About


How can technology help alleviate and eradicate all forms of injustice in a child’s life, while teaching him/her about God’s unconditional love?

Did you know that it is between the ages of 4-14 that over 80% of Christians choose Christ? Children are the biggest mission fields and fertile ground for the Word of God. Now, more than ever before in history, children are learning everything and anything by means of mobile technology even before they learn from their parents or teachers.

This fall, we want to develop new technologies to transform children’s lives through a holistic Christian approach that combats social injustice, creates a culture of generosity, facilitates spiritual justice and unleashes the fullest capacity of each individual.

Code for the Kingdom is a weekend Hackathon where global issues are tackled with a Christian perspective. Join us at Austin, TX as we battle the challenges confronting children all over the world.

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Event Theme

ENGAGING AND RELEASING OUR BEST

Every person has something unique to contribute to the community, society, and church. Yet, less than 20% of us are actively engaged in doing what we could do. Most of us do not understand how we can leverage our skills and ideas to improve the lives of children other than our own. What if we could discover how to use our unique gifts for God’s Kingdom? Build technologies to mobilize and equip every member of your community, church and family. Empower them to release their skills as well as to accelerate great ideas and initiatives that could transform the lives of the child down your street.

SPIRITUAL JUSTICE

Every person has something unique to contribute to the community, society, and church. Yet, less than 20% of us are actively engaged in doing what we could do. Most of us do not understand how we can leverage our skills and ideas to improve the lives of children other than our own. What if we could discover how to use our unique gifts for God’s Kingdom? Build technologies to mobilize and equip every member of your community, church and family. Empower them to release their skills as well as to accelerate great ideas and initiatives that could transform the lives of the child down your street.

HELP CREATE A CULTURE OF GENEROSITY

The Church and non-profits are always significantly underfunded. The Great Commission could be tremendously impacted and enhanced if financial resources were available. What better opportunity than this to cultivate generosity with Generis? Build fresh user experiences that can help organizations redefine the giving experience for their patrons. Leverage the power of technology to encourage individuals and families to become generous to the causes and churches.

SOCIAL JUSTICE

How can technology alleviate the social maladies that oppress children? How can you help knock off a little corner of darkness? Here’s a chance to work with International Justice Mission to create apps to fight child trafficking across the world. Build new technologies to combat poverty, lift the fatherless, release the oppressed, heal the sick, and feed the hungry.

Register now to join us this fall at Austin, TX as we work to leveraging technology to transform children’s lives. Plus, you get to rub shoulders with some of the most effective global ministries, technologists, entrepreneurs, investors, hi-tech accelerators, church leaders and creative individuals from every discipline.

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WINNERS

Here are the winners.

Best of New Code

Treasure Hunt

A mobile game to help children learn the Word of God. The game combines a choose-your-own-adventure story, a geocaching game (outdoor recreational activity using GPS in a mobile device), and Scriptural reflection and discussion.

http://treasurehunt.launchrock.com/

Team Members: Nick Gibson, Jae Lee, Sherry Chau, Liam Savage

Best of Existing Code

Scriptive

Scriptive recommends Bible verses according to your situation, emotions and circumstances. This is what makes Scriptive both different and powerful: it is not about keyword searches but it is about understanding the emotional and situational context of the person seeking spiritual guidance, and providing recommendations on Bible verses from others how have experienced similar circumstances

https://www.scriptive.org/

Team Members: Charles Roach, Frank Rietta, Brandon Dees

Runner-up of New Code

UResQ

Built in response to the International Justice Mission challenge, UResQ is first a mobile app that individuals in the community can use to alert suspicious activity in their area, with GPS, photo, time of day, video, audio, and text. It also includes an Incident Report Management component used as a control panel by the sex trafficking fighting organizations to dispatch agents to further investigate and disrupt the business of sex trafficking.

http://www.urescue.org/

Team Members:James Arnold, Dave Schlittler, Robert Horan, Phillip Olive, Philip Stolle, Hephzibah Lobo, Safris Suresh

Runner-up of Existing Code

Deedvine

Deedvine provides the community with the means, the platform, and the audience to affect social change through crowd-funding and crowd-sourcing action at large scale.

