Random Hacks of Kindness

Status:

https://github.com/rhok-pta/drm

Programming languages:

PHP

python

HTML5 + CSS3 (iPhone)

JavaScript

Frameworks:

LAMP

End user environments:

Images and Video:

Read more about Improving public transportation reliability to encourage people reduce their carbon footprint.

Donor Relationship Managment

Submitted by donovantc on December 5, 2011 - 07:24

Summary:

DRM is a web application designed to help charities manage their donors. This includes recording of conversations with donors, sending out donation requests to group and individual donors as well as general administration of donors, groups, and requests.

Why we are working on this problem:

Charities that survive simply on donations from companies and individual donors do not have an efficient way to manage their donors. Some of them have large amounts of spreadsheets for capturing their data which often gets lost and duplicated. They have an issue when it comes to following up on donors becuase they dont know who has already been contact and this can lead to donors being irritated by continous calls from the charity. The relationship with their donors is essential to ensure the sustainability of these charities and they are simply not managed efficiently at this stage.

What we accomplished during the event:

We managed to develop web application solution to help charities manage their donors. This includes recording of conversations with donors, sending out donation requests to group and individual donors as well as general administration of donors, groups, and requests. The solution is implemented without user management at this stage but most of the functionality is implemented.

Progress made since the event:

None

Traction:

The subject matter expert found the system great but still acknowledged that a lot of work is required to make the system stable and more alligned with their business processes.

Next steps:

We will work together with another team who tackled this problem so that we can enhance the system and make it more stable so that it can be used by the charity.

Code Repository:

Category:

Status:

Programming languages:

JavaScript

Frameworks:

node.js

End user environments:

https://github.com/lxpk/D2020rhok

What RHoK event this project is being submitted for:

Pretoria, South Africa

Images and Video:

Read more about Donor Relationship Managment

D2020

Submitted by aeschylus on December 4, 2011 - 16:30

Website/App store links:

http://www.d2020.com

Summary:

Problems can be hard to solve. Games make problem solving fun.

D2020 is a platform to inspire people to code, build games, and save the world.

D2020 aims to train 2020 new game developers to make 2020 games by 2020, each one confronting one of the many pressing problems humanity faces.

Why we are working on this problem:

We believe all knowledge should be playable.

Our game Code Hero teaches you how to code while you play, but there's more to making all knowledge playable than just the technical skills. We need to inspire the minds and build the teams that will make all the world's problems solvable.

What we accomplished during the event:

We built the first revision of the D2020 platform, along with an example game that teaches you how to make a problem-solving game.

Code Repository:

Category:

Methodology

Status:

Programming languages:

Frameworks:

End user environments:

RHoK Global December 2011

What RHoK event this project is being submitted for:

Images and Video:

Integrating Microtasking into Existing Crowdsource workflows

Submitted by omdesign on December 4, 2011 - 14:58

Summary:

Have PyBossa running and have begun spec on the data interchange process.

Problem:

http://www.rhok.org/problems/integrating-microtasking-existing-crowdsour...

Why we are working on this problem:

There is a great deal of lost productivity and confusion from running multiple unlinked applications to coordinate volunteer activities.

Microtasking is extremely effective for successful crowdsource projects.

A generic framework to break out broad ranging tasks into specific manageable ones requires far less training of new volunteers, faster process of getting 'up to speed' by experienced volunteers and ability to provide assistance to other tasks outside of the volunteers traditional field of expertise.

What we accomplished during the event:

Problem definition

Novel approach decision

PyBossa set up, functioning

Next steps:

build parser/importer to populate task stack

build exporter to update task source environment

Code Repository:

https://github.com/rgrp/pybossa-geodemo

Category:

Status:

Programming languages:

python

JavaScript

HTML

End user environments:

https://github.com/joetric/rhok-voter-id

What RHoK event this project is being submitted for:

Boston

Images and Video:

Read more about Integrating Microtasking into Existing Crowdsource workflows

Cost of Freedom App

Submitted by joetric on December 4, 2011 - 14:18

Code Repository:

Category:

Status:

Programming languages:

Frameworks:

End user environments:

http://susestudio.com/a/RQrRBY/data-journalism-developer-studio-20

Server requirements:

PHP, Postgres, PostGIS, proj, web server

What RHoK event this project is being submitted for:

Philadelphia, PA, U.S.A.

Images and Video:

Seeking people with skills in:

research

data entry

Mobile Development

Data Journalism Developer Studio 2.0

Submitted by znmeb on December 4, 2011 - 13:36

Website/App store links:

http://borasky-research.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/About-The-Data-Journalism...

