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Coding to bring about a social change
PayPal, the popular digital wallet is organising a one-of-a-kind hackathon, The Opportunity Hack over the weekend that aims to leverage technology expertise of coders to meet challenges faced by non-profit organisations. Sathish Vaidyanathan, director, software development at PayPal, sheds light on the initiative.
By
migrator
migrator
Chennai
Tell us about initiativeÂ
We have in-house coders as well coders from across Tamil Nadu with no bar on educational qualification or age coming together to solve some pretty unique problems for NGOs. The NGOs fill application forms of technology-related problems and our team selects the ones that they feel can be resolved by coding or they are particularly driven by the cause. Then during hackathon, the coders and NGO representatives come face-to-face. Coders present a working prototype of a solution that can be implemented by the NGOs in the long run.
Why are professional coders being used to solve problems of social sector?Â
We have several skilled coders in the country. They often work in the premises of the offices and hardly get to interact with the outside community. So we decided almost three years ago that they should be given a chance to use their skills to provide solutions to technology-related problems faced by NGOs and social sectors.Â
How many participants are there in the 2016 hackathon?Â
There are about 150 coders and close to 16 NGOs.
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