InterTech announces Owt as winner of gay hackathon event backed by Google, Microsoft and Facebook
InterTech has announced Owt, an app by Daniel Wynne-Powell and Oliver Jones, as the winner of its first gay hackathon event, which took place in Facebook’s London offices.
The event, backed by Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Dell and Nokia saw 30 developers from across the technology industry compete in groups to create new applications and web services to improve the lives of LGBT people.
A judging panel including London Assembly Member (and former web developer) Tom Copley, Facebook engineer Alice Lieutier, PinkNews and Clarity PR director Benjamin Cohen and Alex Woods, the editor of TechCityNews, selected two winners from the seven entries: Owt, a mobile web app to help LGBT people find events, groups and other activities near them and Talk to Sam, an innovative chat based support service for young LGBT people to utilise while in the process of coming out.
Facebook engineer Jackson Gabbard said: "One of Facebook's company goals is to make the world more open and connected. I’m really excited to have facilitated and participated in and event where tried to solve problems that prevent people from being who they are. InterTech has done an amazing job of pulling together a group of talented people under the banner of improving the world for LGBT people. Facebook has always been a strong supporter of LGBT causes and it makes me really proud we’ve continued this at our London office."
Owt's mission was to find a solution to the “non-stop cheesy pop gay bars” and do something different to help the community.
It was developed by Wynne-Powell, an internal software developer working for Wavex; a Soho based IT outsourcing company and Jones, a computing student at Imperial College, London.