15 Israeli social challenges and 15 development teams from a variety of tech companies and IDF units joined together for a unique hackathon as part of the 2.0 Code for Israel challenge cycle.
The event held today (Wednesday) was the first of the three hackathons, where hundreds of volunteers from the high-tech industry solve challenges of social entities using technological means, and do not stop until they find a solution.
This is a movement of hundreds of volunteers from the Israeli high-tech and startup sector, which was founded by Yasmin Lukach and every month the movement grows by ten percent.
It currently has about 450 volunteers, who produce 20 technological social projects and do so together with non-profit organizations.
Lukach emphasized that although this is her initiative, with many high-tech partners, a lot of credit goes to the volunteers.
Challenges of social bodies through technological means, photo: Koko
"We established Code for Israel to bring the knowledge and abilities of Israeli high-tech people together with social organizations to face the most profound challenges, here at home.
It's amazing to see how within a year 20 projects have already been put on the track with the help of hundreds of volunteers who harness the advanced technologies to the social field," said Lukach and added: "Today's hackathon is different from other hackathons you know, the volunteer teams arrive here after a thorough characterization of the social challenge, at the end of the hackathon they will continue To develop voluntarily and every week - until their technological/social solution reaches the field.'
The Code for Israel movement appeals to volunteers and explains to them that there is a wide variety of projects that they can choose what is important to them, whether it is health, food security, etc. and they usually volunteer because this is where they express themselves and their specific abilities and they volunteer with people like them - technologists and hitechists.
Once every six months or a year, a call is issued and we start running together on the projects, ten projects each time, and the hackathon comes after the teams, consisting of between 10 and 23 volunteers, have characterized the solution.
Another characteristic is that the project does not end at the hackathon stage, but continues to be developed even after it, when all the teams work in parallel until they actually reach a solution in the field and everything is voluntary.
Haathkon participants, photo: Koko
So far, among other things, they have succeeded in developing a system for emotional-social monitoring of students, when the challenge was that the schools measure grades - but they were less interested in the emotional-social situation and Code for Israel developed a game accompanied by questionnaires that are now in schools in Nahariya and Sderot.
Another development that is already working in the field is a system for measuring non-profits, the challenge was that donors, large and small, have no tool for making decisions about where to donate and the development that is already working in the field is a tool that gathers all the information.
Among the technological solutions that will be developed during the current hackathon and in the months that follow - food security for Leket Israel - image processing from satellites and locating agricultural produce to donate to those in need, Holocaust remembrance for the Ha'M'ara' association - creating an experiential technological platform that will help in commemorating the Holocaust.
On the health issue, for the Institute of Pathology at the Ichilov Hospital, an algorithm will be developed that will identify non-standard photographs of cancer biopsies, on the environmental issue, monitoring of polluting construction projects, another project is for the Israel Accessibility Association, VR systems that will simulate the experiences of people with disabilities and thus increase awareness of the issue.
Providing technological solutions to social challenges, photo: Coco
About 150 developers, product people, high-tech companies came to the Code for Israel hackathon, including CEOs of companies as well as people who made exits, and the main event was attended by all the high-tech industry executives and venture capital investors, such as Michael Eisenberg, who is also the chairman of the New Guardian, who said that The technological world in Israel runs at the pace of IOS and Android and in front of them is a government and a country that runs at the pace of Pony Express at best and Windows 95 at worst.
"The friction between these worlds cannot be reconciled. We are all disappointed with both the pace of the government and the service of the government because you go into the iPhone everything works, you go into the government everything doesn't work, because all the processes are not entrepreneurs' but bureaucracy's," said Eisenberg and added: "The same Skills and talents that are in this room that come from the high-tech world, contributing their skills can make a tremendous change. What has arisen here is a different solution to the problems that the country is facing and this is a civic responsibility... How do we empower the other citizens, how do we solve governance problems here,
Policing and enforcement.
A large civil movement that solves problems.
I think that a map comes out in a line, you bring a line here - civil society and civil entrepreneurs are finally meeting and building solutions together.
These solutions are our future."
were we wrong
We will fix it!
If you found an error in the article, we would appreciate it if you shared it with us