Summary:

The Data Journalism Developer Studio is a 100% open source Linux™-based appliance designed for data journalism developers. It can be run as a desktop or a server and is designed for development of data journalism desktop and server applications.

The Data Journalism Developer Studio is modular. The core appliance consists of the operating system, desktop, browser, and data acquisition / cleaning / analysis / visualization tools. The core appliance is available as a virtual machine in VMware / VirtualBox / KVM format, as an Open Virtualization Format (OVF) appliance and as a bootable LiveCD that can be installed on a desktop or laptop PC.

Additional packages can be installed as required using installation scripts provided. Each additional functional package can be independently installed to match the needs of the users.

Installed Components (Core Appliance)

openSUSE™ 12.1 32-bit Operating System
GNOME 3.2 Desktop
Mozilla Firefox Browser
gcc-c++ and gcc-fortran
openJDK Java runtime, development environment and browser plugin
R patched
RStudio™ integrated R development environment
R.rsp R Server Pages, websockets and Rook Web Server Interface

Why we are working on this problem:

Journalists today operate in a world dominated by two trends:

Real-time many-to-many communications platforms
Large sets of complex data with stories waiting to be told

Major newsrooms can afford staffs of coders, reporters, writers and editors and thousands of dollars worth of hardware and software. But a citizen journalist or journalism student cannot. The Data Journalism Developer Studio collects robust open source solutions to the problems of real-time data collection, data analysis and visualization, digital media creation and, to a lesser extent, server construction.

For more information, see Data Journalism Developer Studio Overview http://borasky-research.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/About-The-Data-Journalism-Developer-Studio.pdf

What we accomplished during the event:

Deployed a beta version of the appliance.

Traction:

This is still pretty much a one-person show / hobby project. I have about 200 downloads of the previous version, but haven't really tried to build a community yet.

Next steps:

1. Finish the 2.0 release.

2. Write user documentation.

3. Build a community.

Community help:

At this point, the appliance is very much a solution looking for a problem. I've collected the tools and I'm looking for users. Personally, I want to move on to developing some stories using the tools, primarily in the area of economics and finance.

Code Repository:

https://github.com/znmeb/Data-Journalism-Developer-Studio

Category:

Status:

Programming languages:

Frameworks:

End user environments:

Data journalists / reporters / editors / publishers

Linux

Server requirements:

16 GB disk, 1 GB RAM, 32-bit x86 minimum

What RHoK event this project is being submitted for:

Portland, OR, U.S.A.

Images and Video:

Seeking people with skills in:

Read more about Data Journalism Developer Studio 2.0

Coordinate

Submitted by KB3JUV on December 4, 2011 - 12:06

Summary:

Coordinate is a simple mobile app and database that allows emergency response officials to plot hazards in an accurate and structured manner. It allows an EOC and other response agencies to receive validated reports from responders out in the disaster area. Information can be updated out in the disaster area allowing for a better common operating picture of what hazards still need to be resolved.

Project Members:

Nick Costa

Benjamin Hitov

Avni Khatri

Eron Gjoni

Amos Scott

Justin Kates

A couple of examples of how Coordinate will be used:

A major storm has occurred resulting in many trees and power lines being brought to the ground. The Emergency Operations Center has been established to help coordinate the response. Roads need to be cleared and downed power lines need to be removed

Fire Engine 4 has been responding to emergency calls since the incident started. While traveling to calls, the Fire Officer has been plotting hazards on his smartphone with the Coordinate app. The EOC has been monitoring these hazards as he plots them in the Coordinate Web UI and map displayed in the facility.

A Public Works crew has been dispatched by the EOC to handle a tree across a roadway. They clear the tree, and the hazard that was plotted is edited to show it being cleared by Public Works at 3:30pm. The EOC sees this and knows that the road is now opened back up

The Mayor's Office has been receiving calls about downed power lines all across the City. A phone operator is taking these reports and entering them into the Coordinate Web UI. All users on Coordinate are seeing these new incidents being plotted in the system.

A citizen, about to venture out after the storm to purchase food, visits the City's website to view the roads that are still closed. He views a map on the website with information about hazards still out in the community, and determines that he should stay in his home until the roads are cleared.

Project Presentation:

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1hj4Vt_Q9DdIBsw48VEOy0pLx1Lt8bTZv...

Coordinate was named the winner of the December 2011 RHoK Boston event!

Why we are working on this problem:

Road obstruction information (and other hazards) is extremely difficult to coordinate after a disaster. Various response agencies are keeping logs of data without any coordination. As hazards are cleared, not all agencies know it is no longer an issue. Current hazard mapping solutions are very feature rich and not simple enough for response officials to quickly and accurately plot hazards.

