About

Code for the Kingdom, a Leadership Network hackathon initiative, convenes bright entrepreneurs and technologists to use their gifts to affect global culture from a Christian perspective. It seeks to advance the Gospel through the creation of new technologies addressing significant issues confronting society, community, families, and spiritual life.

In 2015, we are expanding Code for the Kingdom to include a Global Hackathon Weekend where we are collaborating with Indigitous - a global community of people passionate about connecting people to Jesus using digital strategies - to host events in 13 locations simultaneously.

Together our vision is to provide more opportunities for communities around the world to participate and showcase innovation and entrepreneurship in their communities. We expect over 1,500 people to participate and address a number of challenges aimed at helping release the oppressed, teaching God’s Word, healing the sick, feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, and supporting the church and the body of Christ.

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Local Organizers

Meet your Local Organizers.

Matt McKee

Matt McKee

Matt McKee is a speaker, writer, serial entrepreneur, investor, and pastor. You can find him working from the reThink Offices, the Alpharetta Tech Commission's Innovation Center, or on an airplane. He always asked the question, "How do you leverage innovation for good?" He lives in the Atlanta area with his wife Jessica and their 2 boys, Patriot and Azlan.

Your Local Organizers' vision for the Atlanta hackathon

"The church was once the epicenter of innovation in many different fields including healthcare, education, architecture, printing, and the list could go on. These different areas of innovation helped the community and the church connect to one another in unique ways besides worshipping together on Sundays. The point of this hackathon is to see if we can find new ways for the church to connect with the community in terms of innovation. With the City of Alpharetta launching free gigabit speed Wifi in downtown areas, Google partnering with the Alpharetta Tech Commission, and some of the largest congregations in the US coming together each week, we believe this can happen again. Innovations that we would like to see focused are those for the next generation, communication, and bringing awareness to ministries that are in the local area." - Your Local Organizers

Sponsors

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Schedule

Friday, October 2
7:00 PMDoors Open
7:00 PM - 8:00 PMDinner & Networking
8:00 PM - 8:25 PMWelcome & Review Format
8:25 PM - 8:35 PMAPI Presentations
8:35 PM - 8:50 PMReview - Official Challenges
8:50 PM - 9:20 PMOpen Floor - pitch your own project
9:20 PM - 11:59 PMTeam Formation/Create Away
Saturday, October 3
12:00 AM - 11:59 PMCreating
8:30 AMBreakfast
9:00 AMSchedule and logistics announcements, team rebalancing
12:00 PMLunch
4:30 PMOptional progress briefing, more developing
6:00 PMDinner
9:00 AM - 5:00 PMMeet with Mentors and Subject Matter Experts

Sunday, October 4
12:00 AM - 2:15 PMCreating
8:30 AMBreakfast
10:30 AM - 12:00 PMOption to join with Sunday Service
12:00 PMLunch
1:00 PMPresentation Walk-thru & Judges Make Rounds
2:30 PMSubmission deadline; Team Presentations Begin
4:30 PM Judges adjourn
4:50 PMCall-back
5:00 PMAwards Ceremony
5:30 PMClosing

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Indigitious

We will be using Indigitous.org as the place for projects, community, and collaboration. Indigitous.org serves the Global Hackathon by providing a global online community site that connects all Code for the Kingdom participants and projects. Indigitous is a movement passionate about connecting people to Jesus using digital strategies. In addition to adding your project to Indigitous.org, the platform will also enable you to:


     Search for projects you might be interested in
     Learn about projects others are working on
     Join a project
     Recruit others to join your project
     Communicate with your project members
     Submit your project for judging

LEARN MORE ABOUT INDIGITOUS

Challenges

Here are the global challenges to get you started. Please remember that more challenges may be presented between now and the first day of the Hackathon.

In case you are already interested or working on a project, don’t change course. Make sure you submit your project on Indigitous.org, and check the projects others are submitting there. Keep in mind that your project must be aligned with the spirit of the Code for the Kingdom. Please come prepared to pitch your project at the Hackathon so that you can recruit teams to work on them.

Global Challenges

Gospel centered lives with wearable technology

What if you could create wearable technology to advance the gospel and help people live a Gospel centered life?

Wearable technology is the new frontier for the digital lifestyle. Whether it’s an Apple Watch, FitBit or Misfit, these new devices make us aware of our surroundings in subtle ways that are embedded in our lives more deeply than ever before.

What would it look like to pioneer wearable technology from a Christian perspective?

What could we create?

Could we use wearables to keep women and children safe from predators?

Could we detect people’s moods and notify loved ones to reach out with prayer, God's Word, and care when they are feeling down?

Could we use wearables to better connect us to the sick and lonely in order to serve them?

And of course, how can wearables help us stay connected with our spouses, parents, children, friends, and others for the sake of prayer and sharing the Gospel?

How does the hope of God's kingdom shape our use of wearables, enabling us to better love others?

