In the fall of 2020, the Hackathon for Good 2020 took place in which The Hague Legal Tech Alliance played a crucial role with a challenge in the field of innovation in the law. What were the motives behind this hackathon and challenge? These are the insights of Saskia Bruines (alderman for Economics, International and Services at the Municipality of The Hague, including the portfolios of economics, innovation policy, and ICT), Bart Jan van Ettekoven (chairman of the Administrative Jurisdiction Division of the Council of State and professor by special appointment of state and administrative law at the University of Amsterdam) and Sandra van Heukelom-Verhage (lawyer and partner at Pels Rijcken, specialized in innovation, technology, and privacy).

Why does the Municipality of The Hague support the Hackathon for Good?

The Hague is the international city of Peace & Justice and works day in, day out to create a better world. The municipality supports the Hackathon for Good because it wants to work with its social partners on the most urgent challenges in the world. The Hague believes that using technologies such as big data and AI offers excellent opportunities for this. During the fall of 2020, the third edition of the Hackathon for Good 2020 took place where teams from all over the world developed innovative solutions for global social issues of organizations based in The Hague using data.

How can the Hackathon for Good contribute to the development of The Hague’s innovative ecosystem?

The Hague has a large number of innovative hotspots that complement each other nicely. The Hackathon for Good 2020 was therefore organized by The Hague Tech in collaboration with the innovation hub around safety; The Hague Security Delta, the hub focused on innovations for a better world; the Hague Humanity Hub, the innovation programs of YES! Delft and World Startup and the talent program Digital Competence & Education Center. The Hackathon for Good allows us to connect The Hague's innovation¬ ecosystem to organizations with innovation issues. We see that this leads to promising coalitions and innovative solutions that benefit the world.


How can the Hackathon for Good promote the attractive power of The Hague for IT talent?

Hosting the Hackathon for Good increases The Hague's appeal for (new) IT talent. Digitization brings opportunities but also challenges. Employers in the region of The Hague are currently unable to attract and retain qualified personnel with the right competencies. There is an urgent need to train more IT talent, retrain non-IT people, lifelong learning, and retaining scarce IT talent. The Hackathon for Good can fulfill a driving role in the field of knowledge development and education in the field of IT & Security.

What role can the Hackathon for Good play in optimizing the business climate in which start-ups and scale-ups can excel in entrepreneurship?

The Hackathon for Good generates innovative technological solutions for urgent challenges in the world. This leads to promising initiatives that can have a significant (social and economic) impact. For example, the first Hackathon for Good has led to a legal/ethical framework on the basis of which humanitarian organizations such as IOM and the Red Cross deploy AI. That sounds abstract, but ultimately it is about protecting human rights, such as protecting the privacy of people in refugee camps. And during this year's Hackathon, for example, work was done on a tool that can automatically anonymize large amounts of data and subsequently publish it, making the legal position of citizens in our constitutional state much more transparent. With its innovation hubs such as Yes! Delft, World Startup, and The Hague Tech, The Hague is the ideal location for start-ups and scale-ups to develop technological innovations, apply them (on a small scale), and then use them on a larger scale.

During the Hackathon for Good 2020, the participants were supported, guided, taught, and facilitated in their challenges. In this way, they could get to know the extensive range of facilities and processes for start-ups and scale-ups in The Hague in an accessible way. As host of the Hackathon for Good, The Hague is and will remain attractive for start-ups and scale-ups to establish themselves.

How can the economic growth in The Hague be boosted by investing in key technology?

By investing in key technology such as AI, investments are made in the economy and the world of tomorrow. The Hague is an ideal place, especially now that the engines behind the development of that new economy and world are already strongly present in this city. The Hague has a strong ICT and creative sector as well as many knowledge institutions. This combination makes The Hague a very suitable place to work on innovations for a safe, better, and just world. This happens every day from three economic profiles that form the international face of The Hague: Legal & Policy Capital (just world), Impact City (a better world), and Security Delta (safe world). The Hackathon for Good can boost the development of artificial intelligence and thus boost The Hague's economy.

