OpenHack 

OpenHack conducts Open Source hackathons and is organized by Engineers Without Borders Sweden 

BACKGROUND

There are several challenges that we face to build a sustainable and secure future for tomorrow. These challenges stretches from poverty, unemployment, epidemics, environmental changes and cultural- or political problems. Multiple organizations and social actors exist who work hard to solve these challenges and to help build a better world, all in there own creative and honorable way. Still the growing complex and multidimensional aspects of these challenges calls for new tools and methods to share information, gather knowledge and to leverage data that can increase efficiency of our work.

The rise of new technology, especially within IT, opens up for new possibilities and ways to meet these challenges, regardless of field or nature of the problem. Just as technology and IT opens up for great possibilities in our daily life, it can be used to help solve many of the challenges we face in the strive for a better tomorrow. At the same time the same technology has made it possible for people to collaborate and share their work more effectively, something that is perhaps most visible through the concept of Open Source communities.

Still the possibilities for coders and tech-volunteers to find available projects are still limited. Aid organizations and social actors clearly express interest to leverage technical solutions to create new solutions, but are often unable to attract the right talent or have a hard time define the project objective.

OUR MISSION

The purpose behind OpenHack is to show people interested in programming how they can help to make a difference on both a local and global level with Open Source development as a main toolkit, as well as to show aid organizations, governmental agencies and social actors how tech-volunteers can be a vital part of their work. We aim to create a platform for collaboration, where organizations and tech-volunteers can meet and exchange both ideas and knowledge.

SCOPE

The areas under focus include disaster management, information sharing, education and social development, all which aligns with the purpose of EWB. Case challenges are provided by external partners and Anyone can submit a proposal for a challenge, regardless of if you represent an NGO/aid organisation or national agency, work for a social actor, or want to contribute as a private actor. The challenges for each hackathon is selected based on subject relevans, social impact, technical depth and the credibility of the case contributor. The OpenHack team can offer assistance to help identify and produce the right challenge, based on a case or problem background.  

HACKATHON OVERVIEW

The intention of the hackathon is to be free for participants why it will seek financial backing from corporate sponsors and rely on the help of volunteers and partner organizations. To the extent possible, sleeping as well as food arrangements will be offered. The 48 hours long hackathon normally take place over a weekend, Friday afternoon to Sunday afternoon.

During the hackathon participants will work in teams to solve humanitarian and social challenges provided by our case contributors. Through out the hackathon, all teams will be offered to present their work-in-progress in front of Open Source project representatives, field experts and technical coaches to get feedback and to fuel new ideas.

On Sunday afternoon, the hackathon will end with a prize ceremony where teams may present their final work for a jury consisting of representatives from Open Source projects, field experts, corporate sponsors and organizers. Categories will consider factors such as innovativeness, complexity, potential and quality of the contributions and ideas developed. Prizes will partly be extrinsic with offers for further development plans through incubators, tools to keep the project running, symbolic rewards in form of goods and offerings, as well as public credit and recognition in the spirit of Open Source.

WHAT WE'VE ACHIEVED

Since OpenHack was first founded in 2015 we have organized four humanitarian hackathons, each with over 100 registered participants from all over Sweden. We have received and helped present more than 25 humanitarian and social challenges, with at least one concept solution presented for each challenge. 

We have received great respons from both participants, partners and case contributors - that our mission to create a platform for technical solutions to humanitarian challenges is not only valuable but also needed. We also won the title as "Digital inspirer of the year, 2016" by IDG Sweden. 

Last but not least we have had a lot of fun, seen a ton of incredible ideas and met a bunch of amazing and inspiring people.

We now aim to expand our concept and to take OpenHack to new locations. Follow our expansion or become part of our journey!

Want to get in touch? 

Please send us an email and we will get back to you ASAP!

Press
press@openhack.io

Partnerships
partners@openhack.io

Challenges & Case contributions
challenge@openhack.io

General Inquiries
hello@openhack.io

Visit our website
https://www.openhack.io/