Facebook's (NASDAQ: FB) CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced in a post on Tuesday that the social media platform will be partnering with the World Health Organization in launching a global hackathon called #BuildForCOVID19 that starts on Thursday. Facebook is joined by engineers from Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT), Slack (NYSE: WORK), Pinterest (NYSE: PINS), TikTok, Twitter (NYSE: TWTR), WeChat (OTC: TCEHY), Giphy, Slow Ventures and many more to "build tools to help tackle some of the health, economic and community challenges," that surfaced during the coronavirus outbreak.
A hackathon is a design event in which computer programers and others involved in software development collaborate intensively on software projects for a certain amount of time. According to the engineers behind Facebook, hackatons have been a driving force behind the early development of the platform as well as other new features like full-screen photos and photo filters for Facebook that work on every type of smartphone.
"Hackathons are a chance for engineers...to transform the spark of an idea into a working prototype and get other people excited about its potential," Facebook Engineering wrote in a post. Of course, not every project built during a hackathon is used, but intense effort and short timeframe help make good ideas built quickly and can influence how engineers think moving forward.
Zuckerberg wrote that, "Hackathons have always been an important part of how we come up with new ideas and projects at Facebook--features like Blood Donations and Crisis Response were first built during hackathons and are now used by millions worldwide."
Earlier this month, the World Health Organization classified the COVID-19 global outbreak as a pandemic. Since then, governments and companies have been working quickly to provide help for areas highly impacted and measures to slow the spread of the deadly virus.
The WHO and scientists at the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub will be providing guidance on what projects could deliver the most impact to help those in need due to the outbreak. The hackathon is open to the public and developers are encourage to build projects that focus on health, vulnerable populations, business, community, education and entertainment.
#BuildForCOVID19 is now accepting registrations via the organization's devpost. The event will accept submissions March 26-30 and the top projects will be unveiled on April 3.