The World Health Organisation along with Facebook and Microsoft has called for a global hackathon, demanding developers to build software solutions aimed at tackling some of the challenges related to coronavirus pandemic.
The #BuildforCOVID19 hackathon will accept project submissions on Thursday. The announcement of top projects will come on on April 3. Apart from Facebook and Microsoft, the others who are participating are Twitter, TikTok, WeChat, slack and Pinterest.
Welcoming innovators around the globe, the hackathon portal has asked them to use technologies of their choice. They can use a range of themes and challenging areas. Health partners including World Health Organization and scientists at Chan Zuckerberg Biohub have sopurced the themes and the challenges, the portal said.
Facebook features such as Crisis Response and Blood Donations were first developed during hackathons. Millions of people the world over now use these features. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that he was hopeful that some useful ideas and prototypes would emerge.
The World Health Organisation reports that more than four lakh people are affected now. It also said that about 20,000 people have lost their lives to the deadly virus.
