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Call for Code – Developer competition that seeks solutions for natural disasters

developer.ibm.com

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Re: Call for Code – Developer competition that seeks solutions for natural disasters

#11

Post by cameronbrown »

marsRoverDev wrote: post #9
mv4 wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's more than that. IBM is trying to win developer mind share, future tech decision makers are strategically important to them in their current situation.

I think they might need to accelerate their efforts, I think a lot of people here look at them in a very negative light.

I'd love to see a CEO do for IBM what Satya did for Microsoft. A lot of OSS people thought they were the devil, and yet they've turned that around massively. Unfortunately it seems (from the outside) that IBM is just organisationally crippled from size bloat at this point.

Maybe I'm being naive but what do their 350,000 employees actually do? That's nearly as much as Apple, Google and Microsoft combined.

Re: Call for Code – Developer competition that seeks solutions for natural disasters

#12

Post by Gravityloss »

An idea: provide a service for house buyers and job seekers: see which cities and neighborhoods are in danger of being inundated in the future. Probably it could be integrated with some real estate platform - calculate a simple risk score for the listing using open elevation and traffic data.

We need to start controlled abandonment of those areas already many decades early - starting from not investing more into building there.

This is a very cheap way of massive scale disaster preparedness: not having people where the disaster happens.

Re: Call for Code – Developer competition that seeks solutions for natural disasters

#13

Post by mv4 »

marsRoverDev wrote: post #9
mv4 wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's more than that. IBM is trying to win developer mind share, future tech decision makers are strategically important to them in their current situation.

I think they might need to accelerate their efforts, I think a lot of people here look at them in a very negative light.

That's so true. They need a Steve Ballmer ("Developers, developers!").

Re: Call for Code – Developer competition that seeks solutions for natural disasters

#14

Post by deelowe »

Gravityloss wrote: post #12

An idea: provide a service for house buyers and job seekers: see which cities and neighborhoods are in danger of being inundated in the future. Probably it could be integrated with some real estate platform - calculate a simple risk score for the listing using open elevation and traffic data. We need to start controlled abandonment of those areas already many decades early - starting from not investing more into buil…

Do insurance companies not already do this sort of thing?

Re: Call for Code – Developer competition that seeks solutions for natural disasters

#15

Post by wajdix »

mv4 wrote: post #7
wajdix wrote: post #6

It is just a stunt from IBM to promote their WATSON software. a 200k$ prize is a small price to pay to get dozens of smart people to team up and work/test/enhance your products for free...

It's more than that. IBM is trying to win developer mind share, future tech decision makers are strategically important to them in their current situation.

strategically speaking, YES! they are not just promoting a tool among developers/researchers . it's a whole business approach they are taking. But personally I think they are late to the party. Google, Micro$oft, Amazon.. and all the other open source tools ( Python, R...) are offering a better , more flexible and versatile solutions to the public. I think they were a bit greedy and selfish, because they could have put this challenge on Kaggle for example, and gotten a much higher momentum (where a high concentration of Data Scientists and enthusiasts are doing interesting stuff)..

Re: Call for Code – Developer competition that seeks solutions for natural disasters

#16

Post by mv4 »

cameronbrown wrote: post #11
marsRoverDev wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think they might need to accelerate their efforts, I think a lot of people here look at them in a very negative light.

I'd love to see a CEO do for IBM what Satya did for Microsoft. A lot of OSS people thought they were the devil, and yet they've turned that around massively. Unfortunately it seems (from the outside) that IBM is just organisationally crippled from size bloat at this point. Maybe I'm being naive but what do their 350,000 employees actually do? That's nearly as much as Apple, Google and Microsoft combined.

Satya did amazing things for Microsoft. It shows that recovery is possible, even for a behemoth like IBM.

However, like you said - brilliant fellows aside, IBM employees as a whole are much less technical.Most would never pass a tech interview at FAANG.

Re: Call for Code – Developer competition that seeks solutions for natural disasters

#17

Post by jxub »

ikeyany wrote: post #8

This piece of code has been run for thousands of years and I see no reason why it shouldn't work now: do pray(); while (badThing); I accept PayPal.

I don't think that pseudocode would work, I'd be more inclined to use something moral and secure like Rust.

Re: Call for Code – Developer competition that seeks solutions for natural disasters

#18

Post by Gravityloss »

deelowe wrote: post #14
Gravityloss wrote: post #12

An idea: provide a service for house buyers and job seekers: see which cities and neighborhoods are in danger of being inundated in the future. Probably it could be integrated with some real estate platform - calculate a simple risk score for the listing using open elevation and traffic data. We need to start controlled abandonment of those areas already many decades early - starting from not investing more into buil…

Do insurance companies not already do this sort of thing?

I don't know if they look so far ahead? Ie if insurance is just for a few years at a time at once?

There's a paper that proposes long term property insurance, which makes it seem the one year contract is the standard? http://opim.wharton.upenn.edu/risk/library/J2010(JIR)_DJ,HK,...

Re: Call for Code – Developer competition that seeks solutions for natural disasters

#19

Post by wajdix »

mv4 wrote: post #13
marsRoverDev wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think they might need to accelerate their efforts, I think a lot of people here look at them in a very negative light.

That's so true. They need a Steve Ballmer ("Developers, developers!").

It's an old company and struggles with a heavy legacy. They would need more than just a CEO to move things around.. It's a mindset and from the outside, IBM seems to me like an old government building that provides services in areas where it had 10yo+ contracts and clients are too lazy to switch to a better provider.. it's sad, but they will definitely have the ending NOKIA had.. maybe a bit more painful ending.. we can never know :)

Re: Call for Code – Developer competition that seeks solutions for natural disasters

#20

Post by wishrider »

I could build a disaster-response version of my wish page https://wishpage.tv/places People could place a request (or a wish) on the map, that request is public and visible. People at the location can pick up a request (e.g. to make a video or to fly a drone over a volcano). Other people can up-vote requests and even attach money to them (rewards for fulfillment).
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