With coders from the likes of Google, Microsoft, NASA and Yahoo!, the hackers at the first ever Random Hacks of Kindness event are far from the stereotype most would imagine. These elite of the programming world gathered together at this contest to not only create tools for disaster relief, but hopefully inspire others to do the same. A CNet.com article elaborates on the projects:
Developers worked on a dozen or so tools that could help disaster and emergency workers in times of crisis. Several tools took advantage of social media sites, like Twitter, and SMS for information sharing. One project envisioned using laptops, routers, mobile devices, USB keys and Wi-Fi to create a mesh network for times when normal networks are down.
Several projects explored the use of maps, including one group that built a widget that allows a user to click on a point in a map to have the coordinates automatically inserted into a message that can then be posted to multiple social networks at once via the HelloTXT service.
With the first attempt at such a competition producing not only one, but several projects that could greatly facilitate crisis management during future disasters, hopefully others will follow this example.
The BCM Blogging Team
https://www.bernsteincrisismanagement.com/