Geeks Without Bounds hosted several Random Hacks of Kindness events around the country in conjunction with the National Day of Civic Hacking. New Orleans was the main event, held at Launch Pad. The organization is an accelerator for humanitarian projects that chose to partner with Codemkrs to bring together developers and designers to create apps to make a positive impact on the community.
Prior to the event, Codemkrs Founder Travis Laurendine said, “We are geeks who love New Orleans, and our goal is to apply our coding skills to the critical challenges facing our city.”
As part of the “hack for change” event, the marathon of hacking produced two main projects that were prototyped and being developed further.
Laurendine said, “The weekend led to two new apps that could help address the issue of violence in our neighborhoods. Stop the Beef encourages kids and community members to identify and help prevent violence using community leaders as conflict mediators. Check In for Good is a game that adds incentives for kids to stay on a positive path.”
Stop the Beef:
Stop the Beef uses publicly-released data to partner volunteer mediators with members of the community who are experiencing or have witnessed “beef” or violence. The project allows users to anonymously submit the beef. It is not partnered with the New Orleans Police Department nor stores users’ personal information. Here is how it works:
- Submit your info anonymously.
- Tell us about the beef.
- We’ll match you with an OG.
- The OG will help settle the beef.
Check In for Good:
Check In for Good is an inventive-based game and check in application geared towards kids. Users earn points for positive activities such as attending school, finishing assignments, exercising or volunteering. The app is being developed by local software development company Susco Solutions and Codemkrs.
“We will continue to develop and test both of these apps with the goal of releasing them to the public in the near future,” said Laurendine.