
Hackers, mark your calendars. NASA, Google, HP, Microsoft, The World Bank and Yahoo! are inviting techies to participate in the worldwide event Random Hacks of Kindness to help solve global problems and build a community of innovation.
Held June4-5, RHoK is a hackathon that brings together the best hackers to use their skills and volunteer their time to create new approaches to disaster-relief challenges.
“NASA encourages RHoK developers to use open data sets to create cutting edge applications that can help solve global challenges,” said NASA’s Chief Information Officer Linda Cureton. “We are excited to support RHoK and explore new ways NASA data can help the world.”
During past events, hackers worked on apps that are already making an impact. “I’m OK,” a website and an app that lets people inform their families about their status during an emergency, was used during the earthquakes in Haiti and Chile in 2010. The World Bank is piloting software for visualizing landslide risk in the Caribbean, and other apps have received support and interest from government and nongovernment organizations globally.
This year, RHoK events are planned in Hartford, Conn., Philadelphia, Atlanta, Seattle and Silicon Valley. International venues include Canada, Denmark, Switzerland, India and Kenya.