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| A Facebook Hackathon |
What do you think of when you see the word 'hacker'? If you're like most people, you think of an individual or group rapidly typing obscure code in a dark room stealing information from a system that doesn't belong to them.
he word 'hacker' originates from the computing community where it is a positive term describing a person who has enough technical prowess to achieve something cool and often beneficial to society. In fact, the Internet as we know it would not be around if it weren't for hackers. As prominent hacker Eric Raymond stated, "the world is full of fascinating problems waiting to be solved." In the following post, I'll highlight hackers who are doing good and try to shed negatives thoughts associated with hacking.Random Hacks of Kindness is a community of techies (someone who studies or is highly interested or proficient in a technical field) from around the world "using technology to make the world a better place by building a community of innovation." Developers there meet-up for hackathons and create some amazing products such as: HeightCatcher, an application for an Android-based tablet or phone that can accurately calculate the height or length of a person in areas of malnutrition; IAmNotOk, an Android app that allows a user to send out an emergency broadcast message across multiple mediums to indicate they are not OK and need help. Both of these hacks were accomplished over a 48-hour period and released to the world as open-source code, a type of code that allows people to use and tinker with them. Anyone could do what we please with the code without retribution.
I found out about another promising recent initiative called Code for America. This program hails itself as a new kind of public service that aims to use technology to help make government more transparent, connected, and efficient. It is a competitive fellowship program that recently launched four projects in Boston, Seattle, Philadelphia, and Washington, DC. Although the fellows have just started, their projects have potential to make a huge impact on their respective communities; as well as others that want to use them because they're open-source projects. One project is implementing an integrated system to simplify the small business permitting process, potentially reducing business owner costs and increasing fee revenues for cities - a win-win for government and private business. There are many more projects that are, somewhat ironically, using technology solutions to increase civic participation and citizen interaction.
What I've highlighted is only a small portion of what the technology community is doing for good. There are undoubtedly more initiatives and individuals who are doing something to help their communities. Whether it's using Google Maps to help disaster victims or creating a simple iPhone app to help create a safer community, people around the world are hacking for good.
Photo courtesy of www.newmarketsadvisors.com
