Bangkok Post – Tech activists write code to save migrants

LONDON – When a migrant rescue non-profit asked Nik Zemke if he could design an app to pinpoint ships in distress in the Mediterranean, the German web developer headed to a hackers’ convention to look for like-minded volunteers.

He found help among the hordes of tech hobbyists huddled over their laptops at the Chaos Computer Club’s annual gathering in the northern city of Hamburg – a mecca for hackers and activists intent on using their coding skills for social good.

“It’s a lot of nice people who are really fed up with certain events in the world and are into awesome ways of trying to change that,” Zemke, 32, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

After five years of late nights and coding sessions in their spare time, Zemke said his team’s One Fleet app would soon be rolled out on search-and-rescue vessels operated by non-governmental organisations (NGOs) operating in…