http://www.deedvine.com/

Team Members: Andrew Chen, Danny McPherson

People's Choice

Recycle My Water

Using 3-D printing technology, and centuries old concepts of water collection, "Recycle My Water " provides a template for an atmospheric water generator, a device that extracts water from the air.

http://recyclemywater.wikispaces.com/home

Team Members: Eric Heflin, and children

Leader to Watch

Shamichael Hallman

We recognize Shamichael as a vibrant voice that we believe will help shape the church leadership understanding of the value of technology and the need to engage and release the creative forces of the marketplace and ministry to create game changing technologies with a Christian perspective in this digital lifestyle of our times.

https://twitter.com/shamike2009

Best Use of the Logos API

Treasure Hunt

A mobile game to help children learn the Word of God. The game combines a choose-your-own-adventure story, a geocaching game (outdoor recreational activity using GPS in a mobile device), and Scriptural reflection and discussion.

http://treasurehunt.launchrock.com/

Team Members: Nick Gibson, Jae Lee, Sherry Chau, Liam Savage


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Schedule

Friday OCtober 25th, 2013
6:00 PMDoors Open
6:00 PM - 7:00 PMDinner & Networking
7:00 PM - 7:25 PMWelcome & Review Format
7:25 PM - 7:35 PMAPI Presentations
7:35 PM - 7:50 PMReview - Official Challenges
7:50 PM - 8:20 PMOpen Floor - pitch your own project
8:20 PM - 11:59 PMTeam Formation/Hack Away

This venue will remain open around the clock. Participants are encouraged to utilize the facility and take advantage of the meals and healthy hacker activities day and night, if desired.

Saturday October 26th, 2013
12:00 AM - 11:59 PMHacking
8:30 AMBreakfast
12:00 PMLunch
6:00 PMDinner
9:00 AM - 5:00 PMMeet the Mentors

Meet with Mentors is a great opportunity to connect with industry experts who can guide you and your concepts. The organizers will help you connect with mentors of your choice on Friday/Saturday.

This venue will remain open around the clock. Participants are encouraged to utilize the facility and take advantage of the meals and healthy hacker activities day and night, if desired.

Sunday October 27th, 2013
8:30 AMBreakfast
11:00 AM - 11:20 AMSunday Service
12:00 PMLunch
1:00 PMPresentation Walk-thru & Judges Make Rounds
2:30 PMTeam Presentations Begin (5 min max presentation, 3 min max Q&A)
4:30 PM Judges adjourn
4:50 PMCall-back
5:00 PMAwards Ceremony
5:30 PMClosing

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Challenges

Here are a few challenges from our sponsors to get you hackers started. Please remember that more challenges will be presented on the first day of the Hackathon. If you would like to discuss with potential team members or even the sponsors of these challenges, please join and leverage the wonderful group on our Google Plus community.

In case you are already interested or working on other challenges, don’t change course. We are more than happy to add new challenges everyday and look forward to the ones that you are passionate about. Please come prepared to pitch your challenges at the Hackathon so that you can sign up teams to work on them.

Children

How can technology bring the word of God to the mobile first generation of children?

Did you know that more than 80% of Christians choose Christ between the ages of 4-14? Children are the biggest mission field, and they have impressionable young minds that are fertile ground for the Word of God.

Build a mobile application to help children learn the word of God, bury it in their hearts and share it with their friends in a fun, interactive, and engaging way, using the platforms they're already using while making the Bible more "awesome" and "cool" than Angry Birds, Temple Run, and Candy Crush.

Champions

Leadership Network

Generosity

Simpler and quicker to give with automated responses to givers, Crowd funding and synergy with other churches.

Overarching theme for generosity challenges

For the last 63 years or so (roughly since 1953), giving in the US church has been on the decline, to the point that giving as a percentage of income is at about the same level it was in 1928-1930, the time of the Great Depression. During the same period, wealth accumulation, as measured by key stock indices, has increased dramatically. Some call it one of the largest accumulations of wealth ever in such a short time. We have plenty of financial resources but we are not being generous with them.

The result of the decline in giving is that the vision of the US church is significantly underfunded. Consequently, children transformation initiatives by churches and non-profits are immensely undermined. There is significant work that can be done in Jesus’ name if the financial resources were available.

