#UKvsCOVIDHack: What to expect
#UKvsCOVIDHack is a remote hackathon in aid of those impacted by coronavirus and the current lockdown in the UK. Organised by a collective including WDD and Covid-19 Mutual Aid UK volunteers, the event aims to bring technology professionals together to develop tech solutions to support key workers, charities and communities during lockdown. The emphasis is on making effective, ready to use resources that will benefit individuals or organisations facing hardship or challenges to their day to day lives.
Here’s how it will work.
Pre-hack Tuesday
7 April, 8:15–9pm
We have invited frontline key workers and charity representatives to talk about the difficulties they and their communities are facing in the battle against COVID-19. There will be a livestream of presentations from people working in public health, food banks, women and family services, education, homelessness and accessibility. Watch at home, hear the problems that need solving, then get your thinking hats on!
Submit ideas
Tuesday 7 April — Thursday 9 April
Whatever ideas you have in mind, we want to hear them! You might already have an idea for an application that could help a group you know of, or you might have been inspired by our livestream presentations. Chat to other tech professionals on our dedicated Slack workspace, to swap ideas and get advice. Add your idea to our Google sheet (will be made available 7 April) so other hackers can team up with you. It doesn’t need to be a fully formed plan, just a seed of an idea is fine.
Pick a team
Friday 10 April
Either pick from the Google sheet of ideas or jump on the separate Slack channels for each area covered at the pre-hack, to help you find your tribe. There you can discuss the ideas submitted, decide on an MVP, and team up in a group with the right skills.
Hack!
Saturday 11 April — Sunday 12 April
You will have two days to design and build your idea. Don’t worry if you’re not available for the whole time, we all have different commitments at the moment! Just talk it through with your team so you all have an idea of who can do what. We all know our best work is done when we feel comfortable and confident so please be considerate of your teammates and abide by the Code of Conduct for the event.
If you are looking to collaborate on video calls, check out tools such as Zoom or Bluejeans. Or how about Trello for planning the work for the project? Just some ideas, please use the tools you find the most useful.
Demo
Sunday 12 April
As we can’t get together to demo our finished products, please create a Medium article on what you have built. Have a look at our template demo post for what to include, and think about demonstrating your ideas visually, through images, gifs or video. The more ideas we can share, the more people we can help! Plus your fellow hackers will love to see what other teams have been hard at work on.
Wrap up
Monday 13 April
Medium articles for different projects will be circulated on Slack so we can share successes and key learnings. There is no judging or prizes, the prize is people being helped by your work! However we will invite our presenters back for another livestream session to let us know their thoughts and how our projects have helped them (subject to availability of presenters).
Response to the hackathon has been phenomenal with over 150 people signed up so far. If you would like to join us, put your tech skills to good use, and tech it forward together, please join the #UKvsCOVIDHack Slack channel where we will post links to the livestream and ideas submission soon.