Hashtags

#wearables

Additional resources

Ideas & Info for inspiration http://www.forbes.com/sites/parmyolson/2014/06/19/wearable-tech-health-insurance/ - “...Quantified Self movement: that they’ll help us learn more about ourselves…” http://www.economist.com/news/business/21646225-smartwatches-and-other-wearable-devices-become-mainstream-products-will-take-more http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/national/2015/05/09/the-revolution-will-be-digitized/ http://www.wearabletechworld.com/listaill.aspx

Champion

Leadership Network

Protecting marriages and cultivating pure hearts through technology

How can technology promote purity and faithfulness in singleness and marriage?

The recent Ashley Madison hack--a website that connects people in order to have an affair--devastated many families with revelations of hitherto hidden infidelities. And grievously, even the names of leaders from the Christian community appeared in the leak. But we don’t have to look that far to find abuses of technology to promote sinful practice. Online pornography has been an increasingly dangerous threat to purity and faithfulness, making it easier than ever for people to commit adultery in their hearts.

According to some statistics, many boys and girls are viewing porn before they reach their teens. 58% of over 2000 men surveyed believed viewing porn was wrong, but 56% admitted they tried to stop and could not. Porn has been a factor in 56% of divorce cases in the US and one study showed that porn users were 4 times more likely to visit a prostitute. Inevitably, demand for pornography fuels demand for sex trafficking.

Instead of abusing technology to promote impurity, immorality and injustice, how can we leverage it to advance purity, faithfulness and righteousness like never before?

How can technology help people enjoy the exceedingly superior promise of seeing God, which He reserves for the pure in heart?

What tools can we invent to help people experience genuine connection and love instead of dulling the emptiness and pain of life with porn?

What tools can we invent to increase marital intimacy and contentment in singleness?

How can technology help marriages flourish as reflections of the love of Christ for his Church and our joyful devotion to Him?

Hashtags

#purity

Champion

Leadership Network

Global Evangelism in a Dangerous World

How can we ensure everyone on earth can safely access the Bible in their own language, even in the most remote and hostile corners of the world?

As Christians we are called to bring the hope of the Gospel to every person on the planet and as Paul demonstrated in 1 Corinthians 9:19-23, we ought to present the Gospel to people in light of their technological needs and preferences.

How can we meet them where they are at with the technologies, media, and format that are relevant to them? How do we serve people in lower-technology settings, using different social platforms, dwelling in different cultures, and living in hostile situations?

How can we ensure the Scriptures are available in every medium from mobile & web apps, to social media and messaging platforms, to basic SMS, etc.? What new technology can you invent to make Scripture Engagement go viral?

How can we help people groups across the countries find the Bible in their heart language, the language their mothers spoke to them in, the language they pray in, across different platforms? Could you a create social awareness campaign for the Bible (leveraging the Digital Bible Platform API) to share the Good News in your country on the relevant social media platforms?

How can technology help ethnic minority Christians living in hostile environments reach their non-Christian neighbors? How can it empower & encourage them to make disciples? How can it help protect minorities from persecution while creating safe places for Muslims to engage with the Gospel?

How can technology help missional communities share the best resources that help them share Jesus with others in their community? Could you create a slack integration that enables people to share and review resources?

Hashtags

#GreatCommission #ScriptureEngagement #DBP #Bible #MinorityChristians #IslamicWorld

Additional resources

http://www.christiantoday.com/article/christianity.spreading.in.iran.via.multimedia/11248.htm http://leadnet.org/technology-and-the-gospel-reaching-every-living-person-on-earth/

Champion

Faith Comes By Hearing

Games with a Kingdom Purpose

Can we invent games that will help future generations seek, desire, delight in, and know God?

A startling European study conducted by OneHope in 2014 showed that most youth were completely disinterested in God: discussing God, learning about God, reading material about God--everything was out of the question.

In such environments, it is nearly impossible for even a contextualized version of the Gospel to take root. Instead, we need to work at the intersections of faith and culture--everything from business to science to movies to music to gaming--to demonstrate the significance of the Gospel for all of life.

Games are notoriously fun, addictive, lucrative, pre-occupying and inviting. Oftentimes, these experiences are designed to leverage human psychology to keep people in an immersive state of “flow”, where they have a continual sense of challenge and accomplishment. This high engagement often translates into profit.

How can we instead leverage the best that game technology and psychology has to offer in order to help people engage with the Gospel of Jesus Christ?

Could you create a game that immerses people in a virtual world (e.g. Minecraft) that leads them to question their own presuppositions about the real world?

Could you craft a plotline that points characters and players to the only real hope for saving themselves and the world?

Could you design a fun casual game that helps people feed the hungry, engage with Scripture or serve their neighbor?

How do games fit in God’s Kingdom and how can we help players young and old experience a foretaste of that future today?

Hashtags

#games #children

Additional resources

What are people saying http://gamechurch.com/game-measure-games-usefulness/ http://thinkchristian.reframemedia.com/cults-and-daggers-can-you-fit-god-in-the-machine Possible Resources/ideas to inspire https://ccgaming.com/about/ http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2013/april-web-only/let-gamers-say-amen.html?start=3 http://christgaming.com/

Champion

One Hope

Tell Transformative Stories with Google Cardboard

How can we leverage inexpensive virtual reality technologies like Google Cardboard to create immersive experiences that motivate people to help solve global challenges like the Clean Water crisis?