The US church is struggling to come up with effective giving process and mechanisms using technology solutions. The ones that are currently available are clunky, ineffective, expensive or some combination thereof. The challenges we are presenting are directed toward helping the church solve those issues. Challenge #1: Simpler and quicker to give with automated responses to givers

Key question to frame the challenge: Knowing that generosity brings about spiritual growth and that generosity is a like a muscle (the sooner they start exercising it the stronger the person will become), how do we radically shrink the amount of time it takes someone to become generous to a cause?

Giving and generosity systems in churches are set up mainly to appeal to the Boomer generation and older. As giving motivations changes, younger givers are not only looking at different reasons to give but also different methods to give. Churches are notorious for only promoting cash and checks in their weekly offerings. This will not work as we try to encourage church people (especially the younger generations) to become more generous to the church.

Challenge 1a: One Possible Solution How do we make it very simple for people to give electronically? How can we develop easy to use giving mechanisms (mobile devices) that would be appealing and easy to use? And, after they give, how can we created automated responses based on their giving activity (amount of gift, frequency of gift, etc.). An additional feature would be automatically generated reports for the senior leadership team showing changes in giving activity – increase in regular giving, significant one-time gift, decrease in giving.

Note: We are not looking to challenge a team to create a giving solution. There are plenty of those (Pushpay, Kindrid, SecureGive, SimpleGive, et. al.). This is about enabling all the devices and giving interfaces to work together in such a way as to promote generosity.

Challenge 1b: Another Possible Solution Additionally, givers are motived when they know their giving makes a difference. In other words, “How are lives changed when I give?” Stories of impact make a big difference. However, churches are challenged when it come to collecting the stories and telling them to their constituency. What if we could create a “generosity channel” in the church – a place where people would be encouraged to upload their stories. The church would need to have a curator to screen and organize the videos. People could subscribe to the channel. Alternately, the church could push the videos to people as they make contributions to the church.

Benefit: Simple, economical online tools allow leaders to do what they do best, without worrying about the technical details of raising money. Providing a simple interface to encourage givers to start giving will advance generosity, especially with people who do not typically write checks to the church. Challenge #2: Crowd funding and synergy with other churches

Key question to frame the challenge: While some churches and Christian organizations struggle to realize their vision, often there are many congregation members within churches who can help with the required resources and capital. How can we create a platform within a Christian environment where congregation members can support their own churches and other organizations including children focused causes? How can we empower single individuals with concepts of Crowd Funding/Crowd Contributing in a Christian environment to serve large churches and organizations at their point of need?

Communities have needs that are not funded. Churches do not typically come together to fund community needs. Many times, those churches would fund community type projects if they had the resources. The idea here is to unite multiple churches in a community and, at the same time, create a crowd funding mechanism to raise the resources. For example, an urban ministry has a legitimate need for $100,000. Churches do not pay attention because they know they do not have $100,000. What if we could unite 4-5 churches at $20,000 – $25,000 each and then use a crowd funding mechanism inside each church to raise the $100,000 total?

(Note: Though we have only mentioned community needs, this mechanism could be used to fund all kinds of needs – church plants and startup ministries, for example. Can we create an application that will grow with the needs of leaders, especially when they transition from ‘startup’ to ‘established’? Users will be able to create instant giving sites, with TANGIBLE items pre-populated that we know new churches need (i.e. trailers, microphones, stage equip, insurance, etc.). Similar to Kickstarter, but context specific to meet known needs church leaders need, the system will automatically generate a giving micro site and give leaders full control over their own giving area.)

Benefit: Simple, economical online tools allow leaders to do what they do best, without worrying about the technical details of raising money. Processing costs will be distributed across the community so that individual ministries are not bearing brunt of all those costs. Gives leaders a ‘jumpstart’ on casting vision for tangible needs, because the system will pre-populate their giving area with common needs. Integrations with Mail Chimp, Social Media etc. will allow leaders to quickly cast vision and start raising money.

Champions

Generis

Human Trafficking

How can you bring light into the dark world of commercial sex trafficking? Can you locate the child, who is lost and hopeless in the hands of her owner? Join us in searching for the lost child just as Jesus went after the lost coin or the lost sheep.

