The document provides information about the Random Hacks of Kindness (RHoK) event taking place in Montreal, Canada from December 2-4, 2011. It outlines how to register for the event, lists some problem definitions that will be worked on including a security alert app for humanitarian workers in Haiti and crowdsourcing for open education. It also provides details on where the event will be held, how judging will work, and what prizes will be available.

1. What to expect at Random Hacks of Kindness?
Montréal Canada
Dec 2 – 4, 2011

2. How to get the latest Info
@rhokMtl
http://www.rhok.org/event/montréal-canada

3. Register and Set Up An Account
 Register yourself for the event so we know you are coming.
http://www.rhok.org/event/montréal-canada
 If you registered and can’t attend please email us:
rhokMtl@gmail.com so we can give your spot to someone else.
 Signup for a RHoK account on the www.rhok.org website so you can join
the problems you will work on and stay in contact with rest of the community.

4. Problem Definitions
Some Problem Definitions We are Working on:
 Security Alert App for Humanitarian Workers in Haiti.
 Crowdsourcing for Open Learning.
 First Nation Access to Water and Sanitation.
 Peer learning & peer networking for pineapple farmers, Sri Lanka
More to be added before the event.
You can also work on any of the problems documented here:
 http://www.rhok.org/problems
 Send an email to rhokMtl@gmail.com so we can add it to our
event page.

5. Ushahidi-Haiti:
Hacking for Humanity at its Best

6. Ushahidi-Haiti:
Hacking for Humanity at its Best
http://haiti.ushahidi.com/
 Ushahidi open source platform provides a way for volunteers to collect information from
sources like text messages, blog posts, videos, phone calls, and pictures, which are then
mapped in near real time. It can be used to plot everything from disasters to wars.
 Information about the Haiti earthquake crisis was quickly and easily available to Haitians
(those inside and outside the country), the press, humanitarian relief workers,
governments, and concerned people worldwide.
 Ushahidi in collaboration with The Fletcher School at Tufts University set up the site
within 2 hours of the earthquake, and hundreds of volunteers worked to keep it running
24/7.
 Not a typical approach used by humanitarian organizations but there was a very positive
response in the media and among stakeholders, largely attributed to its relevance in
early response to emergencies.
 However, there were some significant barriers to its widespread adoption
https://sites.google.com/site/haitiushahidieval/news/finalreportindependentevaluationof
theushahidihaitiproject

7. In Haiti Now…
Problem Def #1: Security Alert App
for Humanitarian Workers
 Receiving accurate and timely information about safe and unsafe areas
within Haiti is still a challenge for humanitarian workers.
 Many humanitarian organizations have their own codification systems and
requirements for determining safe zones.
 Information is not necessarily consistent or shared between different
humanitarian organizations.
 There is a need to coordinate information about security incidences
amongst humanitarian organizations, so that an incident reported by one
organization is communicated to other organizations in a timely fashion.
 More details to be posted to the rhok.org site soon.

8. Problem Def #2: Crowdsourcing
for Open Education
 Leverage open content, mobile technologies and crowd-sourcing to create language
resources for the underserved languages.
 Use existing open text (such as Wikipedia) in languages such as Swahili, Arabic and Urdu, and
create a crowd-sourcing mechanism for developing these text repositories into language
corpora.
 This could include tagging the words in the corpus based on part of speech (a process known
as Part of Speech Tagging).
 Send a part of speech to a group of contributors through text messages. Each contributor can
examine the sentence and determine the tag for each word in the sentence (verb, noun,
adjective, etc.) and send it back to the platform.
 Participation in the platform can be encouraged through several means. For example,
contributors may be rewarded for their participation with mobile credit they can use on their
phones. The participation process can also be possibly structured in a game-like style.
 More details to be posted to the rhok.org site soon.

9. Problem Def #3: First Nation Access
to Water and Sanitation.
 Force Provincial and Federal governments to take action and address the water quality
issues in First Nation Communities...
 Provide geo-tagged text tweets to government accounts forcing the issue to light...
 "There are 231 drinking water advisories (DWAs) in 105 of 630 First Nations communities,
many communities have multiple DWAs and some have been under these advisories for
more than 5 years. 80% have been in place for more than one year, an occurrence that
would simply not take place in other communities.
 Integrate the data from http://www.water.ca/map-graphic.asp with this list
http://politwitter.ca/canadian-government
 Anytime a person in one of these communities has to boil water for a simple task
they send a messsage that is geotagged and tweets at the appropriate government
representatives
 Collaborate with RHoK Toronto and build on http://www.rhok.org/solutions/watervoices
 More details to be posted to the rhok.org site soon.

10. Tools/Resources
 RHoK Repository: http://www.rhok.org/solutions
 First Nation Access to Water:
http://www.rhok.org/problems/first-nation-access-water-and-
sanitation-canada
 Ushahidi: http://ushahidi.com/
 Frontline SMS: http://www.frontlinesms.com/
 Nokia Data Gathering: http://projects.developer.nokia.com/ndg
 Github
 OpenStreetMap
 Google Fusion tables
 Scribblelive, coveritlive, storify

11. The Main event
It is free!
 Check Eventbrite or Rhok event page for the most up to date
schedule.
 http://www.rhok.org/event/montr%C3%A9al-canada
 http://mtlrhok.eventbrite.com/

12. What to bring?
 Your Laptop, power bar, power cords, demo
equipment, dongle
 Camera, webcam, headphones
 Smile and an open mind
 Coffee mug

13. Where is RHoK Montreal?
Notman House
51 sherbrooke west. Metro: Saint-Laurent, Place-des-
Arts. Bus: 24, 5
Questions? rhokmtl@gmail.com

14. How does Judging Work?
For RHoK events we recommend the following criteria when
local judges assess and rank projects presented at their event
creativity / innovative / unique:
 utility, can it be used in the field?
 applicable, does it solve a problem
 impact, local or global
 progress (on existing work, or starting from nothing)
 usability
 other...
Stay tuned for updates on who the judges are.

15. What are the prizes?
 Prizes include Nokia cellphones: Lumia 800, N9.

16. Follow the Event!
UStream: Username: rhokMtl
Twitter: @rhokMtl
Youtube: rhokMtl
Flickr: rhokMtl, RHOK, Randomhacks
Ping us on twitter.