Why was The Hague Legal Tech Alliance created?

The Hague Legal Tech Alliance wants to connect classic legal institutes with the start-up community within The Hague and play a facilitating role in allowing law and justice to participate in the digitizing world. The Alliance was co-initiated by the law firm Pels Rijcken, based in The Hague. Classical legal institutes include courts such as the Council of State and regulators such as the Authority for Consumers & Markets. In this Hackaton, the focus was on a properly functioning rule of law in which transparency is of great importance. If statements and decisions by guiding legal institutions and government agencies are not public or difficult to find for the population, this can undermine trust in the law and the rule of law. At the same time, the desired transparency must not come at the expense of protecting personal data and data that may not be disclosed by law. Security and access to justice are central in our city and the many legal institutes established in The Hague contribute to this, including through the administration of justice and investigation. To maintain this unique position in the future, The Hague is committed to connecting these important, but often traditional institutes with innovative sectors and knowledge institutions.

Why did The Hague Tech Alliance participate with a challenge in the Hackathon for Good 2020?

The Hague Legal Tech Alliance is convinced that technology can contribute to making law and jurisprudence transparent and at the same time protecting privacy, for example, through the use of automatic cleaning programs (programs that automatically anonymize data or other types of data - e.g., company-sensitive data). The Hague Legal Tech Alliance is currently investigating the use of technology for this process. During the challenge, for example, the Council of State focused on making all judgments public, provided they meet the requirements of, among other things, the General Data Protection Regulation. The Hague Legal Tech Alliance challenged participants of the hackathon this year to make mock-ups of technological applications that contribute to the generation of documents that - on the one hand directly meet the requirements of transparency, and on the other hand contain privacy or cleaning applications. The Hague Legal Tech Alliance also hoped that the participants would gain more insight into (future) possibilities to enable the traditional legal institutes in The Hague to take a step towards a digital society in other areas as well.

Why is digitization of great importance in case law?

Society is digitizing, and that also applies to the judiciary. Thousands of lawsuits take place every year at the Council of State alone. Digital litigation is the future. So the question is not whether we are going to digitize, but how and at what pace. After a transition phase in which the flow of paper procedural documents will become increasingly smaller, the phase will come when we have all relevant information available digitally—also, all statements. We can increase the access of citizens and businesses to justice through innovative technological applications in the judiciary. The ambition is to publish 100% of court rulings online in the long term. At the moment, this is about 60% for the Council of State and about 3% for regional courts. Because publishing online is very labor-intensive due to the anonymization to be carried out, too few court rulings are online. And that is unfortunate because the publication of all relevant judgments on the internet is of great importance for the public and accessibility of justice. 

What does digitization mean for the judiciary?

Judicial organizations must be aware of their knowledge position and the “golden” mountain of
data at their disposal. That knowledge is used internally, but it would be better
if that knowledge could also be shared externally. That can help citizens. When sketching an up-
to-date picture of the procedures; what can you expect as a citizen if you lodge an appeal with the
Council of State? What is the current status of the procedure and what will be the next step? But
also neutral information about the state of case law on the point of dispute. When providing that
information, the legal position of the data subjects must of course be taken into account, including
their privacy. This requires lawyers to know about digitization in relation to legislation, decision-
making and case law. But also cooperation between lawyers and experts from other disciplines,
such as communication experts, language experts, data analysts and programmers.

Why did Pels Rijcken set up The Hague Legal Tech Alliance together with the Municipality of The Hague?

