A transdisciplinary event to improve people's lives through technology!

HackForGood will be held from 20 to 22 October simultaneously in several locations throughout the country. Committed to improving people's lives by using technology as a means to achieve this, Telefónica will turn its programming campus 42 in places of participation and human development.

All those students interested in participating can do so with their ideas, challenges and/or projects aimed at achieving technological solutions that improve life in different social areas.. This eighth edition of the hackathon, It is also aimed at all types of students and members of the participating universities, because is not an event exclusively for STEM students.. Humanities, audiovisual communication or graphic/industrial design students are key to this challenge, as digital tools and technology offer the possibility of investigating these disciplines in a different way, by means of the development of creative skills that have a direct impact on 21st century society and culture., It is also an essential pillar of the innovation in a technology sector which is increasingly contributing to the reflection and to the cultivation of creativity or critical thinking. as safe values for guiding digital transformation, addressing any of the problems that beset our citizens.

The cultural sector is one of these nodes and we must strengthen it. Thus, technology is seen as an opportunity or a challenge that we have to understand as a priority. Cultural institutions are undergoing far-reaching transformations that allow us to relate to the world in a different way. development of tools to facilitate this access to continuous dialogue environments, are so important. This HackforGood is presented as a cross-cutting and multi-stakeholder environment,  as we are talking about a change of model where culture is much closer to technology and needs to be more closely linked to its professionals.

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How to participate in #HackForGood?

The challenges?

We call challenge to any social challenge that requires a solution innovative technology. Challenges are proposed by any individual or association, published on this website and are associated with the Awards and the entity who grants them. The hackers “for good” participants will form teams to tackle the chosen challenge in search of that technological solution.

Those proposed challenges can be consulted through the following link, but be careful, you can also propose a challenge:

https://hackforgood.net/category/retos/

Challenges that we launch from #HackforGoodMálaga

Challenge 1

Dynamic prices for the cultural offer

Usually, the cultural offer is characterised by fixed prices. A museum ticket, for example, always has the same price every hour of the day and every day of the week, unless there is a day or time slot (also fixed) with a reduced price (also fixed) or free admission.

However, having a dynamic price that could adapt in real time to the circumstances of the entity (flow and attendance of people...) or contextual circumstances (weather, other events in the city, etc.) could potentially favour the attendance of audiences in those time slots and/or days when a lower influx is detected.

What kind of technological system could be developed to make real-time decisions on fare changes based on certain criteria? What could these criteria be? How could these decisions also be communicated in real time to potentially interested citizens?

Challenge 2

Diversity, cultural material and accessible formats

Currently, accessibility has become one of the most relevant issues in terms of participation of all people in the multiple cultural offerings. Cultural institutions (museums, galleries, alternative art spaces, etc.) must generate an impact on society and raise awareness of people with disabilities, involving them in the process of learning, education, dissemination and communication of content. However, although progress has been made in this area, there is still a long way to go and new technologies have become, in this case, a powerful tool.

One of the difficulties that still plague this sector (among many others) is, precisely, to make artistic works accessible to people with total or partial visual disabilities. There are examples of tiflotechnology (a concept used to define certain resources already developed through standard technology) that help through touch to enjoy certain material, but, as we all know, in a museum the works cannot be touched. This technology works well with three-dimensional elements, but what about the works hanging on the wall, which are, after all, 2D objects? The problem is compounded. Therefore, the following challenge is launched:

What kind of technological system could be developed that would make access to reading, understanding and communication of works of art feasible for visually impaired people in their different ranges? How could this system be implemented in museums in our area, without entailing a high economic cost? Would this tool allow personalising the experience of these audiences, as well as their specific learning, overcoming barriers and enhancing their plastic reading skills in real time and in an autonomous way?

Challenge 3

Technology to Reduce, Reuse and Recycle textiles

During the textile manufacturing process, 10% of CO2 emissions are generated (more than international flights and shipping combined) and 93 billion cubic metres of water are consumed. In addition, textile production is estimated to be responsible for 20% of global drinking water pollution. At the end of the life cycle of these products, there are also challenges: in the EU alone, an estimated 8 million tonnes of textile waste is produced every year, the recycling of which is very complicated due to the high level of processing of these products. Can you contribute to providing a technological solution to these issues?

Challenge 4

Technology and educational resources

The access to a practically unlimited amount of educational resources that we have in hyper-connected areas of countries like Spain is far from the reality in other parts of the world. This, together with the low school enrolment rate, the lack of educational resources (books, notebooks, etc.) and connectivity, makes access to basic levels of education difficult. Can you think of how technology can help in this case?

Challenge 5

Optimising queue management in cultural venues

The queues of people that are usually generated in the process of buying tickets to access cultural venues is a recurrent problem that has different implications: it interferes with the mobility of citizens, due to the urban road space occupied; it affects the administration of cultural venues, as it has to manage a large number of people; and it darkens the experience of audiences, who have to wait an indeterminate amount of time before being able to access the cultural venue of their choice.

The purchase of tickets online, with time allocation, has partly remedied the problem, but it has not solved it completely, as there are times when people who have bought their tickets in advance and audiences who prefer to buy them at the box office converge at the same time. The key is the proper application of a consecutive regulation of access. .

Likewise, although there are certain parameters that help to know which days and time slots may be the busiest, the improvement of integrated systems in the daily management of these cultural spaces that can be used regularly to optimise the flow of audiences in the cultural space increases the degree of efficiency.

Given this scenario, what technological solution could be developed to optimise queue management in cultural venues, which, in addition to improving audience management, would enhance the positive experience of visitors? What solution would mean a qualitative improvement of the process and not penalise the comfort of the visitor experience?

Challenge 6

Technologies at the service of labour inclusion

Currently, the integration into the labour market of people with functional diversity and/or abilities that differ from the norm is one of the main challenges that we must address in order to achieve a more inclusive society. There are training programmes that provide these people with specific skills, but the rates of labour market insertion are still low. The cultural field is one of these areas where a greater effort is needed. Could the current state of technology contribute to increase the labour insertion in the cultural field of people with intellectual disabilities, specifically trained?

Challenge 7

Museums and new generations

Surveys tell us that young people are visiting museums less and less. In fact, this is a structural problem for museums: their ability to be relevant and interesting to the younger generation. Would it be possible to develop a concrete technological solution that would help cultural institutions better understand what parameters of relevance and interest they could manage to increase their connection with young audiences?