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THE GLOBAL HACK, THE BIGGEST HACKATHON EVER!
April 7, 2020
Event timeline:
1-9 April Share your ideas on Slack theglobalhack.com/slack
4-9 April Team registration on Devpost platform (until 13:00 UTC)
9-11 April Hackathon
12 April Demos & Awards
CTA: NOW is your turn to make an impact!
Get inspired: www.theglobalhack.com
Share your ideas: theglobalhack.com/slack
Who are we and why should you care about ‘The Global Hack’?
Nearly half of humanity is on coronavirus lockdown, so we need to take action now! So how can we deal with this shift in human relationships, a whole new economy, and a struggling healthcare and tourism system? The Global Hack is a movement designed to fight the global crisis and find valuable solutions for the future in just 48 hours. Fact is, this is the most important hackathon in our species history!
It started with a test in Estonia that reached 150,000 in 47 countries in ONE WEEK.
The first Hack the Crisis was held 13-15 March in Estonia, with 1,300+ people across 15 time zones, resulting in 30+ amazing ideas, 8 of which have been activated already. Such as Suve, a state-approved automated chatbot to provide trustworthy information during COVID-19, and promettoditornare.it, an Italian platform for supporting family businesses.
The result of this success was the world took notice and in just ONE WEEK that small test in Estonia with 1,300 hackers became 150,000 in 47 countries. Today, regional hacks are happening all across the globe, from India to Georgia to Brazil, and this is just the beginning!
Talent is everywhere, and we want to unleash it in every corner of the globe.
We’ve already started forming global hackathon teams combined of techies, designers, business leaders, and amazingly global leaders like the former president of Estonia Toomas Henrik Ilves and recognised industry experts like Silicon Valley tech superstar Steve Jurvetson and Sam Altman have all volunteered to mentor these teams for free!
April 9: The Global Hack aims to connect ONE MILLION PEOPLE.
If we move fast enough, this global hackathon could have a massive social and economic impact far beyond our imagination. We’re empowering anyone with an idea to change the world and giving them 48 hours to ensure what’s happening today never happens again.
And we are not doing this alone: the EC is co-funding this global online event!
Over 100,000 people have participated in local hackathons across the globe so far and the number is growing daily, which is why the European Commission has agreed to provide up to €75 000 of support to the Global Hack project, from which €60 000 will be for prize money to the winning teams. This funding means we can recruit more hackers from 47+ countries to join our global movement! Here’s a list of participants and you can find out more information about past and upcoming hackathons plus see some of the MVPs they created right here.
How to participate in The Global Hack
- Share ideas / come solo or with a team / become a mentor / invest in ideas / sponsor
USEFUL BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Mentors and inspirational leaders
Quotes for Media Use
Steve Jürvetson, Tesla and Space X
“How do you get to these new powerful ideas? How do you hack the future? Here’s a really important framework I think. And that is it every idea, every new idea is itself a recombination of prior ideas its like standing on shoulders of giants. Almost never does a powerful new idea come out of nowhere without precedent or antecedent.”
Toomas Hendrik Ilves, President of Estonia from 2006 to 2016
„Half of humanity is under lockdown. Online, with no borders, tech activists are building solutions in an epic rapid prototyping hackathon. It will be the biggest hackathon held, uniting humanity with purpose online at a time we are being separated physically. This is a unique time when the whole world is fighting the same problem together. If we move fast, the Global Hack can relieve a lot of immediate pain people are suffering as well as sustained social and economic benefits.“
Marko Russiver, The Global Hack
“What I’m saying is that we hack for love. We hack for the people we don’t know and will never meet. We hack for the first responders, the grandmothers, the newborns, boomers, and the millennials. We hack for the future where you don’t have to be afraid. We hack because we are all living in one small village in this new world. We are not European, American, African, or Asian. We are human. And we will hack, because we humans love.”
Factsheet
- 47+ countries across the globe have joined the movement (list of participants)
- Constantly updated list of past and upcoming hackathons and outstanding solutions
- 100,000+ have participated in hackathons across the globe and it’s growing daily
- The European Commission will provide up to €60 000 to the Global Hack for prize money to the winning teams.
- FAQ
Short list of media mentions
Silicon Republic “Estonian hackathon tackles issues caused by covid-19”
Forbes “Hack-the-crisis: six lessons from Estonia’s coronavirus crisis response”
The New Yorker “Why Estonia was poised to handle how a pandemic would change everything”
FoundME “Largest online hackathon paves way to counter impact”
Focus “Accelerate Estonia & Garage48 organize hackathon against coronavirus”
Analytics in India “Top hackathon dedicated to fight COVID-19”
Startup Nations “How I fought the crisis”
IT idustrie & technologies “Comment la France essaie d’eviter la penurie de respirateurs artificiels”
So Geht Digital “Hackathons in Coronazeiten: gemeinsam, schell, lösungsorientiert”
Economic Times (India) “FICCI FLO to organize online hackathon to find non-medical solutions for COVID-19”
The Guardian “Estonia rolls out hacker innovations in virus fight”
GovInsider “Nations launch challenges to find innovative solutions to Covid-19”
Maint World “Estonia makes global call to combat coronavirus via hackathon”
Silicon Republic “Global hackathon calls for help dealing with impacts of covid-19”
For more information, contact:
Name: Elis Tootsman
Title: Head of International Media and Partnerships
Phone: (+372) 506 6145
Email: elis@accelerateestonia.ee