We are based in The Hague and have many public clients. We are also the office of the State Attorney. We are currently fully involved in all kinds of technology and innovations in the public sector, including in the Innovation, Privacy and Technology section. In that context, we are working, among other things, on strengthening the rule of law through the use of technology. We have recently seen that the classic legal institutions in the city, with which we have a lot of contact - either because they are clients or because we visit them regularly - are becoming increasingly open to the use of new technologies and innovations. Sometimes they just don't know where to start and where to go, or who they can trust in the technological world. At the same time, we saw and experienced that the municipality of The Hague is investing heavily in building and professionalizing the start-and scale-up community in The Hague. From these developments arose the common idea to connect these worlds in an Alliance. This made the The Hague Legal Tech Alliance a fact.

How can an impulse be given to the digitization of the law?

We want to make a significant contribution to the future-proofing of the law. Digitization can play an essential role in this. To this end, it is important to investigate how we can bridge the gap between national and international authorities in the field of peace, justice and security and the start-up community in The Hague. The task is to connect these two worlds, so that they can reinforce each other in the present and the future. The use of technology can give a boost to this. The Hackathon for Good 2020 is the platform where data is used to work on innovative technological solutions for social issues of organizations based in The Hague.

How can digitization contribute to accessibility and transparency of the law?

As Bart Jan van Ettekoven points out, it is of great importance that the judiciary is accessible and transparent so that it is clear to citizens and entrepreneurs how law works and what the state of the judiciary is. In order to comply with this, judicial decisions must be made public, of course with due regard for privacy. This can be done by making statements available online. Currently, this requires a lot of time and effort from the dishes. But this applies just as much to all administrative bodies dealing with Wob requests and soon WOO requests. Sometimes many thousands of pages have to be gone through to assess whether that page can be made public in full. Precisely because public access is a great good, it is essential to consider how technology ('natural language processing' and algorithms) can help make government information public correctly - with due observance of at least the rules in the field of privacy. That is why The Hague Legal Tech Alliance challenged participants of the hackathon this year to make mock-ups of technological applications that contribute to the generation of documents that, on the one hand, directly meet the requirements of transparency and, on the other hand, contain privacy or cleaning applications. The next challenge is to not only clean up existing documents but also to set up new records so that they immediately comply with the cleaning procedures. The Hackathon for Good is the platform where we can show that technology can contribute to justice. We feel proud that the hackathon challenge met the foundations of The Legal Tech Alliance and its partners.

Become a partner of the Hackathon for Good 2021


Do you want to know more about a partnership for the next edition of the Hackathon for Good in 2021?


Please contact Frank van Summeren, partnershipmanager of the Hackathon for Good (email: 

In the fall of 2020, the Hackathon for Good 2020 took place in which The Hague Legal Tech Alliance played a crucial role with a challenge in the field of innovation in the law. What were the motives behind this hackathon and challenge?

Hackathon for Good 2020 & The Hague Legal Tech Alliance

During the Hackathon for Good The Hague, 18 teams worldwide worked on four different challenges. More than 100 tech talents, business pioneers, and entrepreneurial changemakers participated in the first fully online edition.

The jury awarded the second prize of € 1.000-  to team Chakra for their open-source solution based on building a single page web application with an intuitive Reach Front end. The jury was very impressed by the technical solution, the focus on end-users, and the solution’s scalability.

The team, consisting of participants Anita Ganti, Chris Maxwell & Yogendrasingh Pawar, each heard about Hackathon for Good and wanted to use their diverse experience to improve access to justice. ‘’

We were sure we wanted to show the challenge owners and the jury a fully working application that could automate the task they were facing. They had heard about the power of AI, and we wanted to show the technology in action for a sample text before the end of the 48 hour Hackathon.‘’

Team member Anita Ganti recalls the moment when the jury announced them as the 2nd prize winner:

 ‘’We were all ecstatic and thrilled. We built the HADEDA app as a full-stack web-app to automate the process of redacting sensitive data from legal documents and to make The Hague more transparent. To be recognized by the very talented jury for this effort is indeed an honor.’’

Team Chakra wins the 2nd prize 'Hackathon for Good The Hague 2020.' 