Most people do not realize that an estimated 663 million people lack access to safe drinking water. Or that about every 90 seconds, a child under 5 dies as a result of diarrhea caused by contaminated water, poor sanitation, and unsafe hygiene practices. Let’s change that.

Your challenge is to bring awareness to the global water crisis through an immersive virtual reality experience. Leveraging Google Cardboard create a mobile experience that informs the public of the challenges associated with contaminated water and connect the public with opportunities to be part of the solution.

Check back in the weeks ahead for additional resources pertaining to this challenge.

Learn more about the global water crisis (http://www.worldvision.org/our-impact/clean-water). Learn more about Google Cardboard (https://www.google.com/get/cardboard/).

Hashtags

#GoogleCardboard #VirtualReality #WorldVision #cleanwater

Additional resources

Global Water Crisis

Examples of World Vision’s Response Impact On Safe Drinking Water - http://www.worldvision.org/our-impact/clean-water Press Kit on Water, Sanitation and Hygiene - http://www.worldvision.org/about-us/media-center/water-sanitation-and-hygiene-wash-press-kit Fact Sheet - http://www.worldvision.org/about-us/media-center/water-sanitation-and-hygiene-wash-press-kit

Videos 11 Year Old Tyler Brunst raises $16K for clean water - https://youtu.be/w7oekO4AZ1s World Vision, P&G and the Clinton Foundation - https://youtu.be/4gyUrHzK3do WASH in schools - https://vimeo.com/129741499 Water Empowers Women - https://vimeo.com/125941887 The Zambia Project (Sequel) - https://vimeo.com/123043924

Opportunities to Partner with World Vision

Run/Walk for clean water - http://www.worldvision.org/get-involved/run-for-water Start Your Own Fundraiser - http://mycause.worldvision.org Give a donation - http://donate.worldvision.org/ways-to-give/by-category/clean-water

Background Information

United Nations, Global Issues, Water - http://www.un.org/en/globalissues/water/ Un-Water, United Nations Inter-Agency - http://www.unwater.org/statistics/en/ Troubled Water, How Clean Water Differs for Families Across The World - http://mashable.com/2015/08/23/water-scarcity-family-portraits/#grH1kHTqkkks AidWorks - http://www.worldvision.org/sites/default/files/InterAction2014_AidWorks_WASH.pdf World Water Day 2015 Learning Pack, Cap-Net - http://www.cap-net.org/world-water-day-2015-learning-pack One Water - http://www.onewater.org/

Google Cardboard

Designing for Google Cardboard - http://www.google.com/design/spec-vr/designing-for-google-cardboard/a-new-dimension.html Developer Overview - https://developers.google.com/cardboard/overview

Champion

World Vision

Activating a culture of Generosity

How can we use technology to enable and inspire people to be radically generous?

Jesus Christ said, “It is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35). Yet many times we find it hard to believe. Our view of giving is often limited to money such that we ignore what God truly desires--our hearts and everything that flows from it as described in Isaiah 58:6-12. God wants more than religious actions, he wants our fasting to result in freedom for and radical generosity towards the weak, the poor and the oppressed.

How can technology help people experience the joy of giving above and beyond their money? How can it unleash people to radical acts of generosity that spurs others on as well? How can you make generosity go viral?

With so many generosity apps focused on processing online giving, what new technology can you create to foster a more holistic and lasting generosity? Could you change the paradigm of online giving?

Can your creations inspire children to be generous with thoughts, time and resources? What if you created a simulation game to help children understand the consequences of stinginess in contrast to the blessings of generosity for their family, community and society?

Could you create an app or micro-social network that leverages social effects to motivate you and your friends to compete in showing generosity and kindness towards others?

Hashtags

#generosity

Additional resources

Articles of Interest https://www.gci.org/church/ministry/poverty http://www.summitrdu.com/all-in/generosity-ladder/ http://www.lifeway.com/churchleaders/2015/05/28/plates-clicks-and-generosity-in-the-church/ https://www.smartcrowdz.com/cultivating-generosity-using-technology-church/ http://aspengroup.com/blog/7-patterns-churches-need-to-change-to-increase-millennial-generosity A pastor’s guide to accelerating generosity in churches

Champion

Leadership Network

Local Challenges

SEE MORE LOCAL CHALLENGES AND PROJECTS ON INDIGITOUS


Awards

Participants will compete for non-cash Recognition Awards in three categories:

  • Best Overall started at the hackathon
  • Best Overall started before the hackathon
  • People’s choice (voted by all participants across all submitted projects)
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Mentors

Meet with Mentors is a great opportunity to connect with industry experts who can guide you and your concepts. Schedule your sessions with mentors of your choice on Friday/Saturday and get connected.