Create technologies that would disrupt the business of sex trafficking, bring tools to men, women, and organizations fighting sex trafficking globally, and bring hope and safe passage to the victims.

For example: Build a mobile application that tourists and residents can use to alert suspicious activity in the area, with GPS, photo, time of day, video, audio, and text. Include tips to teach users to successfully identify suspicious activity. Perhaps even alert users of successful rescues in the area.

Build a web front-end that can be used to dispatch agents of sex trafficking fighting organizations to the locations, based on urgency, and accuracy of the information. Track when an agent decides to accept the location, their notes, as well as any subsequent trips to the location. Visualize all interactions using maps, timelines, photo albums to tag people etc.

Build a mobile application for agents to intercept jobs near their location and record their own notes, photos, GPS, video, time of day, audio, and text. Rank urgency of rescue, and certainty of the crime. This must have the ability to go into silent or incognito mode once inside a facility, for the safety of the agents.

Champions

International Justice Mission

Children’s Ministry Mapping

How can technology be used to close the gap between children and ministry? What kinds of solutions can a new mobile app called Children’s Ministry Mapping offer?

With this challenge, One Hope is looking at a mobile app that feeds into a global map where people check in during sessions of ministering to children with types of ministry being provided to children. This app would achieve the following goals.

Help us direct children to locations where they can be taught and show us gaps where ministry in unavailable

Data could be categorized by type of ministry and number of children typically involved

Frequency of check in at location would communicate frequency/consistency of ministry provision

Helps potential volunteers and funders find places to support and enables leader to check in with category and numbers

Helps families learn where the nearest sports ministry or literacy training or grief counseling for children is available.

Also begins to show where new initiatives and resources might be strategically directed.

Champions

One Hope

Task Rabbit

How can we create a Task Rabbit for Children’s Ministry?

Children’s ministry tends to be underfunded and often led by someone with a big heart, but that doesn’t mean they can do everything that might be needed. All of us need help with various things and there could be someone in our city that would love to help with their area of expertise, but not know how to find the person who needs the help. The challenge is to link those who need help doing ministry to those willing to help them.

In Latin America, for example, there is a new movement to equip young people with technical skills, but the question remains, how to match them to people who need that expertise? What if there was a task rabbit for those doing ministry and those who want to volunteer. No money is exchanged, but rating systems could still identify satisfactory volunteers and “customers”, so that those accepting the offer of help can have confidence that the one offering it is safe, effective, and dependable—and volunteers don’t offer their time to someone who misuses it.

Volunteer opportunities could be limited in size so that no volunteer is exploited. Young people looking for community involvement/service hours would have an easy way of finding opportunities. People working in professions could offer their services and those doing ministry could find the type of service they need. Some of this work requires physical involvement, but other types could be done remotely (ex. IT help, set design, creating a parent newsletter template, etc.).

Champions

One Hope

Gen X and Millennials

How can technology be used to capture the attention, hearts and generosity of Gen X and Millennials in order to end global hunger within one generation and thereby transforming the lives of children all around the world?

Feel free to get your brains hacking and cracking. Convoy of Hope will present more information about the challenge at the event.

Champions

Convoy of Hope


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Prizes

A panel of judges will award over $10,000 in cash prizes.

  • $2,500 to Best Overall started at the hackathon
  • $2,500 to Best Overall started before the hackathon
  • $1,500 to Runner-up started at the hackathon
  • $1,500 to Runner-up started before the hackathon
  • $1,000 to People’s choice (voted by all participants across all submitted projects)
  • Plus, other cash prizes for best use of sponsors’ platforms and judges’ special awards.

After the hackathon, your solutions will be featured in a Leadership Network Advance edition reaching over 50,000 church leaders worldwide.

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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.

