BANGALORE: Earthquakes, floods, tsunamis and landslides. Our planet is always changing, shifting, moving. Nature is always creating new creatures and structures or putting an end to something. It is always trying to strike a balance between the plant and animal kingdom and the human race.Natural disasters are always occurring in some part of the world. Some places are more prone to natural disasters than others. Some are predictable, others occur without warning. So what do you do when disaster strikes? How do you know if your near and dear ones are safe? How do you reach them? Or if you are stuck in a landslide or a flood or trapped under rubble, how do you call for help? To find a solution for these problems leading companies like Google, Yahoo!, NASA and HP along with the World Bank have come together to form a community called Random Hacks of Kindness (RHoK) which focuses on developing practical open source solutions to disaster risks and climate change adaptation challenges.RHoK was founded in 2009 in partnership between Google, Microsoft, Yahoo!, NASA and the World Bank.RHoK works by bringing together experts in development and volunteers with a broad set of skills in software development and design.The goal is to produce practical solutions to development problems. Events give the community an opportunity to sprint on projects, but the community continues to collaborate around the year.Since the year RHoK was formed thousands of volunteers have worked on many applications that have already had a great impact.One of the applications that is being used is I’m OK — an SMS service that lets people inform their families of their status — was used on the ground during the devastating earthquakes in Haiti and Chile in 2010. The World Bank is piloting CHASM — software for visualising landslide risk, in the Caribbean.Other applications have received support and interest from governments, NGOs and international organisations around the world.This year the focus will be on natural disasters and climate change related disasters and solutions to mitigate the impact of such disasters. Events are planned all around the world and Bangalore is the city which will be hosting this event in India.Some of the previous sessions in Bangalore have produced some very useful applications like HelpOut — a web platform where people in need and people who are ready to help connect and reach each other on Facebook, Twitter or Buzz.The city event will be held on June 4 and 5 at Jaaga, Richmond Circle.People who wish to participate can register online at www.rhok.org. For more details visit www.rhok.org/ event/bangalore.
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