During the weekend of 27, 28, and 29 November, the third edition of the Hackathon for Good took place. Bootleg Hackers won the first prize with their solution to report environmental crimes by creating a platform that cultivates a community and empowers them to take collective actions against environmental crimes. You can check out the demo 

Since it was the first online edition of Hackathon for Good, it took some creative effort of the team to have some fun while brainstorming deep into the night. ‘’

The shared music playlists were definitely a highlight.’’ 

according to team member Remi van der Laan.

But how did the team come up with their prizewinning solution? ‘’

We had a great line-up of mentors to choose from, who helped us to really understand the challenge through their expertise and enabled us to test our assumptions in such a short amount of time.’’  

We would also like to thank Amir Niknam of the Dutch Police. His infectious enthusiasm motivated us during the duration of the Hackathon.’’

Team Bootleg Hackers all agree that the Hackathon for Good is a great learning experience with a cross-pollination of ideas across many different fields. The team had a great experience and hope to meet up together one day.

During the weekend of 27, 28, and 29 November, the third edition of the Hackathon for Good took place. Bootleg Hackers won the first prize with their solution to report environmental crimes by creating a platform that cultivates a community and empowers them to take collective actions against environmental crimes. 

Team Bootleg hackers wins first prize ‘’Hackathon for Good The Hague 2020’’

The Hackathon for Good - The Hague 2020 was won by team Bootleg Hackers with a solution to report environmental crimes by creating a platform that cultivates a community and empowers them to take collective actions against environmental crimes. In the first place, team Bootleg Hackers won a cash prize of € 2.500 -

During the Hackathon for Good The Hague, 18 teams worldwide worked on four different challenges. More than 100 tech talents, business pioneers, and entrepreneurial changemakers worked on developing innovative data solutions for problems focused on shared mobility, environmental crimes, accessible jurisdiction & transparency of the law, and jurisprudence.

Winners Hackathon for Good The Hague 2020

The first prize was won by team Bootleg Hackers, who worked on the environmental crime challenge by the Dutch Police. They created a platform that cultivates a community and empowers them to take collective actions against environmental crimes. Environmental crimes are hard to detect due to the lack of data and can also lead to helplessness among the citizens.

The second prize went to team Chakra for their open-source solution based on building a single page web application with an intuitive Reach Front end. The jury was very impressed by the technical solution, the focus on end-users, and the solution’s scalability.

The challenges we face today are increasingly complex and interlinked, requiring a collaborative and data-driven approach to resolving them. The Hackathon for Good connects non-profits, governments, start-ups, corporates, and talent worldwide to develop resilient solutions for a more peaceful, just, and secure world.

Hackathon for Good started in The Hague with the mission to connect AI and Data to the world of Humanitarian Development and Aid. After two successful editions by Data Science Initiative, we slightly broaden our scope with more topics, partners, and the first international editions. But every edition always has a touch of ethics & data.

The Hackathon for Good The Hague 2020  is made possible by the following partners:

The Hackathon for Good - The Hague 2020 was won by team Bootleg Hackers with a solution to report environmental crimes by creating a platform that cultivates a community and empowers them to take collective actions against environmental crimes. In the first place, team Bootleg Hackers won a cash prize of € 2.500 ,-

Bootleg Hackers wins 'Hackathon for Good The Hague 2020' with a solution to report environmental crimes

Twenty-one teams of business pioneers, tech talents & experts in artificial intelligence, big data, and coding are challenged to develop data solutions for a better world. They will work on challenges by the Municipality of The Hague, the Police, EVE & The Hague Legal Tech Alliance.

We are looking forward to learning what solutions the teams will develop for these challenges. But there can only be one team that receives the prize of € 2.500- euros. To make this decision, a jury of experts in their field is composed.

