Winners of the Google I/O Develop for Good global hackathon

September 07, 2012


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Author Photo By Anna de Paula Hanika, Google.org

Cross-posted with the Google.org Blog

This year during Google I/O more than 30,000 developers gathered at 350+ I/O Extended events in 172 countries around the world. While they came together to see the Nexus 7 unveiled and a death-defying Project Glass demo, we invited them to participate in the Develop for Good hackathon. Over the past couple of months we’ve been reviewing submissions and today are proud to share the winning team in each category.

Google Green - Help us all be a little bit greener!

A team from the GDG Karachi Extended event in Pakistan developed a concept for ‘Green It’ — a Google+ based app that would allow users to report local environmental concerns, gain validation of the issue via nearby smartphone users and aggregate reports in a public online interface. Users would be encouraged to participate through a rewards system.


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Google Ideas - Conflict reporting for blackout situations in repressive regimes

A team from the San Francisco Extended event developed a product concept for Silent Lens; an Android application which would allow citizens to safely send encrypted image-based messages over multi-modal ad-hoc mesh networks. The app would allow citizens to anonymously report issues or violence in repressive regimes when other phone or Internet connections may be temporarily limited, or intermittently severed.

Google Politics & Elections - Citizen Engagement for Politics & Elections

A team from the Lagos GDG I/O Extended event at the Co Creation Hub in Nigeria built a prototype for Assembly Bills — a web based platform that can help Nigerian citizens provide input on legislative bills and policy remotely, without having to fly across the country to the capital of Lagos to provide input in person, as is currently necessary. Keep an eye out for their new site!

Winning teams received tickets to attend I/O 2013, along with the honorary title of "Google Developer for Good, 2012". Congratulations to the winners, and a huge thanks to all participants for their hard work. We look forward to seeing the winning teams build out their ideas!



Anna de Paula Hanika is a Product Marketing Manager on the Google.org team, currently focused on Google's Green and Giving efforts, and all things related to using technology to make the world a better place.

Posted by Scott Knaster, Editor