Craig Fugate (FEMA) Keynotes ‘Random Hacks Of Kindness, Disaster Relief Codejam' Initiative

RHoK brings together disaster relief experts and software engineers to develop solutions to critical issues

The event brings together top programmers to develop solutions to disaster relief challenges.

FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate keynoted the inaugural ‘Random Hacks of Kindness, Disaster Relief Codejam' (RHoK) initiative. RHoK is sponsored by industry leaders such as Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo! in conjunction with NASA and the World Bank, and brings together disaster relief experts and software engineers to work on identifying key challenges to disaster relief, and developing solutions to these critical issues.

"FEMA is only one part of the national emergency management team and today's event was an extremely valuable opportunity to engage another important part of our team," said Fugate, "From improving family emergency communications, to enabling first responders to make decisions faster, these technology experts hold a key to making our national emergency management team stronger."

Today's meeting between top tech representatives and FEMA is only the latest in a concerted effort by the FEMA Administrator to engage the technology sector as a critical component of the national emergency management team. Fugate previously has met with representatives at Microsoft, Google, and industry representative TechNet.

The two-day "codejam" began today with top programmers from across the country coming together in an attempt to solve predefined problems identified by disaster relief experts and the programmers themselves. Administrator Fugate himself challenged the programmers to come up with an easy way for families to put together emergency communications plans online.