Meet the jury of Hackathon for Good - The Hague

Twenty-one teams of business pioneers, tech talents & experts in artificial intelligence, big data, and coding are challenged to develop data solutions for a better world. They will work on challenges by the Municipality of The Hague, the Police, EVE & The Hague Legal Tech Alliance.

We are looking forward to learning what solutions the teams will develop for these challenges. But there can only be one team that receives the prize of € 2.500- euros. To make this decision, a jury of experts in their field is composed.


Introducing the jury of Hackathon for Good - The Hague

Marija Slavkovik shares her knowledge of AI & Ethics during the opening of Hackathon for Good - The Hague

This Friday marks the start of the 48-hour Hackathon as part of the third edition of the Hackathon for Good. We are very excited that Marija Slavkovik will share her knowledge of AI & ethics with our participants during our opening ceremony.

Marija is an Associate professor with the Faculty for Social Sciences of the University of Bergen. She is a computer scientist who researches AI. She publishes in collective reasoning and decision making.

Marija Slavkovik has been researching machine ethics since 2012. Machine ethics studies show how moral reasoning can be automated. Marija works on formalizing collective ethical decision-making. She has held several seminars, tutorials, and graduate courses on AI ethics. More information about this can be found on 

Marija is interested in the phenomenon of autonomous systems increasingly becoming moral arbitrators by virtue of the dissipation of the machine-society segregation. Automation, particularly of cognition, is not always possible without automating aspects of ethical reasoning or values. The problem then is whose moral values should have standing, what honest opinions and values should be elicited, how should that be done, and what is the right way to aggregate these ‘’measurements’’?

Marija Slavkovik shares her knowledge of AI & Ethics

Currently, shared scooters, bikes, and cars from providers such as Felyx, Cargoroo, and Greenwheels appear more often on the streets of The Hague. Shared mobility is considered an important part of the future of mobility in the cities. It saves space, helps reduce the emission, and it is sustainable. The city of The Hague is promoting the use of shared mobility for a cleaner, healthier, and more livable city. But does shared mobility have the expected impact on the city? Will car-owners change their private cars for shared cars? How much does shared mobility contribute to the CO2 reduction in the city? The city of The Hague is now facing challenges in obtaining the data and information to answer these questions.

The Municipality of The Hague wants to find the answers to these questions. After the launch of the permit system earlier this year, they continue with further developing shared mobility in the city. By allowing everyone with relevant knowledge, skills, and means to participate, the city of The Hague becomes inspired and gains new insights on how to solve this challenge. Young and international talent outside the Municipality of The Hague’s network can get acquainted with shared mobility and view this challenge from a different perspective. This new perspective can lead to fresh ideas and potentially reaching a unique and dynamic market.

The solutions that participants create during the 48-hour program of the Hackathon for Good give the Municipality of The Hague more insights into the possibilities. Shared mobility isn’t done developing, and if one of the solutions is a good fit, The Hague is willing to continue working on this solution.

We are looking forward to seeing the teams develop innovative solutions for this challenge and how shared mobility will develop further.

During Hackathon for Good - The Hague, November 27 -29, participants will build innovative data-solutions for the challenge of the Municipality of The Hague. We invited all business pioneers, tech talent, and entrepreneurial change-makers to join us and make an impact for good. 

Shared mobility in The Hague

During the weekend of 27, 28, and 29 November the third edition of the Hackathon for Good takes place. This edition is the first edition that is completely online. Business pioneers, tech talents & experts in artificial intelligence, big data and coding are challenged to develop data solutions for a better world. They will work on challenges by Municipality of The Hague, the Police, EVE & The Hague Legal Tech Alliance.

The Hackathon for Good - The Hague is hosted by the Municipality of The Hague and organized by The Hague Tech, in close collaboration with the Hague innovation ecosystems consisting of the hubs: The Hague Security Delta, The Hague Humanity Hub, and the programs YES! Delft, WorldStartup, Data Science Initiative, and Digital Competence & Education Center. During the weekend of 27, 28, and 29 November, talent from all over the world develop innovative solutions for global social issues. Each team works on a data solution for one of the participating organizations. The total prize money is € 3,500.