Anne Marie

Anne Marie
Senior Partner Marketing Manager, VMware

Anne-Marie, a 7 year veteran at VMware, is currently part of the Channel and Alliance marketing organization where she focuses on product marketing and partner programs. Previously, Anne-Marie was responsible for the VMware technology partner program, which received the 2008 Software Industry Award for its Outstanding Partnering Program by Software Business Magazine. She has a degree in Computer Engineering with a minor in Russian Studies from Texas A&M university. Anne-Marie has spent most of her career in Silicon Valley working for a variety of technology companies including Accenture, Intuit and webMethods (now Software AG). Anne-Marie has served as a mentor to high school entrepreneurs thru the BUILD program and most recently took time off to build houses in South India with Hands on Houses. She recently returned to Texas and resides in Austin where she enjoys taking advantage of the outdoors.
Blake Burris

Blake Burris
CEO, CleanWeb Initiative

Bob Pritchett

Bob Pritchett
President/CEO Logos Bible Software

Brad Russell

Brad Russell
Founder and Sr. Editor, FaithVillage.com

Brad Russell is the Founder and Senior Editor/COO of FaithVillage and lives in the Dallas suburb of Allen. He wisely married the most compassionate woman he knows. He's father and financier to three teens who fortunately have their mother's hair. And he's a lapsed triathlete who is currently back in the gym to work off his latest foodie adventures. With diverse ministry experiences in church leadership, non-profit marketing and new media, Brad exudes a creative passion for resourcing people of faith and bringing value to Christian leaders.
Brent Dusing

Brent Dusing
CEO, Lightside Games

Brent Dusing is the Founder, Chairman, and Chief Executive Officer of Lightside. Brent founded Lightside out of his passion for quality, authentic Christian entertainment. Prior to Lightside, Brent was the Founder and CEO of Cellfire, the nation’s leading mobile coupon company. Prior to Cellfire, Brent was a venture capitalist. Prior to that, Brent spent a year working with homeless people and refugees in Johannesburg, South Africa. Brent has a bachelors cum laude in Economics from Harvard University.
Chad Causey

Chad Causey
Vice President of Global Ministries, One Hope

Chad Causey is Vice President of Global Ministries at OneHope. In his role, Chad provides leadership for research, design, development and evaluation for more than 220 ministry programs in 70 nations.
Jason Illian

Jason Illian
Founder/CEO, BookShout

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.
Jen Bullard

Jen Bullard
Founder, Texas Game Labs & Captivate Conference

A civic minded business woman I have been working to support the video game business ecosystem, and do so through my work on Captivate and the Texas Creative Incubator. These two initiatives have a healthy relationship with each other and I am currently working to develop both in tandem with several awesome people. This all started when I tried to start my own venture and found little resources available for a fledgling start-up. After looking at the industry as a whole I realized there was a project there, rolled up my sleeves and got started. Now we are at the stage where things are taking shape, with an Incubator spinning up quickly to support creative industries and a conference to captivate professionals, entrepreneurs and educators. My traditional background is an Executive Producer who has worked on a wide variety of titles, platforms and teams. I have worked well with executives, directors and leads to organize and manage the schedule, keep on budget and satisfy the needs of each individual team member. I possess a strong ability to develop and grow relationships with business partners. My goal is to leverage this background to smooth the communications between start-ups and investors, providing both groups with the support and information they need to be successful. As the Chapter Chair of IGDA-Austin I have enjoyed building community, developing events and providing support to our local government as a representative of the gaming industry. My goal is to continue to expand the services that IGDA-Austin provides and continue to improve our community.
Jennifer Gooding

Jennifer Gooding
Principals, PRIME|PR

Jennifer Gooding is one of two Principals at PRIME|PR, a fully integrated, boutique communications agency that helps industry leaders expand their business. (Market Segments include Consumer, Deep Tech, Enterprise, Clean Tech, and Nonprofit.) The two Principals have a combined 30 years of experience in technology communications, and have featured their clients with prominent coverage in every major media outlet, from CNN and BBC to Tech Crunch and TIME magazine. We are responsible for creating and spotlighting true thought leaders, returning millions of dollars in ROI of earned media. After years of service with one of the oldest and largest nonprofits in the nation, the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, Los Angeles, Jennifer traded in the bullet proof vest and safety escorts for her car, to continue her path of service in greener, safer pastures.
She then moved to Malibu and graduated from Pepperdine University with degrees in Public Relations and Nonprofit Management. She is active on over seven boards, advancing Austin as one of the best places to do business and call home and is proud to be a part of Code For The Kingdom.
Jim Sheppard