On-site Mentors

Virtual Mentors

Show mentors who can help in:

Aaron Ginn

Aaron Ginn
Head of Growth, StumbleUpon


Mentor hours: Friday Oct 2, 10am US PDT until 12pm US PDT SCHEDULE YOUR MENTORING TIME

Currently the Head of Growth at Stumbleupon, Aaron is an expert on growth and has a passion for public policy issues and philosophy. He applies his personal and professional study of people and metaphysics to marketing, product, and entrepreneurship. His approach to markeitng is product driven, data inspired, and cross-disciplinary (pulling in his experience with philosophy and behavioral economics).He helped grow the Romney Campaign to the millions and StumbledUpon’s users to the tens of millions. He hopes to bring the same success in growth and engagement from the startup and technology community to political arena with LincolnLabs.

Alain Ayoub

Alain Ayoub
Engineering Manager, Google


Mentor hours: Sunday Oct 4, 830am US PDT until 930am and 1pm until 6pm US PDT SCHEDULE YOUR MENTORING TIME

Alain is a software engineering manager at Google responsible for bringing fast Internet access to everyone in the world. Most recently, he helped launch Google+ and built software to connect Google's data centers. Prior to Google, Alain held engineering positions at Symantec, Pillar Data Systems, and Maxtor. He has a passion for advising innovative Jesus-centered tech start-ups and brings over a decade of experience in the tech industry.

Ali Llewellyn

Ali Llewellyn
Co-founder, International Space Apps Challenge


Mentor hours: Saturday Oct 3, 10am US PDT until 12pm US PDT SCHEDULE YOUR MENTORING TIME

Ali works on expanding the scale and scope of public-private mass collaborations that improve governance and engage citizens in creating a better world. Her background in education, cross-cultural communication and theology provides the passion and articulation necessary to help companies and communities take their mission to the next level. She was a co-founder of the International Space Apps Challenge and National Day of Civic Hacking, two of the largest mass collaborations in history, and has traveled widely with a vision to ignite church planting movements in the nations.

Andrew Sears

Andrew Sears
Executive Director, TechMission


Mentor hours: Friday Oct 2, 12pm US PDT until 2pm US PDT SCHEDULE YOUR MENTORING TIME

Andrew is the founder and Executive Director of TechMission and the President of City Vision College. He serves as the Director of City Vision’s Master’s program in Technology and Ministry that is a startup accelerator for Christian tech projects. He received his MS in Technology and Policy and MS in Computer Science at MIT where he co-founded the Internet and Telecoms Consortium with one of the fathers of the Internet. He has also done consulting in new product development to companies including St. Paul Venture Capital and Sprint as well as many ministries.

Brent Dusing

Brent Dusing
Founder, Chairman and CEO, Lightside Games


Mentor hours: Saturday Oct 3, 9 am US PDT until 11 am US PDT SCHEDULE YOUR MENTORING TIME

Brent Dusing is the founder, chairman, and chief executive officer of Lightside Games. The company is the outgrowth of his passion for quality, biblically authentic entertainment. Before founding Lightside, Brent was the co-founder and CEO of Cellfire, the nation’s leading mobile coupon company used today at grocers like Safeway and Kroger. He started Cellfire with Preston Tollinger at the age of 26. Prior to Cellfire, Brent was a venture capitalist and also spent a year working with refugees and the homeless in Johannesburg, South Africa. He has been featured on CNN.com, FoxNews.com, ABC News, and Fox Nightly News, as well as in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, USA Today, Entertainment Weekly, and other places. Brent has a bachelor’s degree in economics from Harvard University.

Brian Abbott

Brian Abbott
Director of Digital Development, Group Publishing


Mentor hours: Friday Oct 2, 12:30pm US PDT until 2:30pm US PDT SCHEDULE YOUR MENTORING TIME
Chris Chan

Chris Chan
Hacker, Yahoo


Mentor hours: Friday Oct 2, 10pm US PDT until 12am (midnight) US PDT and Saturday, Oct 3, 3pm US PDT until 6pm US PDT SCHEDULE YOUR MENTORING TIME

Chris is a leader in product innovation at Yahoo. He dominates Hackathons at Yahoo and has won the most number of Hackathons in the company’s history. He has a particular passion for mentoring new hackers at Hackathons. In his day job, he works as an engineering lead at Yahoo Search, where he is currently bringing his inventions to market. Chris also sits on the Yahoo For Good Council where he works on hacks focused on bringing positive social impact. He has 15+ years of experience in programming, and holds a Master’s Degree in computer science from the University of Victoria in Canada.