The following challenges will be worked on during the hackathon:

 Shared mobility is considered the future of urban mobility. It saves space, helps reduce emissions, and is sustainable. The Municipality of The Hague stimulates the use of shared mobility for a cleaner and healthier city. But does shared mobility have the expected impact on the city? Will car owners exchange their private car for shared cars? How much does shared mobility contribute to CO2 reduction in the city? Does bicycle-sharing replace the use of public transport, or does it generate new journeys? The city now faces the challenge of obtaining the data and information to answer these questions.

 Environmental crime is on the rise and is now widely recognized as one of the largest criminal areas in the world. To combat environmental crimes effectively, they must first be easier to detect. Not only law enforcement officers, but especially citizens, need to know what is happening in their backyard. Citizens need to know what to watch out for and when to call the authorities. What this requires is a system that can process all kinds of different data from different sensors, cluster the resources, determine what is expected within a cluster, and then detect anomalies within a cluster. Subsequently, subscribers in a specific area should receive a warning about the anomaly, including a particular context so that the citizen knows what to look for and information about when to contact which government agency. The challenge is to create something more user-friendly and natural that evokes a call to action that is relevant to the user.

 A good legal system is essential for the proper functioning of an economy. EVE's mission is to give everyone access to a court of law. Eve is faced with several problems that she challenges participants to solve. It is striking that many entrepreneurs in legal disputes are looking for free or affordable legal advice about their position. With Eve you don't need a lawyer, but people hardly dare to go to Eve's court without advice about their legal position. The resources currently available are clearly inadequate. The challenge is: Design a tool with which every citizen can determine their legal position in a conflict. In any case, this tool should be free and simple. The tool should not depend on or be influenced by commercial elements.

 The Hague Legal Tech Alliance (THLTA) is an initiative of the Municipality of The Hague and Pels Rijcken. THLTA is convinced that technology can contribute to the transparency of the law and case law, without undermining the protection of privacy, for example through the use of automatic cleaning programs. THLTA is challenging participants in this year's Hackathon for Good to create mock-ups of technology applications that contribute to document generation. The transparency and privacy requirements of these documents should be taken into account and fulfilled directly through the application. In addition, the mock-ups must contain or contain automatic cleaning properties. THLTA also hopes that the participants in this Hackathon will gain more insight into (future) possibilities to facilitate the traditional legal institutions in The Hague to also make the step towards a digital society in other areas.

The Hackathon for Good contributes to finding up-and-coming talent, stimulating access to relevant data, supporting progressive startups, expanding the (inter) national network, arranging inspiring meetings and creating new innovative and technological solutions for urgent challenges with a global impact.

Register now as an individual or as a team.

International tech talent hacks for a better world.

The 'Hackathon for good The Hague 2018' in The Hague was won by team Monkey Code with a solution to prevent land grabbing by combining satellite data with recent social media data. During the Hackathon for good, 27 teams of more than 22 nationalities worked on the development of innovative data solutions for problems focused on humanitarian disasters (Red Cross), fake news (NCIA), evidence (ICC), emergency funds (World Vision) and land grabbing (Asser Institute).

More than 120 tech talents from the Netherlands and abroad participated in the Hackathon for good this weekend. The jury chose Monkey Code as the winner because the team followed all the way through to find a solution for end uses in communities. Interesting was also the clever use of social media as part of their solution. In first place, team Monkey Code won a cash prize of € 10,000,-. The hackathon is one of the first projects of the Data Science Initiative, an initiative of tech entrepreneurs, universities, government and knowledge institutions in The Hague that are committed to peace, justice and security through big data and Artificial Intelligence: Tech for good.

