Hackers Prove They Can Help the World during Random Hacks of Kindness

Hackers often get a bad reputation. But Google (News - Alert) gives them a chance to help the world through the Random Hacks of Kindness program.

Earlier in June, thousands of “hackers” assembled in 19 locations – such as Berlin, Nairobi, Sydney and Sao Paulo – to participate in Random Hacks of Kindness #3 (RHoK #3).

The teams are now working with non-governmental organizations and policy advisors on developing their apps.

RHoK was started in 2009, and Google partnered in the program with Microsoft (News - Alert), Yahoo, NASA and the World Bank. The RHoK creates open source technology that can be used during crises.

The idea behind Random Hacks of Kindness is that “technology can and should be used for good,” according to Google.

“RHoK brings together subject matter experts, volunteer software developers and designers to create open source and technology agnostic software solutions that address challenges facing humanity,” according to a Google blog post.

During RHoK #3, the scope was expanded to include climate change, and will later include “development challenges,” according to a Google blog post.

There were over 75 solutions entered during the current RHoK. They are having an impact.

The United Nations, working with the government of Colombia, may adopt a shelter management system developed at RHoK Bogota to aid 3 million victims of winter flooding in South America, according to the Google blog post.

Of the nine “hacks” entered at RHoK Sao Paulo, two are in use and two others may be further developed and incorporated into the restructuring of the National Weather Service, Google adds.

The winning app from RHoK Philadelphia, which was developed from a problem proposed by the World Bank Water group, is ready for further development at the WaterHackathon, which is the RHoK's first community-sponsored event. It will be held later this year.

And at the RHoK Silicon Valley event at Google’s Mountain View, Calif., offices, three entries were selected:

A SMS Person Finder lets anyone with a phone interact with Person Finder, a Google app that lets people connect after a disaster. The Google Crisis Response team is working with the hacker group to integrate the app into Google Person Finder deployments.

Hey Cycle provides email alerts when free items are posted on freecycle.org – leading to more recycling.

And FoodMovr connects people with excess food to other people who need it.

“We’re proud to be one of the founding partners and ongoing sponsors of Random Hacks of Kindness and look forward to seeing these application make a difference,” Mimi Kravetz of Google.org, wrote in a blog post.

“It's amazing to see the collaboration between cities,” adds Heather Leson, lead organizer of RHoK Toronto, in a story carried on TMCnet. “If a team in Toronto didn't have the skills they needed, our team found people in other cities with those skills and they connected via Skype (News - Alert) to share expertise.”

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