues of global interest and assist the organizations working on those issues. The fourth round of global RHoK events will be taking place in more than 30 cities on December 3-4, 2011, and you are invited and encouraged to attend.

Some of the interesting solutions that have been developed at past events include I’mOK, a mobile app that was used after the Haiti and Chile earthquakes, CHASM, a visualization tool for mapping landslide risk which is being used by the World Bank around the Caribbean, and Bushfire Connect, an online service for real-time information on fires in Australia. Hackers have also helped develop features for Person Finder, a tool created by the Google.org Crisis Response Team to help people find friends and loved ones after disasters.

We’re inviting all developers, designers, and anyone else who wants to help “hack for humanity” to attend one of the local events this weekend, December 3-4. You’ll have a chance to meet other open source developers, work with experts in disasters and international development, and contribute code to exciting projects that make a difference. Googlers will be attending several events, including those in San Francisco, New York, London, and others. We look forward to meeting you there!

And if you’re part of an organization that works in the fields of crisis response, climate change, or international development, you can submit a problem definition online, so that developers and volunteers can work on technology to address the challenge.

Visit http://www.rhok.org/ for more information and to sign up for your local event, and get set to put your hacking skills to good use.


Christiaan Adams is a developer advocate with the Google Earth Outreach Team and Google.org’s Crisis Response Team, where he helps nonprofits and disaster response organizations to use online mapping tools. When he’s not at work, he likes to go hiking or mountain biking, using Google Maps, of course.

Posted by Scott Knaster, Editor

Random Hacks of Kindness: How hackers can save the world

Sound interesting? Here's how you can become a part of it: Attend the Random Hacks of Kindness Hackathon and develop software that saves lives, alleviates suffering and helps communities to recover after natural disasters strike.



Random Hacks of Kindness is a joint effort founded by Google, Yahoo!, Microsoft, NASA and The World Bank, dedicated to bringing software developers together to respond to challenges facing humanity in the area of natural disaster risk. We start with problem definitions created through consultations with NGOs, governments and experts in the field from around the world, then we invite hackers to a come together to organize and go to work putting their skills to use to solve those problems with software solutions that make a difference on the ground. At a RHoK hackathon, new technologies are born, existing platforms are built upon, and innovative new ideas attract attention and support. At the close of the hackathon, teams present the technologies they have developed and prizes are awarded.

The next Random Hacks of Kindness Hackathon is happening in Washington, D.C. from June 4th through 6th, with global satellite events going on around the world in Jakarta, Sydney, Nairobi and Sao Paolo. The evening of June 4th, The State Department is hosting a reception for RHoK to kick off two days of intensive hacking on June 5th and 6th at the Microsoft Offices in Chevy Chase, MD. Check out the full agenda or learn more about the global satellites right here.

Why Do This?

• Save the world: You have the skills to make a difference. Hacks developed at the last RHoK hackathon were used on the ground in Haiti and Chile following the devastating earthquakes there in early 2010. The world needs these solutions.
• Exposure: Got a new product, idea or technology to share with the hacker community? Put it to work at the hackathon.
• Assistance: Extend the function and applicability of your existing products or software through global crowdsourced development.
• Input: Get real-time feedback from Subject Matter Experts in software and disaster risk.
• Insight: Learn about what other companies and developers are doing in the same space.

Sign up on our registration page. We'll see you there!

If you are interested in attending or assisting at one of the global satellite locations, please contact thea.clay@secondmuse.com

By Jeff Martin, Google Crisis Response