RI Software Developers Invited to Help Solve Humanitarian Issues

Saturday, November 27, 2010 15:43 WIB | Science & Tech | | Viewed 262 time(s)

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Indonesia`s top software engineers are invited to participate in the the Jakarta-leg of Random Hacks of Kindness global event which is to be hosted by the Australia-Indonesia Facility for Disaster Reduction on December 4-5, 2010.

A media release from Australian Embassy in its official website sad on Saturday that the event would bring together software engineers and disaster management experts for a 48-hour "hackathon."

The participants will create software solutions to improve responses to natural disasters, reduce their impact and help save lives.

Random Hacks of Kindness will take place simultaneously in 20 cities around the world.


The Jakarta event is supported by the Australian Government, Indonesia`s National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB) and DailySocial.net.

Dr Matt Hayne, the Co-Director of the Australia-Indonesia Facility for Disaster Reduction, said he was proud to host the third global "hackathon."

"Indonesia is extremely prone to natural hazards, so this is an important event," Hayne said.

"It will bring together some of Indonesia`s brightest software engineers to help us develop innovative solutions to disaster management problems," he added.
The hackathon concept was developed by Google, Microsoft, Yahoo!, NASA and The World Bank.

The first event was held in California in November 2009 and resulted in applications used on the ground during the devastating earthquakes in Haiti and Chile.

The winning application from the second hackathon, from Washington D.C, helped engineers visualize landslide-risks to help guide urban and rural planning and development.