What we accomplished during the event:

Lot of work was completed on both the Android and iOS app. Lot of work was completed on database.

Progress made since the event:

Work continues to be done on the entire system. A meetup is planned after the holidays to determine key focus areas to complete the project.

Traction:

There are too many Crisis Mapping projects currently going on in the Open Source community without coordination. Many of the solutions don't allow for the capability to "dim the lights" on unnecessary features.

Next steps:

To test the use of the apps and database in exercises and real events in the near future. Continue to provide an necessary functionality while keeping the project extremely simple.

Code Repository:

https://github.com/bhitov/oemweb

Category:

Status:

Programming languages:

End user environments:

http://www.slideshare.net/USSJoin/rhok-mke-watertech-solution

iOS

Android

What RHoK event this project is being submitted for:

Boston, MA, U.S.A.

Images and Video:

Read more about Coordinate

Dashboard visualizing water data from Watertech of America

Submitted by bobbaddeley on December 4, 2011 - 09:43

Website/App store links:

Summary:

Watertech has access to many sensors spread across many companies that are used to monitor water coming into and going out of various systems. The goal of this solution is to enable a user to visualize the data collected by each of these sensors over time, and break the data down into a hierarchy defined by Company, Facility, Building, and System. We have created a system the models the structure and provides an interface to import sensor data, and a dashboard web application that lets a user select and graph individual sensors from any combination of items in the hierarchy on the same graph. These graphs can be evaluated within the application or exported to images or to CSV files that allow further analysis. Ultimately the goal is to provide a tool that allows users to evaluate their water usage and compare it to their production and to production of other companies in the same industry. This would allow companies to make more environmentally conscious decisions and create metrics about the water cost per unit of product made.

Why we are working on this problem:

We chose this problem because the problem had lots of documentation, which included a sample dataset, sample screenshots, and a list of desired features. We believe that the ability of a company to do this kind of analysis on their own data, and relate it to their bottom line, and create metrics they can use for PR, make it to a companies advantage to do good things in terms of water use and reduction of consumption.

What we accomplished during the event:

We built a data model that encompasses the entire hierarchy and structure of the incoming sensor data and in a format that will allow for the analysis in the ways desired. We created an application using ruby on rails and jquery and the graphic library highcharts that allows users to select from the hierarchy of sensor data and visualize the sensor data in time and compare it with other sensor data in the same graph. The users can export the data. We built an importing script that takes the sample datasets and imports them into the data scructure.

Progress made since the event:

N/A

Traction:

Watertech representatives were present to assist in development of the data model and demonstrate the problems they were trying to solve.

Next steps:

The next step in the process is to resolve some issues with sensor data types. Currently there is the ability to view multiple sensors on the same graph, but because they may be a thermometer compared to a flow meter, the scales can be incomparable. A next step could include better management of these different units and the ability to sum sensors to get a better idea of the total usage of a system, building, facility, or company.

Another next step involves actual analysis of the data to identify bad data or outliers, and the ability to annotate readings with notes that explain the cause of the reading.

Code Repository:

https://github.com/ussjoin/rhok67

Category:

Status:

Programming languages:

Frameworks:

End user environments:

http://map.oxfairtrade.org.uk/

Server requirements:

Ruby on rails, mysql

What RHoK event this project is being submitted for:

Milwaukee, WI, U.S.A.

Images and Video:

Read more about Dashboard visualizing water data from Watertech of America

Fair Trade Finder

Submitted by mattwestcott on December 4, 2011 - 09:34

Website/App store links:

Summary:

A mobile web application to find shops and outlets selling Fairtrade products in your local area, searching by product type and distance. Data is managed at a regional level, to allow local community groups to take ownership of the data, and an open API is provided to allow future client apps to be built on the platform.

Code Repository:

https://github.com/practicalparticipation/fairtradefinder

Category:

Status:

Programming languages:

Frameworks:

End user environments:

https://bitbucket.org/maker/seedswapapp

Mobile

Desktop

What RHoK event this project is being submitted for:

Oxford, United Kingdom

Images and Video:

Read more about Fair Trade Finder

Seed Swap App

Submitted by aghisla on December 4, 2011 - 07:57

Summary:

Seed Swap App is a website for exchanging seeds among farmers and hobbyists.

People can upload a list of seed quantities they want to share with others, specifying species, variety, quantity and geographic location. People can also add a wishlist of seeds, and will be able to find people offering them in the surroundings, with a geographical search.

Code Repository:

Category:

Status: