After weeks of inspiration from ShelterBox, brainstorming, legal discussion, determination and imagination, we set up our project yesterday on the Jazz Hub. The division of IBM that I work for produces software engineering tools. The Jazz Hub is an IBM cloud service that lets students ( and in this exception ) a not for profit team use some of those engineering tools to manage their project.

Our new project page is here. It’ll take a few days for the work items to settle and a little longer for us to get into a rhythm. Our team is small, and distributed. We have three developers right now, working in our spare time. We’re backed by some great volunteers at IBM and at ShelterBox – experienced managers, marketers, lawyers, usability experts … so I hope that we can make this work. In some ways this is an experiment, we’re new to this kind of collaboration. But we’re not new to developing software … so we’ll see how we progress …

A few months ago, the company that I work for and the division that I work in introduced me to an amazing charity. IBM turned 100 this year, and as part of the centenary celebrations they invited each of their employees to pledge some time for causes. They called it a ‘celebration of service’.

Truth is that I’ve been looking for an opportunity to use my software skills to help communities and with this initiative I have an amazing opportunity. The charity is called ShelterBox. They respond to natural disasters by shipping pre formulated boxes each of which contains amongst other things a tent, cooking equipment, blankets.

If all goes to plan, I’m going to lead a small team to develop an iPhone app for ShelterBox. We’re going to wire the app to social media with the aim of offering another platform for ShelterBox’s supporters to understand and share how they’re helping people in need.

It is a learning experience on so many fronts. I’ve had to work with lawyers and executives internally to make sure that I do this by IBM’s rules and standards. At times it can be frustrating, but it is also a life lesson – learning how to cover ourselves, learning how to keep pushing.

The ShelterBox team are wonderful. Let’s hope we can push this along.