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How the Power of Citizen Development Can Impact Communities– Virtual Hackathon Results

Written By: Matt Lieberson
December 16, 2020
4 min read

Quickbase is excited to honor the winners of its first-ever Virtual Hackathon! With more than 100 entries across 14 countries – which you can find here – the submissions addressed critical issues in the workplace, in communities, and in the world today. And in just two months, competitors created unique low-code applications that address challenges of connection, responsiveness, equity, and security.

Our winners took home real cash prizes, with our top winners including:

As Covid-19 lockdowns in India take an emotional toll, RKM Media Lab worked with Ramakrishna Math to build a pilot program gauging the emotional wellbeing of underprivileged children. Based on questionnaires and facial analysis, this application empowers children with techniques like yoga or meditation while analyzing its impact on their wellbeing with rural community coordinators.

  • Second place: Olympus, by Alliant Charters

With school administrators struggling to adapt to the rapid adjustment to remote learning, Olympus seamlessly connected Google Classroom with Quickbase via Quickbase Pipelines. This integration allowed for a real-time tracking of students’ progress, attendance per course and by district, as well as automations allowing teachers to prepare courses and engage students remotely.

Keating was inspired by her city’s pledge to divert 40% of food and yard waste from landfills. She used CRM functionality to track all commercial food waste participants, drop off locations, equipment and activities needed for waste pickups, and intake and management of waste during the compost creation process.

VARC Solutions, a Quickbase Service Provider, created a collection of five integrated Quickbase apps in support of People 2 People, a nonprofit that provides assistance during disasters. The solution manages the collection of food and financial donations, as well as the distribution of meals and financial support to those hit the hardest.

Along with Quickbase luminaries such as CIO Deb Gildersleeve, CPTO Jay Jamison, and product and customer managers, two external judges joined the scoring for the Virtual Hackthon: Isaac Sacolick, a recognized social media CIO influencer and President of StarCIO; and Jason Bloomberg, a leading IT industry analyst and expert on enterprise technology.

Here is what caught our guest judges’ eyes throughout the Hackathon.

Tools impacting people

One of the things that the judges enjoyed the most was the way that solutions were focused on real people, not just problems at the business level. “My favorite submissions targeted solving real business and community challenges, where rapidly developed and robust tools can impact people,” said Sacolick.

“These apps illustrate the new opportunities that low-code brings to the table, not just for companies, but for communities and members of the public,” added Bloomberg, while emphasizing the opportunities for those traditionally underserved by traditional development tactics. “While many low-code projects focus on employees, these three all focus outward, bringing real solutions to real people.”

Creativity and a community focus

Another exciting characteristic of the top applications in this competition is the ingenuity and creativity of how they apply citizen development principles. Focusing on solutions that are not as viable given the time- and money-intensive process of traditional application building allowed competitors the change to get creative.

“Given the community context of these solutions, there would never have been a deep-pockets sponsor that would have made traditional apps cost-effective,” Bloomberg said. “Without low-code solutions, therefore, such apps would never have been built – and the problems they address would never have been solved.

The potential for low-code moving forward

Lastly, one very evident takeaway from the competition was just how much the competitors enjoyed using low-code development. From experienced developers to front-line business leaders, low-code allowed teams to innovate and try new things.

“These solutions demonstrate that developers, including coders, enjoy building low-code applications,” said Sacolick. “There’s plenty of opportunities to innovate and showcase smart technology solutions.”

Given the potential of low-code to solve for business, community, and societal problems, this Hackathon drove home the impact that citizen developers can have going into 2021. With more people than ever having the capabilities to solve big challenges with technology, our hackathon has left us excited for low-code in the future.

Matt Lieberson
Written By: Matt Lieberson

Matt Lieberson is a Content Marketing Manager at Quickbase.

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