Saskia Bruines, alderman Education, Knowledge Economy, International: "This hackathon is a good example of what we want to convey as the city of peace and justice. Working together with tech entrepreneurs, universities and knowledge institutions on solutions for global problems. It is a special event that I hope we can organize even more in the future!"

Winners Hackathon for good
The first prize was won by team Monkey Code with their open source solution based on combining satellite data with recent social media data (e.g. relevant Twitter hashtags) to predict areas that are vulnerable for land grabbing. According to the jury, the challenge required redefining and selecting the right information sources first. This team worked on the Asser Institute challenge: how to prevent land grabbing.

The second prize went to team Hack4Peace with a solution for the NATO/NCIA challenge how to detect fake news. This teams’ tool involves building a data set with inflammatory texts and images. Through AI based imagery and textual analysis, the tool can recognize propaganda and fake news. Part of the solution is an end user browser extension that detects and filters propaganda, meanwhile collecting new data to sharpen and scale the algorithm. The jury was very impressed by the technical solution, the focus on end users and scalability.

The third prize was won by team PWC2 with their solution for the Red Cross/510 challenge: how to estimate damage in disaster areas. PWC2’s approach was based on combining drone and satellite imagery to come to automated, yet very precise damage estimation, ideal for prioritizing aid. The jury praised the accuracy and speed of damage estimation, as well as the practical approach that can be implemented immediately.

The Hackathon
The Hackathon for Good is an initiative of the Municipality of The Hague and the Data Science Initiative, it is made possible by the following partners:

Al Lab, Xprize, The Hague Tech, GSMA, AI for good The Netherlands, Breezi Speaking, UNICRI, Hack the Planet, The Hague Humanity Hub, ImpactCity, HumanityX, Quaestio, Red Cross, NCIA, ICC, World Vison, Asser Institute.

The 'Hackathon for good The Hague 2018' in The Hague was won by team Monkey Code with a solution to prevent land grabbing by combining satellite data with recent social media data. During the Hackathon for good, 27 teams of more than 22 nationalities worked on the development of innovative data solutions for problems focused on humanitarian disasters (Red Cross), fake news (NCIA), evidence (ICC), emergency funds (World Vision) and land grabbing (Asser Institute).

More than 120 tech talents from the Netherlands and abroad participated in the Hackathon for good this weekend. The jury chose Monkey Code as the winner because the team followed all the way through to find a solution for end uses in communities. Interesting was also the clever use of social media as part of their solution. In first place, team Monkey Code won a cash prize of € 10,000,-. The hackathon is one of the first projects of the Data Science Initiative, an initiative of tech entrepreneurs, universities, government and knowledge institutions in The Hague that are committed to peace, justice and security through big data and Artificial Intelligence: Tech for good.

Saskia Bruines, alderman Education, Knowledge Economy, International: "This hackathon is a good example of what we want to convey as the city of peace and justice. Working together with tech entrepreneurs, universities and knowledge institutions on solutions for global problems. It is a special event that I hope we can organize even more in the future!"

Winners Hackathon for good
The first prize was won by team Monkey Code with their open source solution based on combining satellite data with recent social media data (e.g. relevant Twitter hashtags) to predict areas that are vulnerable for land grabbing. According to the jury, the challenge required redefining and selecting the right information sources first. This team worked on the Asser Institute challenge: how to prevent land grabbing.

The second prize went to team Hack4Peace with a solution for the NATO/NCIA challenge how to detect fake news. This teams’ tool involves building a data set with inflammatory texts and images. Through AI based imagery and textual analysis, the tool can recognize propaganda and fake news. Part of the solution is an end user browser extension that detects and filters propaganda, meanwhile collecting new data to sharpen and scale the algorithm. The jury was very impressed by the technical solution, the focus on end users and scalability.

The third prize was won by team PWC2 with their solution for the Red Cross/510 challenge: how to estimate damage in disaster areas. PWC2’s approach was based on combining drone and satellite imagery to come to automated, yet very precise damage estimation, ideal for prioritizing aid. The jury praised the accuracy and speed of damage estimation, as well as the practical approach that can be implemented immediately.

