Melbourne

RHoK #3

Enter Random Hacks of Kindness Melbourne and join other experts in design and development and volunteers with a broad set of skills in software development and design. The goal is to produce practical open source solutions to development problems related to disaster risk, major crisis (like bushfires, floods and earthquakes), and the challenges of climate change.

Hear a radio interview with Melbourne RHoK Lead Jane Treadwell about RHoK #3 Melbourne here

We are delighted to announce that.....Circus Oz, in the lead up to their show Under The Big Top - commencing June 22 in Melbourne, will be showcasing some of their talent at RHoK Melbourne. A comedy and juggling performance by Circus Oz's Jez and Luke will be on show for hackers during Saturday night's dinner break. Tickets for the Circus Oz Melbourne show are available online here.

Photos by Rob Blackburn

Here's an outline of how RHOK Melbourne will run. We'll clear as much time for actual development, and keep the speechifying and admin to a bare minimum.

Saturday June 4

  • 9.00 – 9.30 Get set up, and ready for 2 great days
  • 9.30 – 9.45 Welcome and administrivia
  • 9.45 - 10.30 Choosing problem areas to work on, and teams to work with
  • 11.00 - 19.00 start your hacking

We'll have light snacks, fruit, drinks and the like on hand to keep your blood sugar levels up. There are many great local cafes, restaurants and stores to grab a more substantial lunch

19.00 – 20.00 Dinner (on us), and a special pick me up from Circus Oz
20.00 – 02.00 more time to design and develop

You can work as late as 2.00am, or head home a little earlier to catch up on some sleep

Sunday June 5th

  • 8.00 – 13.00 Coding continues
  • 13.00 Time to down tools
  • 13.30 – 14.30 All projects get 3 minutes to present their work to all (and the judges)
  • 14.30 – 15.00 Judges deliberate
  • 15.00 – 15.30 Awards and prizes
  • 15.30 onwards - come share a drink nearby at the Hotel Hotham to unwind


Supporting Local Partners

Registration Deadline: 
Thursday, June 2, 2011
Reception Date: 
Friday, June 3, 2011
Reception Location: 
Victorian Investment Centre Level 46, 55 Collins Street
Reception details: 
Formal Launch event where invited sponsors, subject matter experts and other industry representatives and RHoK Registrants will come together to launch RHoK Melbourne the first of the global RHoK#3. Invitations will follow within 24 hours after registering for the weekend RHoK event.
Hackathon Location: 
Swinburne University, Advanced Technologies Centre
Hackathon Details: 
Address: 427-451 Burwood Road, Hawthorn, 3122 http://www.swinburne.edu.au/orientation/getting-started/campus/#hawthorn Times: Saturday 8.45am for 9.30am start, concludes by midnight with option to extend til 2am . Sunday 8am start and 4.30pm finish.
Event Leads: 
sally mills
janetreadwell
Monique Cooper
Simone Esler
John Allsopp
Problems We Are Working On: 
Quake Felt Report
Confirm Flood Warning for Safe Action
Bushfire Connect
Community-driven crisis alerts for bushfires ( BushfireConnect.org)
Disaster Safe
Disaster Information Provision for Patients with Chronic Disease
Related Sponsors: 

UI/UX design support provided by Azavea

Event Updates

May 15

RHoK 2012

Published by Simone Esler

 

This year, Melbourne is once again taking part in Random Hacks of Kindness (RHoK).  On the weekend of June 2 and 3, Melbourne will be a main city stage host of RHoK. This two day global event aims to develop technology solutions to address the impact of natural disasters, emergency response and climate change (among other global issues!)

The theme for RHoK Melbourne this year is "Community Resilience."  We will bring software engineers together with “subject matter experts” such as disaster management specialists, medical professionals and emergency services to collaborate on projects designed to identify critical local and global challenges, and develop software and solutions to respond to them.

If you'd like to get involved, sign up here:  http://www.rhok.org/event/melbourne-australia

If you have an idea for a problem that RHoK hackers could work on, why not post it here:  http://www.rhok.org/problems/add, or contact me (Simone) if you have any questions.

Stay tuned to this space for more info....

