We at the Humanitarian Toolbox are thrilled to participate in the Grace Hopper Conference Open Source Hackathon Day.  We’ll have a team adding mobile support to the crisis checkin app. I’m really excited about this for several reasons. I can’t be at the event, but David Washington will be on site and acting as the project lead.  He’s done a fantastic job already by organizing the volunteers and making sure that everyone that attends will be able to contribute as soon as they arrive.

Based on early registrations, we’ll have up to 20 people or more participating.  We’re hoping to get a great kick start on the three main mobile platforms we want to support (iPhone, Android, Windows Phone).  This is great because it adds a lot of diversity to our application. In addition to the web, we’ll have native mobile support for our users.  I also like the symbolism of adding platform diversity for the crisis checkin app at the Grace Hopper Conference. The Grace Hopper conference celebrates women in computing, and we’ve had a low percentage of women joining our Humanitarian Toolbox hackathons so far. We want to have more participation, and the Grace Hopper conference is a great way to start.

I’m also thrilled that there’s at least 20 people signed up. That’s a great crowd, and a great group to add features to the crisis checkin app. I’d love to see everyone that helps this weekend continue to stay involved.

Have fun this weekend, and know that we appreciate everyone’s involvement.

-Bill Wagner