Friday the 13th, commonly associated with Freddie Kreuger and the horror flick movie genre, is not so scary this year. Indeed, even as I write this short blog post, some amazing things are taking place that have the potential to significantly alter the means and mechanisms for information sharing in disaster.

Today, at the "Hacker Dojo" in Silicon Valley, dozens of programmers and subject matter experts have gathered together to develop applications and solutions to disaster problems at the first "Random Hacks of Kindness" event. This morning, they heard from FEMA administrator, Craig Fugate, about the importance of technology in disaster. @NoelDickover tweeted the following messages during Fugate's presentation:

NoelDickover: Craig Fugate, FEMA - Govt needs to leverage citizens as sensors in crisis situations. How can they use citizen data? #RHoK #CrisisCamp

NoelDickover: RT @geoTCInteroperability isn't a technology issue, it's a social one. need talk to each other before an event. #RHoK http://myloc.me/1ubnA

NoelDickover: Craig Fugate, FEMA - "Crisis Apps shouldn't be to create good theater, they need to change outcomes. What is the goal?" #RHoK #CrisisCamp

NoelDickover: Craig Fugate, FEMA - "Once you meet your basic survival needs, communication is the priority." #RHoK #CrisisCamp

[For readers unfamiliar with reading Tweets, the Tweet author above is NoelDickover; RT means "retweet," or re-post a Tweet posted by another Twitterer; and the organizing keywords follow hashtags (#)#RHoK (short for Random Hacks of Kindness) and #CrisisCamp; the second Tweet above includes a link to a map on 'Uber-Twitter' that shows the location from which the original Tweet (by @geoTC) was posted]

While the event is hosted by Microsoft, Google, Yahoo, and the World Bank, FEMA has now thrown its hat into the ring. During his keynote, Fugate offered "to the application developers who create the best crisis response application, invitational travel to attend a national Conference in Washington for all state representatives."

You can follow the ongoing Twitter conversation at Random Hacks of Kindness by searching Twitter for #RHoK.

Here's a bit of information about the event (as explained by Brady Forest at O'Reilly Radar)

What is Random Hacks of Kindness? It is an initiative that brings together disaster relief experts and software engineers to work on identifying key challenges to disaster relief, and developing solutions to these critical issues. This Codejam is the first of a series of Random Hacks of Kindness (RHoK) events that will bring the best and brightest together for a "give camp" to solve real world-problems related to Crisis/Disaster Relief.

Objectives: This event is the first step in building a global community dedicated to solving disaster relief challenges through technology. At the RHoK Codejam, programmers will partner with subject matter experts to tackle "real world "problems. These challenges have begun to be defined (see preparation), and will continue to be refined during the event. The software created at this first event will continue to be developed at subsequent RHoK events, and openly shared with the international community. Our hope is that this software will address some of the serious challenges facing the disaster response community, and evolve in response to their needs.

Background: In May 2009, the first ever Crisis Camp barcamp was held in Washington, DC. During one of the opening sessions an industry panel including representatives from Microsoft, Google and Yahoo! agreed that some matters supersede competitive concerns. We agreed to cooperate to mobilize our developer communities to create interoperable solutions/code that will have real impact in the field. We have partnered with NASA and The World Bank to make this happen.

Organizers: Microsoft, Google, Yahoo and The World Bank are founding sponsors NASA-Ames is a co-sponsor