#peacehackLDN

#peacehack is an initiative of International Alert that brings technologists, designers, developers and peace practitioners together to create and realise ideas and solutions that can be used to stop violent conflict and help build peace. The first #peacehack took place in September 2014 in London as part of International Alert’s Talking Peace Festival. Following on from the success of #peacehack 2014, International Alert is partnering with several organizations to organise simultaneous hacks in six cities around the globe over the weekend of 26^th/27^th September 2015 as part of Alert’s Talking Peace Festival.

We're looking for participants who have strong technology skills (programming and design) and an interest in making a difference in the not-for-profit community – though they may lack the field expertise in peacebuilding. Peacebuilding practitioners and NGOs in each city will then talk about big problems they have in their programming and / or ideas they have for technology that could be helpful in peacebuilding.

Challenges emerging from these consultations will be grouped into emerging themes, which will be presented at the start of the 30-hour hack. Hackers then chose a challenge and work (individually or in teams) to build a prototype technology solution. Prototypes are presented at the end of the hack, with prizes for the best solutions.

The theme selected for the London hack is to develop digital solutions to help prevent violent extremism

Objective

The objective of #peacehack events is to bring the technology and peacebuilding communities closer to each other, and encourage collaboration. Some of the prototype solutions emerging from the hack may be taken forward; others may not be developed. Nonetheless, the hack offers an opportunity for technologists to experience how they might contribute to peacebuilding and for peacebuilders to realise the potential of technology-enabled support to their programs and processes. We believe it can be the seed for future collaborations, the beginning of a movement where practitioners and technologists work together for peace.

Event schedule

The hackathon takes place over two days, Saturday 26 and Sunday 27 September 2015.

Saturday 26 September 2015

• 09.00-10.00: Registration and breakfast
• 10.00-11.10: Briefings (see below)
• 11.10-12.30: Group networking and coding
• 12.30–1.30: Lunch
• 1.30–2.00: Ninety second shout-out: say what you hope to build; say what resource you need to build it; invite others to join you
• 2.00 onwards: Coding

Sunday 27 September 2015

• 09.00-10.00 Breakfast
• 10.00-3.00: Coding
• 3.00-3.45: Prototype pitches
• 3.45-4.30: Adjudication
• 4.30-5.00: Prize-giving

Amazing food, including selections from our Conflict Café will be provided free for all participants. Plentiful snacks and non-alcoholic drinks will be available too. And cake.

Format

Network with others to form teams. Use the shout-out to recruit team members. The maximum number in a team is six.

Software resources
Devs may build their prototypes via native code, APIs or templates. You may use any data analysis, processing or visualization tool you need to build your app.

Ownership of code/app development
It is our intention to share all code on the International Alert GitHub repo, to enable solutions to be developed outside the hackathon event itself, to maximise the benefit to the NGO sector and to form the basis of a community of tech peacebuilders.

Judging criteria

The prototypes produced by developers will be judged according to the following criteria:

1. Impact: Does the app/project have a measureable impact?
2. User Experience and Presentation: Is the project simple, well-designed, and easy to use by non technical users?
3. Sustainability: How likely is the projct to survive beyond the hackathon? Is this a viable project? Is the idea promising enough to warrant sustained development and attention?

The judging panel will be made up of peacebuilders and technologists.

The venue

Campus London, a Google Space has successfully hosted hackathons for many years. It's one of the more robust hackathon venues in the UK.

Prizes

Prizes will be provided from our sponsors and will include free tickets to the Build Peace conference and hackathon in Zurich in 2016, service credits from GitHub and firebase amongst others as well as spot prizes, t-shirts and other tech goodies.

FAQs