Call for Code: Developers Tackle Natural Disasters with Software

Natural disasters are increasing as highlighted in many reports including the Borgen Project. In 2018, David Clark Cause as creator and IBM as founding partner, in partnership with the United Nations Human Rights Office, the American Red Cross International Team, and The Linux Foundation, issued a “Call for Code” to developers to create robust projects that prepare communities for natural disasters and help them respond more quickly in their aftermath. This article covers the steps and tools used to engage with developers, the results from the first of five competitions to be run by the Call for Code Global Initiative over five years, and how the winners were selected. Insights from the mobilization of 100,000 developers toward this cause are described, as well as the lessons learned from running large-scale hackathons.