Call for Code: Climate Change Developer Challenge
Now in its fourth year, the Call for Code initiative is the largest tech for good initiative of its kind. The world is facing unprecedented, interconnected challenges and we believe technology can help, whether that is through challenges, deployments, or open source development.
IBM global developer challenge asked upon innovative thinkers to build their skills while helping save the planet. By using the latest cloud and AI technologies developers could form teams to take on climate change. Through this program and research that IBM and Somnio conducted, we identified a need for influencers in order to break through to the developer audience that might not be as attuned to IBM or their initiatives.
The goal was to use the power of content creation to influence developer audiences to engage with Call for Code.
CLIENT
IBM Call for Code
OFFICE
Global
TYPE
Digital Campaign and Influencer Package
ROLES
ACD: Caroline Schaffer
Art Director: Kenzie Ashley
Illustrator: Juan Baldera
Campaign Writer: Rusty Boyer
Animator: Vince Penman
The Ask
Build a scaleable pilot program so that more developers are aware of IBM’s initiative, thereby driving followership, email registration and participation density. Focus is medium.com and could include content creators that work off other publishing platforms.
To do this, the program needs to:
Identify key medium content creators and evaluate that their values align with IBM’s
Engage with selected creators, informing them what’s possible and IBM’s Call for Code purpose
Work to support these content creators over the pilot program’s time horizon so they have what they need and a relationship can be nurtured
Build engaged awareness with readers to be inspired to participate
Measure progress for pilot optimization and to finesse expanded roll-out
Focus areas: Green Energy Consumptions, Food Scarcity, and Water Sanitation
The Prospective Influencers
To support the goals of the Call for Code challenge, the assets we create with this guide should inspire our influencers' audiences to take action.
We need to understand what the Call for Code message means to a practitioner and how to motivate them to apply their skills and get involved.
It's essential to build a strong relationship with influencers and earn their trust, ensuring they see this as a valuable platform for sharing their message.
Mulindwa Moses
An activist in Uganda where only about a third of the population has Wi-Fi. Under lockdown, the 23-year-old graduate student is waiting for his chance to return to planting trees and speaking to his nation’s youth in person.
Peter Gleick
An American scientist working on issues related to the environment. He works at the Pacific Institute in Oakland, California, which he co-founded in 1987. Gleick received the International Water Resources Association (IWRA) Ven Te Chow Memorial Award in 2011,[7] and that same year he and the Pacific Institute were awarded the first U.S. Water Prize.
Tiffany Ashley Bell
Founder & Executive Director at The Human Utility. “I use technology to ensure dignity and save lives.” Built platform matching donors from around the world with over 1,100 low-income and/or elderly Detroit and Baltimore families needing water bill assistance.
Alex Verbeek
Founder of the Institute for Planetary Security. Chairman of the Board of Advisors of the Planetary Security Conference. Founder of the PS-initiative and of the Institute for Planetary Security. Associate at the Stockholm Environment Institute.
Concept One
Our shared experience
Manifesto:
We have the chance to use technology to reduce the human impact on climate change. From Gen X to Gen Next, we all have parts to play. And the environment we’re going to inherit needs our attention — and your special skills. Answer the 2021 Call for Code Global Challenge today by creating open source solutions for the challenges that face all of us. Together we can make more clean water available, reduce our carbon footprints, and fight to end hunger. Build an app that tracks emissions, or helps connect food banks with surplus produce.
We can all reframe one part of the big picture.
Concept Two
Layers of opportunity
Manifesto:
From the outside, some challenges can seem complicated, dense — even impenetrable. But big problems can be broken down into smaller opportunities, and atomic habits can make a macro impact on our world. You can build back-end architecture that inspires massive change through front-end accessibility.
In the 2021 Call for Code Global Challenge, you can use technology to help people make positive change in their own ways, from providing clean water to reducing emissions and tackling hunger. It’s the right way to turn your platform into positive change, and build a new world, person by person.
Line by line, layer by layer.
The Layer by Layer concept uses a paper cutout method to portray how each challenge we face, no matter how complex, can be broken down into manageable areas and analyzed. As we identify these layers, we begin to realize the impact each of us make on an individual level. In execution, these provocative assets reveal how our actions, good and bad, build upon each other to affect our world.
But we also see that by changing an atomic habit — a personal, micro change toward a more sustainable lifestyle, like recycling, water conservation or urban farming — we can build momentum toward positive change on a larger, macro scale. Like atoms bonding together to form a new solution, each layer of our challenges reveals a new opportunity to redefine our future, and redirect the course of climate change.
The Guide
This guide is an essential tool for anyone working within or on behalf of Call for Code. It provides instructions for how we should present ourselves, visually and verbally, and sets expectations for every experience we conceive and deliver.
Participant
Meet Lakshyana K.C.
Lakshyana K.C. is one of the developers of ISAC-SIMO, a mobile app that helps communities detect construction dangers in residential areas that are at risk for natural disasters. Learn more about her experience as a Call for Code participant and as a woman in the technology industry.
Participant
Meet Salomé Valero
Created Prometeo, the AI-based platform uses IoT devices to track firefighters’ exposure to the smoke and toxins they inhale so they can be pulled from the field before their health is compromised.
Participant
Meet Albert Um
Albert Um, Analyst at Horizon Media, is a data science practitioner that began his data career with the IBM Data Science Professional Certificate through Coursera. Albert built an application leveraging data to predict wildfires in Australia. Learn more about Albert’s participation in the Call for Code challenge.
Call for Code Judges
David Kats
David Katz is a Call for Code judge this year and the Founder and CEO of Plastic Bank. Plastic Bank builds ethical recycling ecosystems in coastal communities and reprocesses the materials for reintroduction into the global manufacturing supply chain. Learn more about David’s involvement in Call for Code and his contribution to the fight against climate change.
Lori Garver
Lori Garver is a Call for Code judge this year and the CEO of Earthrise Alliance. Earthrise Alliance is a philanthropic organization that derives value from Earth system data to create relevant and actionable knowledge to combat climate change. Learn more about Lori’s involvement in Call for Code and her contribution to the fight against climate change.