Jim Sheppard
CEO, Generis

Jim Sheppard is CEO and principal of Generis. He is an avid student of generosity and is passionate about spreading it throughout the church. For over 19 years, he has devoted his life to helping church people become more generous. Jim is a frequent writer on generosity and ministry funding. His articles have been featured in NACBA Ledger, Your Church, Church Business, Church Solutions, Worship Facilities and BuildingForMinistry.com. He is co-author of the upcoming book, “Contagious Generosity.” He is also an inspirational speaker and he has spoken at national church related conferences including WFX (Worship Facilities), National Association of Church Business Administrators, Christian Leadership Alliance and Leadership Network. Jim is active in sharing his thoughts about generosity through Twitter (Jim_Sheppard) and his blog, www.jimsheppard.net. Jim and his wife Nancy have two daughters, Anna and Emily, and live in Atlanta. He is actively involved in his church where he serves as an officer and provides leadership to the Generosity Ministry Team.
Jim Straatman

Jim Straatman
Technologist, Logos Bible Software

Jon Johansson

Jon Johansson
Manager of Business Technology, OneHope

Geek over at OneHope. My responsibilities include making sure we are being the best stewards in our decisions regarding business technology solutions; adopting and integrating technology with a positive long term impact on the ministry; acting when necessary as an objective liaison between our different internal groups, our IT team, and our vendors. Oh, and I fix things, all kinds of things. I am a fixer.
Kent Shaffer

Kent Shaffer
Founder, Open Church

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 Koym

Kevin Koym
Founding Partner, Tech Ranch Austin

As a seven-time startup veteran and CEO and founder of Tech Ranch Austin, a venture accelerator for early-stage technology companies, Kevin Koym is a recognized pioneer in the startup community whose influence has been felt by over 4,000 entrepreneurs from 20 countries. His continuous ability to replicate entrepreneurial success for emerging technology companies is a result of a proven community-based approach to provide the support and pragmatic agitation needed for entrepreneurs to not just accelerate their business, but also disrupt their targeted markets. His motivation to work with startups stems from his belief that supported entrepreneurs create more innovation, which leads to more solutions to address society�s most pressing issues. As a result, Kevin is known worldwide for his work in establishing entrepreneur networks in the U.S., Mexico, Chile, Singapore and Korea. His distinguished career fuels his passion for advising startups, which has seen two $0-to-$1 million startups and four others that made the $500,000 mark, and a number of �firsts� including the development of the first internet banking application in 1995 and the first large-scale e-commerce application engine, which generated over $2 billion in revenue for Dell Computer in the late 1990s. Kevin was at the forefront of exploring profile-driven commerce, the use of Linux to secure networks and exploring the feasibility of Affective Computing. And, his experience working with technology luminary Steve Jobs at NeXT influences his ability to inspire the global entrepreneurs he supports. In 2010, the Association of Information Technology Professionals, Austin Chapter, honored Kevin as �Technology Community Leader of the Year�. Prior to founding his own companies, and in addition to NeXT, Kevin worked for the UT Health Science Center, Southwest Research Institute, Motorola, and IBM, earned a degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Texas, and is an Eagle Scout.
Micah Davis

Micah Davis
Managing Partner and Designer, Ovenbits.com

Micah Davis is the CEO of Oven Bits and a seasoned designer with an affinity for well-crafted, intuitive experiences. From established brands to Bay Area startups, his work with Oven Bits has been generously featured by Apple and reached tens of millions of users. Recent highlights include his work on the Over iOS app and the Bible App for Kids interactive storybook.
Neil Ahlsten

Neil Ahlsten
Co-Founder, CEO, Carpenter's Code

Neil has a passion for innovation that serves the Gospel. Neil is Co-Founder/CEO of Carpenters Code, which has built Abide, an iPhone app for praying together. Neil is on leave from Google, where he spent six years managing business development for vertical ads, launching access and mobile projects in Africa, and a variety of other roles. Before Google, Neil was the Darfur / Chad refugee program manager for the U.S. Department of State, and served in hotspots across Africa for Food for the Hungry and the World Bank.
Chris Sonksen

