Programmer for important causes | Jonathan Kings | Fullstack developer, VR/AR & 3D graphics engineer

The exciting journey around the world interviewing freelancers at Work for Impact continues, today we will take you to Norway, where you'll meet Jonathan Kings.

Jonathan is a fullstack developer with a great passions for games and apps, here's a little introduction:

I'm a games developer and fullstack engineer. I've worked on VR experiences for Gender Equality in China and France, price-prediction solutions for low-income farmers in India and the Philippines, a platform for sustainable entrepreneurship, and various other games and apps.

Then we asked Jonathan a few questions about the experience at Work for Impact:

Why did you join Work for Impact?

I'm always juggling between a number of different projects as I believe that's the best way to learn a wide range of skills as a programmer, to get involved with important causes and to develop the best possible solutions to any problem. I learnt about Work for Impact just as I was finishing off a freelance project, which seemed like good timing and a great opportunity to expand my network and find exciting new projects to take part in.

What motivates you?

As a games and 3D graphics programmer primarily, I feel like the potential impact putting my skills and time towards solving for the SDGs can make is extremely motivating. I'm excited by the prospects of learning about new technologies and frameworks to stay on top of the game and be able to find the best adapted & most creative ways to build and maintain strong applications, websites, VR experiences, online platforms & games that strive to influence systems, societal constructs, the environment and people's views on sustainability for the better.

How would you contribute to make the world a better place?

I believe an incredibly important issue nowadays is speciesism; billions of animals are unfairly affected by our consumption of meat, crustaceans, fish, dairy, eggs, leather, silk, etc. Not only are we paying to have innocent animals killed, enslaved and tortured, all for nothing but temporary sensorial pleasure, these industries also affect both the environment and our health very heavily - right now possible more than ever. Progressively reducing meat or dairy intake is not enough; solutions must be developed to disrupt the systems in place and shift towards viewing animals as sentient beings rather than products. This issue is one very close to my heart, and I've yet to figure out the best possible way to use technology to make a move in the right direction, but I'm on the lookout for organizations and people who I could collaborate with to create VR experiences or platforms to make a change.

Favourite organisation?
If I had to choose just one, I'd go with the Vegan Society for the reasons cited above.

If you want to know more, connect with Jonathan at Work for Impact. If you want to share your story as a freelancer, you can reach us at stories@workforimpact.com.

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