Dusty Gulleson

Dusty Gulleson
Founder, ORA, eResources


Mentor hours: Sunday Oct 4, 8am US PDT until 5pm US PDT SCHEDULE YOUR MENTORING TIME

Dusty Gulleson is Chief Executive Officer and has built eResources from a one-man web consulting firm into a thriving competitor in the Content Management, Online Application Management, and custom applications market. In addition to managing the growth and strategic vision of eResources, Gulleson serves as the Chief Software Designer. He is responsible for the design and development of the company’s flagship product eResources Content Management System and various SaaS-delivered custom applications, such as the paperless Online Application Manager.In 2012 he formed ORA, a mobile and community building app to introduce a new way to pray. ORA leverages existing social networks and mobile devices to connect individuals in the most meaningful relationship they can have with others and with God. ORA technology creates a personal mobile experience for the individual to invite, connect, share, respond and interact with one another in intercessory prayer. ORA collects, organizes, tracks, reminds, connects and securely shares prayer requests and answers with anyone you choose. ORA does this at a personal and intimate level with your friends and family through the mobile platform or 'app' on their smartphone. And ORA does this at the organization level through software that your organizations can use with your existing infrastructure (i.e. - church management software, emailing system, website cms, etc.)

Eric Swanson

Eric Swanson
Missional Specialist, Tango and Leadership Network


Mentor hours: Saturday, Oct 3 8am US PDT until 10am DPDT SCHEDULE YOUR MENTORING TIME

Eric has a passion for engaging churches worldwide in the needs and dreams of their communities toward the end of spiritual and societal transformation. He served with Cru for twenty-five years before joining the staff of Leadership Network where he currently works as a missional leadership specialist, serving as Leadership Community Director for Externally Focused Churches, Missional Renaissance and Global Connection Churches working with scores of missional churches around North America. He also works with leaders around the world who are focused on kingdom transformation and serves as adjunct faculty at Denver Seminary. He holds a D.Min. degree in “Transformational Leadership in the Global City” from Bakke Graduate University and is co-author of The Externally Focused Church, The Externally Focused Life, The Externally Focused Quest, and To Transform a City. Eric also has a passion for and a level of expertise in principles of human behavior as it relates to lean startups and digital technology. www.ericjswanson.com

Jason Illian

Jason Illian
Founder/CEO, BookShout


Mentor hours: Friday Oct 2, 7:30pm US PDT until Saturday, Oct 3 11pm US PDT SCHEDULE YOUR MENTORING TIME

Jason is the founder and CEO of RethinkBooks.com, a dynamic social e-book company which focuses on engaging and interactive content allowing people to read together. With more than 10 years of technology and executive experience, Jason Illian is a visionary in the mobile and social new media space. Having raised over $30 million for new business ventures, Jason has a passion for taking great ideas and making them businesses. His strategic thinking has helped corporations, organizations, non-profits, churches, and leaders be more innovative. Jason is also the former CEO of Big Jump Media (godtube.com and tangle.com), a Christian video network that had over 4 million monthly users.

Jim Straatman

Jim Straatman
Vice President of New Products, Faithlife


Mentor hours: Friday Oct 2, 9 pm US PDT until 11pm US PDT and Saturday Oct 3, 9pm US PDT until 11pm US PDT SCHEDULE YOUR MENTORING TIME
John Tornow

John Tornow
President and COO, Oven Bits


Mentor hours: Friday Oct 2, 1pm US PDT until 3pm US PDT SCHEDULE YOUR MENTORING TIME

John Tornow is the President and COO of Oven Bits, a 70-person software product studio based in Texas, where he leads business operations and product development. In addition to operations, John drives technical architecture and system design for Oven Bits’ major projects. Prior to Oven Bits, John ran technical operations for The Richards Group and oversaw large teams of front-end, back-end and multi-media engineers. Some of his past clients include the Department of Navy, Chick-fil-A, Home Depot and The Salvation Army.

Julie Barrios

Julie Barrios
Director of Spiritual Formation, Reality SF


Mentor hours: Friday Oct 2, 11am US PDT until 1pm US DT SCHEDULE YOUR MENTORING TIME

Julie Barrios serves as the Director of Spiritual Formation at Reality SF. She studied Spiritual Formation and Soul Care at Talbot School of Theology and is passionate about the interconnection of spiritual theology and every other craft of culture. It's in these intersections that we discover a robust, embodied awareness of what it means to be human. This was greatly influenced by her time at the Loyola Institute, where she specialized in Ignatian (Jesuit) spirituality and it's invitation to "find Christ in all things." With playful joy, Julie has made odd friendships with unlikely disciplines, developmental spirituality and fashion, technology, economics, and art, to name a few. She is a voracious learner and loves to discover Christ in new and unlikely ways.


Justin Miller

Justin Miller
Director of Technology, Global Media Outreach


Mentor hours: Friday Oct 2, 9:30pm US PDT until Saturday Oct 3, 1am US PDT SCHEDULE YOUR MENTORING TIME

Justin Miller is the Director of Technology at Global Media Outreach, an internet ministry whose vision is to share, disciple, and connect people with the gospel. As Director of Technology, Justin oversees a highly skilled team of developers who are responsible for 200 websites in 26 languages and have scaled them to reach over 1.3 billion people with the gospel. Justin believes anything is possible with enough time and hardware and loves solving practical problems with technology. Prior to GMO, Justin worked on technology teams at Cru and UCF, and graduated from the University of Central Florida in 2007 with degrees in math and computer science, and a focus on cryptography, computer forensics, and network security

Ken Churchill

Ken Churchill
Senior Vice President. Morgan Stanley


Mentor hours: Saturday Oct 3, 7am US PDT until 9am US PDT SCHEDULE YOUR MENTORING TIME

Ken Churchill is Portfolio Manager Director, Senior Vice President, and Financial Advisor for Morgan Stanley. In the 1980s, Ken was the Administrator of World Vision in the central region of Sudan, and worked in Nairobi, Kenya, in public health. He worked twice in Thailand. During the first of these assignments he lived and worked in the Banvinai Refugee Camp near the Mekong River. Later he returned to run World Relief Thailand and the Christian Medical Team, both in Bangkok.

