I'm not saying that was your point, but in general I'm bewildered by this growing attitude that web-dev "hackers" can solve problems of humanity by just building a bunch of RoR websites. It managed to reach even at least one TED talk. Sounds to me mostly like front-end developers wanting to feel good that they're making difference when building cat-photo-sharing apps. But somehow it ended up as a global perception that "hackers" build websites and problems get solved.