Chris Sonksen
Founder, South Hills Church

Chris Sonksen is the founder of South Hills Church. South Hills has grown from a handful of people to seven campuses across the country. Chris has a magnetic, captivating and humorous style for motivating and inspiring all audiences. As a motivational speaker, he has spoken both nationally and internationally in companies such as Verizon, Securitas and Home Depot. Chris is the founder of Celera Church Strategy Group an organization with an unwavering commitment to excellence in all things, with the goal to “raise the national average of church attendance,” by equipping church leaders with resources and coaching. Chris brings high-energy focus and a passion for vision and leadership to encourage and equip the local Church. Chris serves with Convoy of Hope, a relief organization with “A Driving Passion to feed the World”. Convoy of Hope was founded in 1994 and has served more than 58 MILLION people throughout the world through international children’s feeding initiatives, community outreaches, disaster response and partner resourcing. Chris is also spearheading the organization’s feedONE initiative.
Ted Beasley

Ted Beasley
Co-Founder, Missional Business Challenge,Acton School of Business

Ted Beasley has lived at the intersection of faith and business for decades. In addition to launching ministries in Asia, Europe and Australia, he co-founded Gateway Church, a 6,000-member faith community in Austin Texas. For over a decade, Ted served as an executive coach and trusted advisor to CEO’s, senior leaders and entrepreneurs. Currently, he is a Master Teach at the Acton School of Business and serves as CEO of My Entrepreneurial Journey, an innovative blending learning program for aspiring entrepreneurs and business owners.
Vince Marotte

Vince Marotte
Internet Pastor, Gateway Church

Vince Marotte is a communicator, futurist, speaker and consultant. He dwells in creative spaces and lives with ideas. Never satisfied with the status quo, he is always looking for a better way to do things. He recently wrote Context and Voice—communication design in our new media culture and also contributes regularly to Outreach Magazine. Vince is currently the Internet Pastor at Gateway Church in Austin, Texas and has served in ministry since the 90′s. He was first a Youth Pastor in San Diego and Kauai, Hawaii and planted churches in Southern California. He is married to Tami (12 years) and father to daughter Ashtynne and son Steele. He is also a lifelong skateboarder, nature lover, foodie, craft beer enthusiast and competitive cyclist.

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Organizers


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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 API, in order to enable you to build better and faster. That said, please note that there is no compulsion that these API 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. And for the curious ones, we have also instituted a cash prize of $500 each for the best usage of the two API on offer. So leverage these API and the best resources around so that together, we can create technology that matters.

The Fellowship One REST API.

The Fellowship One REST API

Fellowship One is a web-based church management software system that allows a church of any size, from new church plants to multi-site mega churches, to be more effective in ministry, more efficient in administration, and more engaged with their communities. Fellowship One provides a unique 360-degree, single view of the involvement and needs of the families in your church so that you can personalize their care.

The Fellowship One REST API is a REST-based web application that uses several open protocols and patterns to enable 3rd party integration with Fellowship One and provide consumers with access to secure resources. We will also award a $500 prize to the best use of the Fellowship One API.

Use the participation code CFTK13 at: http://developer.fellowshipone.com/codeforthekingdom

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.


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Sponsors

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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 cash 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 prizes.

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.

TAXES

Prizes are non- transferable by the winner. Prize winners will be solely responsible for all applicable taxes related to accepting a prize.

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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 2013 Code for the Kingdom Austin Hackathon?

The Code for the Kingdom Austin Hackathon is being organized by Leadership Network with the collaboration of Carpenters, The SF Bay Christian Entrepreneurs Meetup Group, and CrazyLove.org.


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 Austin Hackathon?

Yes, Transforming Children’s Lives. How can technology help alleviate and eradicate all forms of injustice in a child’s life while teaching him/her about God’s unconditional love?


I'm from outside the Austin. 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.


Is food provided?

Yes – We will provide dinner on Friday October 25th, breakfast, lunch, and dinner on Saturday October 26th, and breakfast, and lunch on Sunday October 27th.


I can’t stay whole 24 hours, 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 Code for the Kingdom Google + Community 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 prizes, but of similar amount, 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 ( the entire hackathon 47 ) 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 5 minutes for their demo and 3 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. We will give over $10K in 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.