Hack For Japan Conference Announcement

We are reposting this information, so please spread the word! A great oppy to use data for good. In order to use the Quova location API, please go here to sign up to use it for free: http://developer.quova.com/

A number of tech companies are hosting a series of online events to develop services for victims of recent disasters in Japan.

Register for the event (in English) here: http://goo.gl/8Ohul

After the earthquake in eastern Japan, many applications have been created to collect information from businesses and individuals in order to assist with rescue and relief. Among these tools are Google’s Crisis Response page, sinsai.info, Yahoo! JAPAN’s disaster information page, etc.

Despite a large number of applications having been created, the applications are not very integrated with each other. There is an opportunity here for developers to collaborate better in their efforts in order to increase the effectiveness of the applications that are built in the near-term.

Many business and organizations already offer a variety of services that assist in developing applications that would be useful in a relief effort. This event is being held in order to remove some duplication of efforts, and increase efficiency of development among an international community of developers.

This is not merely a one day event, but instead a common starting point for a series of projects to help in the relief of Japan.

Because of the nature of the situation in northeast of Tokyo, it would be very difficult to host a physical meeting in or around Tokyo. Many companies have evacuated their employees to other cities, or are having employees work from home. Therefore, this event will have a small number of physical locations in other Japanese cities, while also containing a very large online component. If you are in Kyoto, Okayama, or Fukuoka, please see below for specific locations. If you are attending this event in an online capacity, a series of communication mechanisms have been setup, and are described below.

There are already services provided by companies to assist in the development of these tools. We are recommending using existing technology to launch and iterate quickly. These technologies include various APIs, hosting services, and web services. Examples platforms Android or iPhone, Windows or Mac clients. The easiest way to develop for all of these things is to develop a web application, however other options may need to be pursued for offline tools. Service technologies that everyone can use are provided by Google, Rakuten, Yahoo!, Microsoft, Twitter, Amazon Web Services, Salesforce, OpenStreetmaps, Hatena Co., Evernote, etc. A list of available technologies is available on the Technologies page.

We are also encouraging developers to either consume existing data sets, or provide their own. It would be a great thing to have a large amount of public data, that developers could use and extend in different ways. Some current suggestions include PowerMeter readings, seismic sensor readings, radiation readings, internet latencies, road statuses, etc.