The Hackathon for Cuba — in Miami, not Havana

Hackathon for Cuba

TECH NEWS – There will be a two day Hackathon for Cuba in Miami starting with a reception the evening of January 31 and getting down to work on February first. (The event is organized by the Miami Beach-based nonprofit Roots of Hope and with funding from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and they hope to repeat it in New York and San Francisco.)

The Hackathon goal is to develop prototype programs that are well suited to Cuba — software for a nation with slow, expensive wire-line connectivity and second generation cell phone infrastructure. For example, there are smart phones in Cuba. They cannot be used for modern Internet access, but they can be used as stand-alone computers, perhaps connected to external peripherals. The Hackathon might produce some innovative stand alone applications for smartphones. More