Kenneth Finsaas

Kenneth Finsaas
Strategic Development, Thrivent Financial


Mentor hours: Saturday Oct 3, 6am US PDT until 10am US PDT and Saturday, Oct 3, 11am US PDT until 6pm US PDT SCHEDULE YOUR MENTORING TIME

Ken has worked within the technology space for a couple of decades. Along the way, he has held executive positions both in the for-profit and not-for-profit sectors, creating innovative and disruptive solutions for organizations of all sizes and shapes. Recently he was the Executive Director of the Table Project, a social media tool that helps churches create a more connected environment. Currently he is the Director of Strategic Development for Thrivent Financial, a not-for-profit Fortunate 300 organization dedicated to helping Christians be wise with money and live generously. He has three grown children and lived with his wife, Anne-Marie, in Plymouth, Minnesota.

Kent Shaffer

Kent Shaffer
Founder, Open Church


Mentor hours: Saturday Oct 3, 10am US PDT until 5pm US PDT SCHEDULE YOUR MENTORING TIME Kent Shaffer lives in an RV with his wife and 2 kids. It's part of his work with Open Church - an initiative to help disciples of Jesus collaborate, learn from each other, and share resources. At the core of this collaborative ecosystem is a free, global library of digital content and tools. He also co-founded a design and marketing firm, launched and sold a few tech startups, and gave strategic counsel to groups such as LifeChurch.tv, Saddleback Church, charity: water, Leadership Network, and OneHope. He writes at ChurchRelevance.com about the intersection of theology and methodology - what we do vs what Christ said. His ministry roots began as a missionary’s kid in Peru and evolved into 10+ years of youth and children’s ministry at Church on the Move, LifeChurch.tv, and Frontline Church.
Kevin Kim

Kevin Kim
Crazy Love Ministries


Mentor hours: Friday Oct 2, 10am US PDT until 2pm US PDT SCHEDULE YOUR MENTORING TIME

Kevin Kim is the executive director of Crazy Love Ministries and is working on a house church movement in San Francisco with Francis Chan. He received his B.A in Biology from the University of Virginia and his M.Div from Biblical Theological Seminary. He is passionate about the intersection of worship and justice, innovation and the church. In his free time he enjoys basketball, snowboarding and spending time with his wife and three children.

Laura Slezinger

Laura Slezinger
Intellectual Attorney and Partner, Venture Gained Legal


Mentor hours: Saturday Oct 3, 8am US PDT until 3pm US PDT SCHEDULE YOUR MENTORING TIME

Laura is a startup attorney from Silicon Valley. She counsels entrepreneurs and early stage companies on intellectual property, advertising and internet law issues. She has a passion for the intersection of law, technology, and the creative, entrepreneurial spirit. Laura has a heart for women and the unique challenges they face today. She was Managing Director of Girls in Tech, San Francisco from 2009-2014, where it was her pleasure to promote women’s innovative and entrepreneurial achievements in technology. Some of her speaking engagements include: “Intellectual Property for Startups” at Stanford University Technology Ventures Program; “Women Entrepreneurs: Founders + Successful Brands” at Social Edge Summit; “Top Legal Mistakes Startups Make” at MobileMonday Silicon Valley; Keynote at Pitch Mixer Entrepreneur Forum; Guest Attorney on “This Week in Law” episode #142; and TedxConstitutionDrive. Laura earned her B.A. from UC Berkeley; her J.D. from the University of San Diego, where she was Editor-in-Chief of Motions. She earned an LL.M. in Intellectual Property & Technology Law from the University of San Francisco, School of Law where she worked on the Intellectual Property Law Bulletin and participated in the IP & Internet Justice Clinic, advocating for students being sued by the RIAA.

LouAnn Hunt

LouAnn Hunt
Digital Bible Manager, Faith Comes By Hearing


Mentor hours: Saturday Oct 3, 9am US PDT until 11am US PDT SCHEDULE YOUR MENTORING TIME

LouAnn Hunt is the Digital Bible Manager at Faith Comes By Hearing. She leads an awesome team who created the second-most downloaded Bible app, Bible.is, offering Bibles in over 800 languages. LouAnn also oversees the Digital Bible Platform, the world's largest digital library of Bible text, audio, and video content, which is available via API. Digital initiatives she manages include localization strategies, Deaf Bible app, KIDZ Bible app, Smart TV apps, radio, and satellite.She loves all things digital and is passionate about getting God's Word to everyone, everywhere in their heart language through every digital means available now and in the future. She is always looking for innovative solutions and out-of-the-box thinking to get the Bible into the hands of every human on earth. Her team's vision is for no one to have to search for the Bible in their language, "the Bible should just BE..."

