The Coronavirus Tech Handbook, the world’s largest open-source library of Coronavirus tools and data, has launched a Crowdfunder campaign to raise an initial target of £27,000 to help keep connecting experts and saving lives.
There is an incredible surge of experts wanting to offer their time, skills and resources to help in this crisis. The Coronavirus Tech Handbook creates a free online library (like Wikipedia) where technologists, doctors and other specialists can find projects, share best practice, and communicate. This prevents skill practitioners and volunteers wasting critical time solving the same problems. It will help speed up finding solutions and building new tools.
The Handbook, already at over five hundred pages, includes everything from community finance tools to ventilator designs. It has tools for educators, event planners and union organisers, and many more. It has been viewed over 500k times in the UK and abroad.
Some examples of successful projects already undertaken via the Handbook:
- UK doctors advising their peers in Ecuador on developing safe personal protective equipment
- Mutual aid groups in the UK to sharing ways of organising volunteers and their finances
- The exchange of models, data and infographics charting the progress in stopping the virus
The project was granted £50,000 in seed funding from Nesta. This will allow it to run until July. However, additional funds are needed to ensure the Handbook can continue its work collating lifesaving information from hundreds of experts around the world on a daily basis. The money will be spent on hiring additional technologists and community organisers as well as supporting the organisation until September.
Nathan Young, from Newspeak House, whose initiative this project was, said “Fighting coronavirus is a problem for science and politics. But it’s also one of coordination. Experts all over the world are working hard, but they don’t know what each other are working on. From doctors to ventilator manufacturers to city councillors, everyone needs to share knowledge and find solutions faster.
The Coronavirus Tech Handbook breaks our bubbles and lets people build a better picture of what’s happening. Each day in the handbook we see experts sharing skills and resources. The problems that face us are stark, but we’re finding better solutions all the time. We’ll do it faster if we do it together.”
If you would like to get involved in the Coronavirus Tech Handbook and have information to share, or would like to learn more, please visit https://coronavirustechhandbook.com.
