“Silent Lens” Wins Google Ideas challenge at the Google “Develop for Good” Global Hackathon

I attended the Google I/O Extended “Develop for Good” hackathon in San Francisco in late June. We were asked to create a solution for one of three challenges:

  • Google Politics & Elections: Citizen Engagement for Politics & Elections
  • Google Ideas: Conflict Reporting for Blackout Situations in Repressive Regimes
  • Google Green: Help us all be a little greener!

Our team won the Google Ideas challenge! My sincere congratulations to my team mates Perry Chow, Ansgar Halbfas, Ryan Quellet, and Andrew Song.

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2015-10-12T11:12:02-08:00September 12th, 2012|4 Comments

Sonali Mukherjee: A drought of action in a sea of reaction

Sonali Mukherjee is a blind, nearly deaf, and penniless 27-year-old woman. At the age of 17, she was assaulted by three intruders who broke into her Dhanbad, India home in April 2003 and poured acid on her after sexually harassing her for years. Since then, her family has spent their savings treating her injuries, her assailants have been released from jail, and now they have begun a campaign of death threats that have turned Sonali and her family into fugitives. Sonali lost her grandfather to shock shortly after the attack, and her mother has slipped into a depression. Today, she needs approximately $30,000 to pay for the balance of restorative surgeries.

Nine years later, Sonali has requested the Indian government to either intervene by controlling the assailants and providing funds medical treatment or grant her permission to die.

Here’s Sonali’s plea for help. I’ve hired translators to translate and transcribe it into English, which I’ve reproduced below.

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2014-03-11T22:08:07-08:00August 2nd, 2012|5 Comments
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