Coronatracker’s Work from Home Warriors during the Covid19 Pandemic
At the moment, over 80 countries worldwide are hit by the new coronavirus strain known as #covid19. While it has brought out the worst in some people (e.g. hoarding of sanitizing supplies, etc.), it has also brought the best in others. It is in such a situation of collective concern for everyone’s well-being and fighting fake news that our website Coronatracker was born. The realtime app curates official statistics on coronavirus incidences, recoveries and fatalities in affected countries worldwide.
The impact of crowdsourcing can never be underestimated, pandemic or not. And with the digital age, it is made even more powerful with remote working or work from home setups. The Coronatracker team, spearheaded by its data scientist founder Dr. Lau Cher Han, is purely powered by a global group of volunteers. Most of the volunteers are themselves implementing their own version of quarantine and social distancing measures at home to quell the exponential growth of positive covid19 cases in the world. (I am personally writing this piece in my pajamas while taking care of my family here in Manila.)
The main public communications channel is done via Telegram messaging system. The core volunteers coordinate via Slack and list all the tasks via Trello but verify reports coming from Telegram 24/7 for authenticity by requiring some official document or source from the country being reported for additional covid19 cases. Once vetted as official data for that country, the system is updated as close to real time as humanly possible. The platform also allots a segment for natural language processing techniques in going through all coronavirus related news articles from major publications in the world. We also host webinar events to help spread awareness and reduce panic in the midst of this global challenge.
The initiative itself is not without its challenges, but so far it’s working and thriving even in the time where fake news is being peddled left and right on social media. There are development teams working non-stop to improve the bits and pieces of the real-time platform. There are also folks who are making sure the social media channels are updated with the latest features of the app. Data scientists, technology and online junkies, medical researchers, and web developers come together as a motley digital crew that empowers this project and makes sure it stands firm with the best possible data sources there are on the covid19 pandemic.
Ultimately, it’s the commitment to maintaining data integrity across all the data sources that makes the app so unique. We are also looking forward to partnering with afflicted countries’ health departments to better serve these statistics to people who need to know facts from actual data and not fake news. The access to the real time dashboard is free for all, and providing some support is an optional thing for people in the public who want to cheer and support our initiative.
There’s the global pandemic and then there’s the fake news epidemic that spreads faster and causes more harm to people who are already undergoing challenges in their respective countries as they protect themselves and loved ones from this deadly virus.
Join us in our initiative in fighting this global pandemic by sharing our platform (coronatracker.com), checking us out on social media, and joining our Telegram chat community for more granular updates.
