Call for Code 2021, now in its fourth year, asks developers to build and contribute to sustainable, open source technology projects that address social and humanitarian issues. Call for Code is different from other tech for good initiatives in that top solutions are deployed to make a demonstrable difference in the communities with greatest need.

The 2021 challenge is focused on climate change. With climate change being so broad, the organizers have identified three subcategories to focus on: water management, food distribution, and economic production and consumption.

I think this makes sense. It’s a big global hackathon and instead of developers building another social media or dating app, developers are asked to build solutions to help with real problems.

IBM makes a large number of technical resources to help you get started. There are starter kits, tutorial, videos and much more. All to make it faster to get started so you don’t have to start from scratch. For example, the following image shows various resources to get started quickly with AI:

There is also a dedicated free digital conference (April 12 or watch a replay) for the challenge Call for Code Global Challenge where will learn how to get started.

You might be wondering by now how does no-code/low-code fit into this? I believe this is the perfect opportunity to leverage no-code/low-code tools to build solutions. Most of the technical resources I mentioned above are geared towards developers and that’s fine of course. I think this is a great opportunity to use no-code/low-code tools together with IBM Cloud technologies.

Why no-code/low-code tools? These tools will enable to build solutions faster but more importantly, they will enable a lot more people to build solutions. A lot more people (who don’t have traditional coding skills) will be able to build solutions to help with water management, food distribution, and economic production and consumption. That’s powerful.

Imagine a water management specialist who is not a coder will be able to build a solution? Image a food distribution or economic production/consumption specialist will be able to build a solution using no-code/low-code tools.

The idea is to leverage IBM Cloud technologies and API such as Watson services with no-code/low-code tools. I published a number of articles and vidoes on how to use no-code tools with Watson APIs:

• How to get sentiment score for news articles with Watson NLU and Parabola
• Video: Learn How to Use Watson Language Translator Service Without Writing Any Code
• Building a no-code app to send daily Covid-19 data
• Building a no-code application that sends an email and a text message when a new user registers

The no-code/low-code landscape is large and growing. I recently shared a blog post I’m Excited About The No-Code/Low-Code Space which has a picture of no-code/low-code companies.

Many services these companies provide can be used to build Call for Code solutions together with IBM Cloud technologies.

IBM offers Node-RED, a low-code platform for building web applications. It offers a flow-based development environment which makes building applications faster. While basic knowledge of programming is a plus, the flow-based visual development platform does allow more people to build applications, and faster.

Check out the many technical resources to help you get started with Node-RED. You can also watch a replay of Learn How To Build With Node-RED, A Low-Code Development Platform online meetup we hosted this week.

IBM is also offering additional low-code tools together with Palantir.

Using no-code/low-code tools, together with IBM Cloud services and APIs will enable a lot more people to build Call for Code solutions, and faster. Just imagine how many more solutions people can build if we didn’t only depend on people who know how to code.