Josh Horwitz · · 4 min readCode4HK: A visual guide to Hong Kong’s online hub for the Umbrella Revolution
Many observers of the ongoing demonstrations in Hong Kong have noted how the protests remain extremely well-organized despite lacking centralized leadership. Supplies are well-distributed, rest areas are abundant, and protestors have even coordinated recycling initiatives.
The movement’s efficient logistics are in no small part due to its leaders’ use of internet-enabled technology. But protestors are going beyond Facebook groups, WhatsApp conversations, and Twitter feeds in their efforts.
Code4HK’s today.code4.hk is one of several online hubs where activists aggregate and disseminate information to the Hong Kong public. Inspired by Code for America, Code4HK originated as a group dedicated to solve civic issues. In a blog post from December 2013, Vincent Lau wrote described the organization’s mission as follows:
Technology is one of the few things that stands a chance to fight against monopoly and bureaucracy. Egypt succeed in evolution with the help of social media technology. Startups grow rapidly in Chile or Vietnam changing the landscape. After empty words of “Cyberport” and the dot.com bubble years ago, we need to ask why we didn’t have [a technology revolt in] our lovely Hong Kong. We need to show the possibilities. We need to engage [developers] and every citizen to participate in saving our city. More importantly we need to TRY.
Today.code4.HK Code4HK’s property dedicated solely to the Occupy Central demonstrations. It draws inspiration from g0v, the Hackpad page which activists in Taiwan’s Sunflower Movement used to inform each other and the public about its occupation of the Legislative Yuan (heavy traffic from Taiwan even brought Hackpad down at one point).
See: Mobile messaging app FireChat flares up in Hong Kong amid Occupy Central protests
The homepage for today.code4.HK contains links to the four most basic resources for demonstrators and the Hong Kong public – a livestream from four TV channels covering the events, a map of local rest stops and supply centers, a Google Doc that’s updated with relevant news (events, police presence, headcount estimates), and a Google Doc that tracks and organizes supply distribution.
Toggling the sidebar lets one access even more livestreams and additional spreadsheets:
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