RHoK Melbourne

Here’s an outline of how RHOK Melbourne will run. We’ll clear as much time for actual development, and keep the speechifying and admin to a bare minimum. Register to attend RHoK Melbourne below.

Saturday December 1

• 9.00 – 9.30 Get set up, and ready for 2 great days
• 9.30 – 9.45 Welcome and administrivia
• 9.45 - 10.30 Choosing problem areas to work on, and teams to work with
• 11.00 - 19.00 start your hacking

Light snacks, fruit, drinks and the like are very kindly being provided by Infosys throughout the weekend to keep your blood sugar levels up. There are are also many great local cafes, restaurants and stores to grab a more substantial lunch

19.00 – 20.30 Dinner and drinks (courtesy of Infosys) 


20.00 – 02.00 more time to design and develop

You can work as late as 2.00am, or head home a little earlier to catch up on some sleep

Sunday December 2

• 9.00 – 12.00 Coding continues
• 12.00 Time to down tools
• 12.00 – 1.00 All projects get 3 minutes to present their work to all (and the judges)
• 1.00 – 1.30 Judges deliberate
• 1.30 – 2.00 Awards and prizes - Main prize is $500, provided by Readify

RHok Melbourne needs Hackers!

Hackers are:

• App Developers
• Programmers
• Designers
• UX Specialists
• Project Managers
• Students
• ICT professionals
• Business Analysts

To register, go to

http://www.eventbrite.com/directory?q=rhok+melbourne&loc=Hawthorn%2C+Australia

Read about RHoKMelb 

The Once and Future Hack

http://www.itwire.com/features/browse/profiler/57372-the-once-and-future-hack

Here we are with less than two weeks until the next RHoK.

We are calling all hackers to Swinburne University’s Advanced Technology 1 and 2 December.

• Register your attendance at http://www.eventbrite.com/event/4608594430
• Tweet at @rhokmelb or #rhokmelb
• Like us on Facebook facebook.com/RHokMelbourne

See you there!

5 problem areas were specifically proposed for RHoK Melbourne in June 2012, and each of these areas was addressed by teams at the event, in the broad areas of Community Resilience and Disaster and Emergency Response.

The specific problem areas were:

• Post-Disaster Issue Resolution Proposed by Daryl Wilding-McBride http://www.rhok.org/problems/post-disaster-issue-resolution
• Disaster Information Provision for Patients with Chronic Disease Originally proposed by Danielle Esler Owned by Tracey Aylen http://www.rhok.org/problems/disaster-information-provision-patients-chronic-disease
• Linking remote spatial data infrastructures Proposed by Domenic Brasacchio 
  http://www.rhok.org/problems/linking-remote-spatial-data-infrastructures
• Assistance for Local Business to Accelerate Economic Recovery Proposed by Jason Cormier 
  http://www.rhok.org/problems/assistance-local-business-accelerate-economic-recovery
• Connecting up directory smart phone app Proposed by Kelly Hutchinson http://www.rhok.org/problems/connecting-directory-smart-phone-app

Projects

5 teams worked on 5 different solutions, each focussing on one of these problem areas. The teams for the most part were formed on the day.

Project: Slingshot
Our overall winner, project slingshot began life as a straightforward answer to ConnectUp’s brief for a mobile app to help people better access not for profit organizations in Connect Up’s directory. Buy in the true nature of hack days, the team, working with Kelly Hutchinson from Connect Up thought about what not for profits really need.
Since many not for profits use social media extensively, but the cost and effort of continually updating a web site are considerable for many not for profits their solution was Project Slingshot, a service which by aggregating Facebook, Twitter and other social media output associated with a not for profit, effectively creates a constantly up to date web site for that organization. In creatively meeting a genuine need for not for profits, the judges felt Slingshot combined real world practicality with genuine innovation, and is something which could have very wide applicability.

Project: Raksha
Raksha is Hindi for “protection”, which provided the theme for this project to help patients with chronic illnesses gain access to vital medicines and medical support in the aftermath of a disaster. The team built a server side engine, coupled with a web and android app to allow patients to locate vital medicines, and also report where medical help can be found, taking some of the burden off what would be overstretched emergency departments, pharmacies and other places of medical care and sources of medicines at times of crisis.

Project: Spatial Data MarketPlace
Spatial data and mapping services are key aspects to most solutions involving disaster and emergency preparedness and response. The Spatial Data MarketPlace is a relatively new initiative to provide a single point of reference for government and commercial spatial data in Australia and New Zealand.

Project: Resilience
Named for one of the key themes of RHoK4, Project Resilience focussed on the immediate aftermath of a natural disaster. When storms, fires, and other emergencies strike, agencies like the SES and CFA, among many others, need to respond to all kinds of situations like downed trees and powerlines, damage to houses, roads and other infrastructure. Reporting such incidents is often haphazard, and inaccurate, making it hard for services to prioritorize responses, and even to locate an incident precisely.
Project Resilience, led by Daryl Wilding- McBride, focussed on providing a mobile phone based way for members of the public to report incidents, including the ability to post photos, and provide highly accurate location information based on a smartphones GPS support. Daryl’s experience with the Country Fire Authority, and as a software engineer (he brought a team of colleagues and associates with him) informed the project, which was highly regarded by the judges, and they had high hopes this project would continue, which is Daryl’s aim. For his contributions, Daryl was recognized by the judges with a community award for outstanding contributions to RHoK Melbourne

Project: Reconomise
One of RHoK 3 Melbourne’s winners from last year, Mark Dalgleish returned for RHoK 4, and was heavily involved in Project Reconomise. Focussing on an often overlooked community resource after natural disasters, business, the created a way in which businesses could post needs in the aftermath of an emergency (refrigeration for perishable goods, labour, a place to sell existing stock as their premises had been made unsafe), and other businesses or individuals could provide for these needs. As with the other projects developed at RHoK 4 Melbourne, Reconomise was highly regarded by the judges, for the quality of idea and execution. Reconomise won the SAPI prize for the best use of the Sensis API.

Save the Date!

RHok Melbourne is running again in the first weekend in December 2012.

The place is to be confirmed. In the meantime get ateam together and head over to our Facebook Page to register your interest