After tackling natural disasters, climate change, and COVID-19, IBM is turning to racial justice.
The company’s Call for Code for Racial Justice is asking developers and partners to kick the tires on several open-source solutions developed internally by a group known as the Call for Code Emb(race) Challenge. Started by Black IBMers, challenge participants worked on technology solutions to systemic racism, and their efforts have now been open sourced.
“We’re asking developers and ecosystem partners to join us in combatting racial injustice by testing, extending and implementing these open source solutions, and contributing their own diverse perspectives and expertise to make them even stronger,” IBM says.
Those solutions include:
- Five Fifths Voter: This web application tackles voter suppression and helps people make a voting plan.
- Legit-info: Legit-info helps individuals understand in their own language the legislation that shapes their lives.
- Incident Accuracy Reporting System: This platform for police incident reporting allows witnesses and victims to corroborate evidence from multiple sources and assess against an official police report.
- Open Sentencing: To help public defenders better serve their clients, Open Sentencing identifies racial bias in data such as demographics that can help make a stronger case.
- Truth Loop: This app helps communities understand the policies, regulations, and legislation that will impact them the most.
The projects were developed using technology like Red Hat OpenShift, IBM Cloud, IBM Watson, Blockchain ledger, Node.js, Vu.js, Docker, Kubernetes, and Tekton
Developers can check out the projects here; click “Contribute to this project” next to those you want to check out. Organizations can apply to join IBM’s partner ecosystem.
IBM today also announced that Black Girls Code is the latest recipient of the IBM Open Source Community Grant, which includes a $25,000 cash award and a technology award valued at $25,000 to support education and career development activities. Black Girls Code members will also be able to participate in the Call for Code for Racial Justice program, as well as IBM workshops on STEM topics like quantum, artificial intelligence, and hybrid cloud.