Mark S

Mark S
Founder, Generous, Product Development Director, Horizons International


Mentor hours: Friday Oct 2, 6am US PDT until 10am US PDT, Friday Oct 2 7pm PDT until 9pm PDT, Saturday Oct 3 6am PDT until 9am PDT, 6pm PDT until 8pm PDT, Sunday Oct 4, 7am PDT until 8am PDT SCHEDULE YOUR MENTORING TIME

Mark is an entrepreneur, product manager and Director of Product Development for Horizons International, a Christian non-profit with ministries focusing on the Middle East. Mark lived in the Middle East for 7 years, and has worked with Muslims for over 17 years. He has done Business as Missions in the Middle East, starting a software company with a US and Middle East presence. Currently, Mark’s start-up Generous.org is focused on solving the problem of the Church and generosity via nontraditional methods.

Nicholas Skytland

Nicholas Skytland
Co-founder, National Day of Civic Hacking


Mentor hours: Saturday Oct 3 11am PDT until 1pm PDT, Sunday Oct 4, 9am PDT until 11am PDT SCHEDULE YOUR MENTORING TIME

Nicholas Skytland is an expert on harnessing the power of open innovation, data and technology to reform business and government. He founded NASA's Open Innovation Program, where he led the implementation of numerous White House mandates, including the Open Government, Open Data and Digital Strategy directives, with a focus on liberating high value data sets, pushing forward the use of open source software, developing cutting-edge technology, and creating participatory opportunities to engage citizens in solving humanity’s grand challenges.

Roberto Ortiz

Roberto Ortiz
Director of Mobile Design, Yahoo


Mentor hours: Friday Oct 2, 7:30am US PDT until 9:30am US PDT SCHEDULE YOUR MENTORING TIME

Roberto is currently Director of Mobile Design at Yahoo, where he helps lead a design team focused on native mobile experiences. His journey at Yahoo began less than a year ago after being acquired for a mobile product he helped design with his close friend. Prior to Yahoo, Roberto spent a couple of years at Google where he focused on UX design, however he jump started his career in software and design when he was recruited by Lockheed Martin when he was 17 years old. He is also a co-founder of ELEO (eleoconference.com), a meetup and conference held in the bay area that focuses on leadership + entrepreneurship.

Shawn Ring

Shawn Ring
Executive Pastor of Table/myGateway, Gateway Church


Mentor hours: Friday Oct 2, 11am US PDT until 3pm US PDT, Saturday Oct 3, 1pm US PDT until 3pm US PDT SCHEDULE YOUR MENTORING TIME

As Executive Pastor of Table/myGateway of Gateway Church, Shawn oversees the technology-based ministries of spiritual formation, community and mobile engagements. Shawn has over 20 years experience in leading and integrating ministry, technology and business. Prior to joining Gateway, Shawn co-founded a national, filtered internet service provider, Integrity Online. He also led several overseas ministry initiatives, including serving as President and CTO of Assemble Communications, a multi-national telecommunications company. He has been married to his wife, Brenda, for over 21 years, and together they have two girls and two boys.a.

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API

At Code For The Kingdom, we value your precious time and don’t want you to reinvent the wheel. That’s why our sponsors have come forward to offer their APIs, in order to enable you to build better and faster. That said, please note that there is no compulsion that these APIs must be used or any other restrictions on technologies that you may use at the Hackathon.

We believe that these platforms may assist you as you create effective solutions to today’s problems. So leverage these APIs and the best resources around so that together, we can create technology that matters.

Digital Bible Platform
Access digital Bible content in hundreds of languages. Free.

Easy access to Bible text, audio, and videos with simple API calls to the Digital Bible Platform. Become one of the few developers to provide Deaf Bible videos in your app.

Help Faith Comes By Hearing enhance the Digital Bible Platform for the developer community. Provide your feedback and in turn support enhancements for your apps.

During the event, this username and key will be active so developers can immediately use the API. If you want to continue using the API after the event you can sign up for your own key.

Clarify
The API for organizations to build apps that search and understand their audio and video.

Clarify is a self-service API that allows you to make your audio and video files actionable via search and extracted keywords and topics. The Clarify API provides a RESTful API to extract knowledge from audio and video content.

Biblia.com and Faithlife.com API
Biblia.com and Faithlife.com API.

Biblia.com API

http://api.biblia.com/docs/

The Biblia.com API provides access to information about available Bibles (Find, Image), access to text in those Bibles (Content), and the ability to find content within those Bibles (Search). Additional services support validating Bible references (Parse), comparing Bible references (Compare), and finding Bible references in text and HTML (Scan, Tag).

Faithlife.com API

https://developer.faithlife.com/

The Faithlife API provides Community and Accounts functionality. The Accounts API encompasses user and group data, such as a user’s role in a group or what groups a user is a member of, while the Community API encompasses all social interaction between accounts, such as messaging and commenting.

