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Welcome to Hack Quarantine! We know there’s a ton of important information that you’re going to need over the next few weeks - but don’t worry! We’ve put it all in here. Just bookmark this page and check back whenever you need something. As things change, we’ll keep this doc up to date.

Hack Quarantine Website Discord
Devpost Twitch Channel
Schedule Submit a Project
MLH Code of Conduct Information for Workshop Hosts
Discourse (Platform) Tools and technologies

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What is Hack Quarantine?

Hack Quarantine is a global, virtual hackathon dedicated to trying to solve problems related to COVID-19, with hacks aiming to fix everything from healthcare issues, to trying to improve people’s ability to work remotely.

What is a hackathon / virtual hackathon?

A hackathon is an invention marathon where software developers, innovators, designers, creators and entrepreneurs join forces to solve problems. In a short time, small teams will build something amazing to conquer challenges.

This virtual hackathon works largely the same way as a physical hackathon - just everything is online. We’ll still be running side events, workshops and talks - just you’ll be able to take part from the comfort of your own home! We’ve also got mentors waiting on standby to help with your projects.

Tracks

All submitted hacks must fit into one (or more) of the following tracks.

Supporting Quarantined or At Risk People

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This track is about finding ways to support people who are quarantined or self isolating at home, and helping At Risk people avoid catching it. Projects could include something to make it easier for individuals or groups to get food without leaving the house, or something to help with cabin fever!

Tech and Health

How can technology be used to help the doctors and nurses at the front line, or help with early detection? Anything from using a thermal camera to help with detection, or an app that makes it easier to work out where you’ve been for contact tracing.

Remote Working

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Remote working can be hard at the best of times, this track is about making it easier to be productive at home whilst not feeling so isolated. This could be by finding ways to improve communication or finding unique ways to make it easier for people to complete their roles outside of the office.

Improving Awareness and Behaviour

With information changing every hour, it’s getting very difficult for people to keep up on what they need to know. How can we use tech to get the public engaged and informed on the ongoing situation without causing panic. For this track you could create an app that reminds you to wash your hands whenever you enter a new building, or something that monitors your webcam to warn you when you’ve touched your face.

Rules

There are two aspects to our rules. They are:

The Code of Conduct

All hackers, sponsors, partners, mentors and everyone else are expected to follow the MLH Code of Conduct at all times on all Hack Quarantine platforms, including (but not limited to) our Discord, forums and livestream. Breaches of the Code of Conduct will be handled according to the MLH Incident Response Procedure.

The Competition Rules

In the interest of fairness, we have a few rules that must be followed if you wish for your submission to be eligible for prizes. Please note that if you are solely interested in making an impact rather than winning prizes, these rules don’t necessarily apply.

Discord

Discord is our primary form of communication and we highly recommend joining! You can join here! - come meet our friendly community, connect with mentors and chat with our team!

Mentorship

We want you to be able to make the most of Hack Quarantine, and so we’re giving you as much access to mentors as we possibly can!

If you need help, just post in #get-mentorship on Discord and tag the mentor for the technology you need a hand with, eg: @Mentor-PHP. All online mentors for that technology will get an alert.

If you want to help mentor, you can opt-in to mentoring in #become-a-mentor on Discord!

Teambuilding

Team building will be conducted on the Hack Quarantine Discourse forum. There are two forum sections: “team recruitment” and “looking for a team”. If you already have an idea or a team partially formed, you can post on the team recruitment forum. If you are an individual looking for a team, post on the looking for a team forum. It is important to check both forums however.

A good team building post should include:

Donations

We’re fundraising for the World Health Organisation! Any excess sponsorship we raise will be donated, in addition to anything donated to our fundraiser! Donate here.

If you would like to learn more about the World Health Organization COVID 19 Response Fund, You can learn more about the World Health Organisation COVID-19 Response Fund here.

We’re providing you with some awesome tools

You can claim all of these and more through Scratchcard! Login with the same account you use for Platform/Discourse.

Talks & Workshops

We’ve got an awesome set of talks and workshops for you over the next three weeks! From intro workshops on technologies, to serverside chats with the founders of tech companies, there’s something for everyone! We’ll be broadcasting talks across all timezones on Twitch.TV, and upload as many as we can to our YouTube channel. Check out our schedule at https://hackquarantine.com/schedule to see if there’s any you fancy - the later weeks will fill up as the hackathon goes on!

If you’re interested in giving a talk or a workshop, you can register here.

Science Resources

Head over to this document to find out useful information, videos, literature, and the like! It’ll also have some prompts and inspiration to help you get an idea of what you’d like to work on over the course of the hackathon!