Read More
Jun 4

RHoK Melbourne Solutions

Published by John Allsopp

The 50 or so designers and developers here in melbourne are working on several great projects including

QuakeFelt Crowd sourced earthquake intensity maps provide disaster managers and the public with real-time information on the intensity of earthquakes while also giving earthquake researchers valuable data to help estimate the shaking from future earthquakes. The goal was to create a smartphone app/website that will allow users to report earthquake shaking intensity and building damage information via their smartphone. MyPlan

An app to create a customised disaster preparedness plan

VicAlert

A unified platform for aggregating emergency services public alerts (mongodb and node.js based, uses CAP for data interchange)

VicSafe

Example web based front end app for consuming and displaying VicAlert data

Bushfire Connect

We also have several projects overhauling aspects of Bushfire Connect

Read More
Jun 4

RHoK Melbourne Timelapse

Published by John Allsopp

See several hours of RHoK Melbourne in a couple of minutes courtesy of James Glang
Read More
Jun 4

Timelapse video from RHoK melbourne

Published by John Allsopp

Get a flavour of RHoK Melbourne from James Glang's timelapse video from yesterday morning.
Read More
Jun 3

RHoK Melbourne kicks off

Published by John Allsopp

A high energy group of dignitaries and indignitaries; hackers kicked off RHoK Melbourne (and given time zones, the whole of RHoK#3) overlooking Melbourne from the 46th Floor of the Sofitel building.

You can see photos at our Flickr account

Now teams are hard at work on 7 problem areas focusing on Fires, Floods, Earthquakes and general disaster preparedness at Swinburne.

Read More
Jun 3

RHOK #3 has launched!

Published by Simone Esler

RHoK #3 has begun! Hackers, subject matter experts and assorted dignitries have come together to ring in the global event in Melbourne tonight. It's going to be a weekend or hacking for humanity in 30 cities around the world.
Read More
May 31

What problem will you help to solve at RHoK Melbourne?

Published by Simone Esler

Experts and ordinary folk from Melbourne and around Australia have been uploading problems to hack on during RHoK Melbourne. Our featured problems for RHoK Melbourne cover four broad natural disaster management areas. 1. General Disaster Relief - Disaster Safe: http://www.rhok.org/node/2484 - Disaster Information Provision for Patients with Chronic Disease: http://www.rhok.org/problems/disaster-information-provision-patients-chr... 2. Bushfires - Community Driven Crisis Alerts for Bushfires: http://www.rhok.org/problems/community-driven-crisis-alerts-bushfires - Bushfire Connect: http://www.rhok.org/problems/bushfire-connect 3. Flooding - Confirm Flood Warning for Safe Action: http://www.rhok.org/problems/confirm-flood-warning-safe-action-0 4. Earthquakes - Quake Felt Report: http://www.rhok.org/problems/quake-felt-report So which problem are you going to spend your time on during RHoK Melbourne? Come as an individual or as a team and get ready to hack for humanity.
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May 29

Countdown to RHoK Melbourne

Published by Random Hacks of...

You've got the skills, and they pay the bills. But, wouldn't it be great to put those skills to work on the side to solve some of the really big problems?

Enter Random Hacks of Kindness Melbourne and join other experts in design and development and volunteers with a broad set of skills in software development and design. The goal is to produce practical open source solutions to development problems. RHoK events give the community an opportunity to sprint on projects, but the community continues to collaborate around the year.

The first RHoK event with major Australian participation comes to Melbourne, June 4 and 5, and has a focus on responding to disaster risk, major crisis (like bushfires, floods and earthquakes), and the challenges of climate change.

If the thought of working on challenging, worthwhile projects, with amazing people in a fantastic environment sounds like something you'd like to do, then sign up now and make plans to be in Melbourne on the weekend on June 4 and 5.

If you've been to a hack event before, you'll know what it's all about, and if it's your first time, don't worry, we'll take great care of you - all you need to do is show up with your skills, and enthusiasm, ready to make the world a little better place.

As this is the first RHoK event in Australia, we've got a couple of goals. Let's show the world what our developer community can do, by:

  • Having the biggest turnout of the 20 locations around the world
  • Let's have the highest percentage of women involved (at best, events have 20% women participating, we can really hit that one for 6)
  • Let's produce the the best outcomes on the day

    • Don't be shy, or regret not participating in a truly inspiring event, come hack for good at RHoK

    Read More
    May 19

    New Featured Problems Uploaded for RHoK Melbourne

    Published by Simone Esler

    The following will be featured problems during RHoK Melbourne:


     

    More RHoK Melbourne Featured Problems will be uploaded over the coming weeks, so don't forget to check back.

    Read More
    May 18

    RHoK is coming to Melbourne!

    Published by Simone Esler

    That’s right.  For the first time ever, a Random Hacks of Kindness event will be taking place in Melbourne.  RHoK is a unique collaboration between Google, Microsoft, Yahoo!, NASA and the World Bank and is dedicated to using technology to make the world a better place.  RHoK brings together the ever growing global hacker community with experts in climate change and disaster risk management.  Together, they identify critical global and local challenges and develop software to respond to them.   The next Global RHoK event will be drawing on the talents and initiative of the best and brightest hackers from around the world.  Melbourne will be launching the event as it sweeps across the globe on the 4th and 5th of June.  Unfortunately, Australia has had its fair share of natural disasters over the past few years.  So sign up, if you’d like to volunteer your time to respond to real world problems with solutions that can have an immediate impact on the ground – both in Australia and around the world.

    Read More