Random Hacks of Kindness - Info Night

Are you thinking of coming along to this year's RHoK Parramatta summer hackathon, or do you just want to find out what RHoK is all about? This is a chance to find out who we are, what we do and how we can all do our little bit to hack for humanity. We'll also be introducing our new changemakers for the upcoming summer hackathon.

And we'll be explaining how the RHoK community needs a wide variety of skillsets - from coding to design, to BA work and marketing and social media. The event will run from 6 till 8. If you're an established member of the community and want to re-connect, or a new person looking to find out what we are all about, this is the ideal night to join us.

RHOK PARRAMATTA SUMMER PROJECTS

Commons Sensor

A project launched by Western Sydney University's Institute for Culture and Society, this project aims to build a database of objects that belong to “commons” - public property, creative commons, open source software, communal spaces. We will have a specific initial focus on Parramatta, and the hackathon challenge will be to find some creative ways to visualise and imagine some of this data in ways that will engage the Parramatta public.

Darcy St Project

Darcy St Project (http://www.darcystproject.com.au/) is a Parramatta-based social enterprise that runs barista and coffee brewing training to long-term unemployed, recent TAFE graduates etc. Western Sydney is a difficult place for young people looking to find work. We're looking to build an app that assists with training, a kind of "barista mentor" that helps people not only with the technicalities of making coffee, but also how to get ready for the hospitality job market.

Empower Parramatta

Community-driven solar power brings exciting possibilities to generate low-cost renewable energy in the city. However it also brings challenges, particularly for many of the apartment complexes that are spreading through Parramatta and other urban corridors in Western Sydney. Is there another way?Empower Parramatta (http://www.julieowens.com.au/empowerparra) is looking to raise awareness of community solar, plus develop a business model and technical proof-of-concept for a peer-to-peer decentralised energy network, targeting apartment blocks that currently have little incentive to invest in solar (distribution among different unit owners etc).

Kolorob

In developing urban areas like the slums of Dhaka, Bangladesh, essential services like health, education, training, finance and employment can be difficult to find. They may not be registered, they may operate informally, or details about their locations, cost and operating hours may be inaccessible. Even though mobile and smartphone use is growing rapidly, location services like Google Maps or Open Street Maps provide only partial solutions. To address this, Save the Children is sponsoring an ambitious project called Kolorob (https://email.uws.edu.au/owa/redir.aspx?SURL=lcRvCkntyLpElqXkRzavglBmOU3t2lBLxtgokoKvxzV8Om2dVPTSCGgAdAB0AHAAcwA6AC8ALwB3AHcAdwAuAGYAYQBjAGUAYgBvAG8AawAuAGMAbwBtAC8AcwBjAGkAYgAuAGsAbwBsAG8AcgBvAGIALwA.&URL=https%3a%2f%2fwww.facebook.com%2fscib.kolorob%2f) in several slum areas. Through the project, communities are mapping different services, and the project is also developing an app to show where these services are and provide detailed information on them. Our challenge is to tackle one specific part of this puzzle: how to navigate from A to B. We will be building upon existing routing services provided by OSM and try to handle some of the unpredictable routing challenges in informal settlements – no formal roads, frequent changes, walking only paths and narrow passageways that rickshaws can navigate, even if cars cannot.