Humanitarian Toolbox wants to introduce the new project lead to the team, James Chambers. James is a consultant and Microsoft MVP who has joined on to lead the allReady project.  We have a quick introduction and interview with James here, to welcome him to the team.

What drew you to working with Humanitarian Toolbox?

JC: As software developers, it’s difficult to know how your skillset can be used to donate to worthy causes. Much of volunteer work is soft skills, such as organizing volunteers and managing resources for food banks or housing. Software developing is more difficult to donate. Humanitarian Toolbox enables developers to contribute their skillset to help charities around the world. Additionally, this can have a much broader impact by engaging with other developers on projects that can be used by multiple charitable decisions. It’s impactful way to use our abilities.

What work will you be doing with Humanitarian Toolbox?

JC: I will be working on assisting organizers for codathons and conferences, and helping them enable developers to find success in open source. Some of our most consistent and greatest contributors have come from those codathons, which make them an essential part of Humanitarian Toolbox. Some work has been varied, from hosting community stand-up, answering questions from developers, and connecting people who can answer questions.

Currently, my focus is working on allReady. AllReady is in transition as a real-world project that is being used by disaster preparedness campaigns in the United States. We have made huge milestones with allReady, and have had over 1000 pull requests from over 100 contributors. While we transition to maturity with allReady, we will make it a goal to make a meaningful difference in disaster preparedness.

What do you see in the future for Humanitarian Toolbox?

JC: In the future, I see developers who feel welcome to contribute at the skill level that they have, to serve organizations that they care about. I hope to help build a community with hundreds of developers with varied backgrounds, as an army of volunteers who can change the world through software.

Thank you James, we look forward to your work with Humanitarian Toolbox!