Celebrities Lend Voices in Support of UN World Environment Day by Promoting the Call for Code 2019 Global Challenge

LOS ANGELES, June 6, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- The Call for Code 2019 Global Challenge, created by David Clark, CEO of David Clark Cause, and launched with Founding Partner IBM, has become the largest engagement of developers in history. Call for Code was created in 2018 to challenge the 23 million developers around the world to help solve social issues with innovative technological solutions. This year's Call for Code Global Challenge focuses on supporting the health and well-being of people and communities affected by natural disasters. Developers and data scientists around the world can contribute their innovative ideas and technology solutions rooted in open source through July 29, 2019.

To show support for Call for Code and its charitable partners, celebrities and social advocates lent their powerful voices by participating in the #CallforCode global social campaign on UN World Environment Day, June 5th. This global initiative supports the critical work of UN Human Rights.

"Since Call for Code was announced last May from the VivaTech conference in Paris by IBM Chairman, President and CEO Ginni Rometty, with an assist from French President Emanuel Macron, we're proud to say Call for Code has become a global movement that continues to inspire developers around the world to code for social purpose," said Call for Code Creator David Clark. "We're also grateful for the support we're continuing to receive from celebrities this UN World Environment Day. I'm excited to see Sting, Cher, Morgan Freeman, Pitbull, Jessica Biel, Toby Keith, Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne, LL Cool J, Robin Thicke, Leona Lewis, Chris Daughtry and others lend their voices to this important tech for good initiative."

"As Founding Partner of Call for Code, IBM is proud to support developers around the world as they continue to innovate for social good," said Bob Lord, SVP, Cognitive Applications and Developer Ecosystems, IBM. "When armed with data from The Weather Company and the latest open source-based technologies like IBM Watson, IBM Cloud and IBM Blockchain, we know solutions can be created that not only help the environment, but also help save lives. Last year over 100,000 developers from 156 nations participated in the Challenge, creating more than 2,500 applications. We can't wait to see what happens this year."

Call for Code aims to find sustainable software solutions to help people and communities vulnerable to natural disasters. This is more important than ever as the effects of devastating fires, floods, earthquakes and hurricanes continue to take serious economic, environmental and human tolls around the world.

Leading into the Call for Code UN World Environment Day social campaign, Call for Code Geneva was hosted at the United Nations on June 3rd and 4th by United Nations Human Rights. This special event was created to generate ideas that can inspire the global network of developers currently working on the Call for Code 2019 Global Challenge, so they can help solve human rights and humanitarian issues tied to natural disasters. This unique hackathon convened top business leaders, subject matter experts and developers from some of the world's leading corporations, organizations and NGOs, including the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction. By the end of the event, four distinct "solution starter" kits were created that developers around the world now have access to so they can use elements and ideas to build their own Call for Code 2019 Global Challenge submissions. These solution starter kits will be available starting tomorrow at https://developer.ibm.com/callforcode/starters/.

How to Join Call for Code

• Developers can register today at: callforcode.org
• Projects can be submitted by individuals – or teams of up to five people – between March 25, 2019 and July 29, 2019
• The winning team will receive a $200,000 USD cash prize
• Project support from IBM and The Linux Foundation

SOURCE Call for Code Global Initiative