The Hackathon
The Hackathon for Good is an initiative of the Municipality of The Hague and the Data Science Initiative, it is made possible by the following partners:

Al Lab, Xprize, The Hague Tech, GSMA, AI for good The Netherlands, Breezi Speaking, UNICRI, Hack the Planet, The Hague Humanity Hub, ImpactCity, HumanityX, Quaestio, Red Cross, NCIA, ICC, World Vison, Asser Institute.

Monkey Code wins 'Hackathon for good The Hague 2018' with solution to prevent land grabbing

During the weekend of 26, 27, and 28 November, the fourth edition of the Hackathon for Good will occur. This edition is hosted by the city of The Hague and organized by The Hague Tech, in close collaboration with the Hague’s innovation ecosystems.

Are you ready to make an impact for good? Sign up now and receive the latest news in your inbox. You will be the first to hear about the upcoming edition’s exciting challenges and when you will be able to apply.

The aim of this hackathon is to prototype data-driven solutions for societal problems. For Good means that the solutions we aim for are beneficial for society. Challenge owners want to cocreate these solutions. The work after the hackathon could lead to commercial products and services, but the results of the hackathon are preferably open source and actively shared.

Certainly. Good teams represent a variety of skills and experiences. Business development, UX design, marketing are just as useful as data science and coding. If you sign up as an individual, we will help you join or set up a team.

3 days or 48 hours. We start on Friday the 26th of November at 4PM and will announce the winner on Sunday the 28th at 4PM. The supporting programme will begin on May 2nd, but everyone will get access to the training material and exercises after registration and selection.

Are the results of the hackathon open source?

Yes, they are, unless explicitly communicated differently.

Should we pitch our idea to a jury and if so how?

It’s not a shark tank, but there will be a jury with a variety of experts. We have two pitching rounds. The first round is with the challenge owners and you will compete with other teams working on the same challenge. The second and final round will be run to determine the winner and runner up.

If I win, can I give my price to charity and if so, do you have a good tip?

You are free to do what you like with your price. There is no need to invest it in the follow up of the prototype, although we do stimulate people to try to take the next step. If you decide to go from “for good” to “feel good”, our charity of choice would be https://www.rainforesttrust.org/.

I am quite competitive and like to win, what are the criteria of the jury?

Creativity, Feasibility, Problem/Solution fit, Presentation & Mastering technology. So a well presented, out of the box solution, with beautiful code and instant satisfaction for the problem owner, after just a couple of more tweaks, will have a very good chance to win.

Does your organization want to bring in a current issue as a challenge owner?  We would  like to tell you more about your potential part in this journey to make an impact for good.

The Hague

During the Hackathon for Good several online co-creation challenges and trainings will take place. Find out what activities are happening when by checking out the programme.

The challenges we face today are increasingly complex and interlinked, requiring a collaborative and data driven approach to resolving them. The Hackathon for Good connects non-profits, governments, start-ups, corporates, and talent from around the world to develop resilient solutions for a more peaceful, just and secure world. Driven by the diverse Hague-based ecosystems, through a 3-month programme, we take on the challenge to develop human-centered, (cyber)secure and innovative solutions to real world problems. We invite all entrepreneurial changemakers to join us on this journey to create impact for good.

The Hague 4th edition!

Hackathon for Good started in The Hague with the mission to connect AI and Data to the world of Humanitarian Development and Aid. After two successful editions by Data Science Initiative, we slightly broaden our scope with more topics, more partners, and the first international editions coming up. But every edition always has a touch of ethics & data.

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Hackathon for Good 2020 & The Hague Legal Tech Alliance

Team Chakra wins the 2nd prize 'Hackathon for Good The Hague 2020.'

Team Bootleg hackers wins first prize ‘’Hackathon for Good The Hague 2020’’