3rd RHoK from the South

First we RHoKed it, then we RHoKed it again and now I’m happy to announce I will running the 3rd global RHoK in Southampton as well. Again with help from Alejandro Saucedo and HackaSoton.

During the weekend of 1-2 June 2013, The University of Southampton will be one of the satellite cities as part of the global Random Hacks of Kindness Event!

Click here for the detailed programme

Twitter hashtag: #rhoksoton

---

* Updates:

• We are proud and very grateful to announce that Google is kind enough to help with sponsoring food and prizes. They Join Enterprise at the UoS, Microsoft Gadgeteer, and ATASS.
• We will have a couple of short talks during the event:
  • Mark Lunney from London Google Developer Group
  • Jack Townsend from CleanwebUK
  • Justine MacKinnon, founder of CrisismappersUK
  • Benjie Gillam, founder of SoMakeIt

---

ICT4D and me

A couple of months ago I was asked by somebody at the Global South Forum to give a talk about some technology related topic. My initial idea was to talk about Taarifa but after some thought I decided to open it up more and talk about the wider ICT4D field. In particular related to my own experiences and assumptions.

I have been wrestling with the whole concept of ICT4D for some time and thought it would be a good opportunity to engage with “the experts”.

My slides are below. Though they contain very little text the narrative should be clear from the pictures. As background reading I strongly suggest Can Technology end Poverty from Kentaro Toyama and The Subtle Condescension of “ICT4D” by  Erik Hersman.

License to RHoK, Dec 1-2, Southampton, UK

After the great success and feedback of the previous global RHoK event in Southampton I decided to organize the next one as well. This time around kindly helped out by Alejandro Saucedo from HackaSoton.

During the weekend of 1-2 December 2012, The University of Southampton will be one of the satellite cities as part of the global Random Hacks of Kindness Event!

Like in June it looks like we will be the only UK event so let that be an extra motivation!

Click here for the detailed programme

Twitter hashtag: #rhoksoton

---

* Updates:

• Checkout the globally featured problems
• The Southampton RHoK on the Ubuntu Podcast
• We are proud and very grateful to announce that Google is kind enough to help with sponsoring food and prizes. They Join Enterprise at the UoS, Microsoft Gadgeteer, Import.io, ATASS, Tangent Web Design, and Dominos in supporting this great event.
• We will have a couple of short talks during the event:
  • Mark Lunney from London Google Developer Group
  • Jack Townsend from CleanwebUK
  • Justine MacKinnon, founder of CrisismappersUK
  • Dirk Gorissen about RLabs
  • Benjie Gillam, founder of Southackton
  • A representative from Import.io

---

Random Hacks of Kindness in Southampton!

The gist: RHoK is great, come present your problem, or come learn something new or come sponsor a prize. But above all, come have fun! (June 2-3).

Twitter hashtag: #RHoKSoton

In one of my previous posts I talked about bringing engineers and computer scientists  together who were interested in helping to solve problems related to humanity and international development.

Well, we haven’t even had our first meeting yet (its this Thursday, 3pm @ UoS, Highfield campus, staffclub, if you want to come along) but Im already very happy and proud to say that we will be having our first event in 3 weeks time: During the weekend of 2-3 June 2012, Southampton University will be one of the satellite cities as part of the global Random Hacks of Kindness Event!

Engineering and Hacking for Humanity at UoS

In my day job Im lucky and happy to be working on cool UAV technology for civilian applications, in particular our research focus is on search and rescue.  While Im still not totally clear about what I want to do beyond my current contract I have always had an interest in helping to tackle humanitarian problems through engineering and technology (e.g., my recent RHOK event attendances).  I was born in Burundi and grew up in various countries around East Africa.  Experiences that have definitely left their mark and part of the reason I am writing this post.