Ajudem.cat, the volunteering platform that won Hackovid

March 2020. A whole country locked in, and suddenly a huge, deeply un-technological logistics problem: who goes shopping for the people who can’t go out. Neighbourly help existed, but it was scattered across WhatsApp groups and notices in stairwells.

The Catalan Government and i2CAT launched Hackovid, a hackathon looking for answers to the social challenges of lockdown. More than 300 programmers and IT developers took part. We turned up with Ajudem.cat.

A platform connecting people who help with people who need it. Anyone could publish an altruistic service —take the bins out, do the shopping, walk the dog, teach a class— and anyone could browse the ones already nearby. No middlemen, no money involved.

Three parts, one idea. Voluntariat, the available offers of help. Troba’t, a free, open and secure video-call platform for conferences and digital gatherings. And Informa’t, verified COVID-19 information and guidance at a moment when everything was circulating.

Built in days, not months. A hackathon doesn’t forgive: either it works on Sunday night or it doesn’t exist. It shipped working — in Catalan, with a name, a brand and an explainer film.

Ajudem.cat is one of our first projects and, six years on, it’s still online. But the point isn’t that it survives: it’s that we still use it. The architecture, the way we approach citizen platforms and many of the technical calls we made in those days kept evolving into later projects — CERCAT, the Cornellà city council platform and everything that followed. This is where the thread starts.