Calls on the technology industry to help build a better future

IBM and partners have launched the Call for Code Global Initiative, the largest and most ambitious effort to bring startup, academic and enterprise developers together to solve one of the most pressing societal issues of our time: preventing, responding to and recovering from natural disasters.

During a keynote address at the VivaTech Conference in Paris, IBM chairman, president and CEO, Ginni Rometty, called on the technology industry to help build a better future, committing IBM technology and USD $30 million over five years in the annual Call for Code Global Initiative. Its goal is to unite the world’s developers and tap into data and AI, blockchain, cloud and IoT technologies to address social challenges.

“At IBM, we harness the power of technologies like AI, blockchain, IoT and cloud to address some of the biggest opportunities and challenges in business,” said Bob Lord, IBM chief digital officer. “Now, with Call for Code, we are calling on all developers to join us and use these same leading edge technologies to help people, their communities and society.”

Through Call for Code, IBM and David Clark Cause are joining forces with the United Nations Human Rights Office and its human rights-based approach to humanitarian action, which focuses on securing the participation of affected groups in preparedness, response and recovery efforts, and bringing attention to the most excluded and marginalized populations.