  • If you plan to use both APIs, you’ll have to register with each independently.
Google Cardboard API
Google Cardboard

Google Cardboard enables to us to create virtual reality experiences for the masses. Check it the developer documentation here: https://developers.google.com/cardboard/


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Rules

Why the rules?

The rules are in place to give every participant the same opportunity for success. In order to be eligible for the prizes, participants must follow the rules. However, if you want to participate and not follow the rules below, you will be permitted to do so, although you will not be eligible for the prizes.

Importantly, you can start coding ahead of the hackathon or at the hackathon. So what are you waiting for? Register now and get started!

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Read the rules

You can start coding ahead of the hackathon or at the hackathon.

USE WHAT YOU KNOW

Participants are free to use any tools that they know, in order to help them code.

CODING RULES

There will be identical but separate awards for teams that started coding before the hackathon as well as teams that started coding at the hackathon. However, some or all of the coding must take place at the hackathon, in order to be eligible for the awards.

TRY TO USE OUR SPONSOR’S API’S

Although not mandatory, participants are encouraged to use our platform sponsor’s technologies.

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

Participants have full ownership of what they build during the Code for the Kingdom hackathon and are free to do with it as they wish. If you build as a team, the IP is shared by the team. If you build as an individual, the IP is all yours.

FINISH ON TIME

Participant must submit their project by the submission time on Sunday afternoon. No late submissions will be accepted.

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FAQ

What's a hackathon?

A hackathon is an event where people get together and develop some awesome technologies in a short time span. Think of it as a creative marathon where at the end you have some product to show for.

Who is organizing the 2015 Code for the Kingdom hackathon?

It is being organized locally by an impressive team with extensive international experience and globally by Leadership Network.

What is this hackathon trying to accomplish?

This Hackathon is a non-profit event to encourage the activation and on-going collaboration of a larger ecosystem of all sort of creative individuals ( including programmers, designers, creatives, entrepreneurs, and leaders of churches, non-profits, and the marketplace) who are passionate about creating technologies to tackle from a Christian perspective the challenges confronting our society, our communities, our churches, and our spiritual lives.

Is there a main theme to the Code for the Kingdom Hackathon?

Yes, Transforming Lives. How can technology help alleviate and eradicate all forms of injustice while teaching about God’s unconditional love?

I'm from outside . Can I still participate?

Yes. Join us.

I'm not Christian. Can I still participate?

Yes, absolutely.

What if I don’t know how to program?

Everyone has something to offer to help transform lives. If you come full of ideas there will be technologists eager to be in a team with you.

Do I have to bring my own laptop?

Yes; we do not provide computers. Please bring anything you’ll need to code.

I can’t stay the entire time, can I still participate?

Yes. We realize that 47 hours is a long time, and that some people might have other commitments, or might prefer to work remotely, or need to go home/hotel to rest and shower. Yet, you need to be present for the initial few hours during the startup demos, and at some point you need be at the venue and do some work onsite. You will also need to be present for the final few hours for the presentations and judging.

Can I sleep at the venue?

Yes the venue will be open for the duration of the event, please bring a sleeping bag, a pillow, or whatever you might need, and find a place at the venue to take a good nap.

Are there showers at the venue?

No

Will I meet my team members before the event?

Possibly. You can use the platform Indigitious at anytime to meet other participants, propose ideas, and recruit or be recruited into a team. But you can also bring your own team, or come alone and become part of a team at the hackathon.

Can I present a technology I already have?

You can build on top of something you have, but whatever you present must have new code developed for at least one of the challenges of the hackathon and you must do some of that coding at the hackathon venue during the hackathon hours.

Won’t other teams who are building on top of technologies they already developed, not have an unfair advantage over me who plans to start coding during the actual hackathon hours?

We don’t think so. There will be separate awards for teams that present solutions built on their existing technologies, and for teams that start fresh at the hackathon. We want to honor all of you, regardless of whether you have been working for a while on something you are passionate about, or whether you decide on something brand new.

Do I have to work non-stop?

No. The work space will be available non-stop entire durantion of the hackathon but it is up to you and your team to decide on your work schedule.

Who owns the IP of what we make?

This is ultimately a question for your team. But neither the organizers nor Code for the Kingdom claims any ownership of any technologies you develop.

Will I be able to test my presentation before the final presentation?

Yes!

What's the format of the final presentation?

Each team will have 3 minutes for their demo and 2 minutes to answer questions from the judges.

Who will be in attendance at the final presentations?

The final screening is public, although space is limited. Expect a mixture of participants, hi-tech executives, venture capitalists and angels, ministry and non-profit leaders, press, and observers.

Will there be awards given?

Yes, but these are non-cash awards.

What's the hashtag?

#C4TK

Who is on the Jury?

The jury’s composition will be announced closer to the date of the hackathon.

What are the judging criteria?

The judges will consider Kingdom impact, viability, innovativeness / originality, and completeness.

MAP