by Sumaa Tekur
WHAT’S HAPPENING
- Dozens of volunteer software engineers and experts in disaster risk management solutions participated in the first RHoK (Random Hacks of Kindness) event in India on 4 December 2010.
- The hackathon in Bangalore’s Google office focused on creating software solutions to mitigate disasters around the world. Techies got the opportunity to test their skills to give people and organisations better tools with which to respond to disasters (Times of India, 6 December 2010).
- One such collaboration which was born at the RHoK event is a freely downloadable smartphone application which provides a solution to circumvent telecom jams during major disasters. The application allows users to send an IMOK message to all contacts in their phone book and message inbox.
WHAT THIS MEANS TO BUSINESS
- There is an awareness among the country’s software engineers of the power technology has in solving many problems — this often goes beyond their employer-organisation’s corporate social responsibility.
- Techies want to get out of their coding world once in a while to connect with the real world and its problems. They want to use their skills to offer innovative solutions.
RESOURCES
