The World Health Organization huddled up with social media and software companies this week to fire up an initiative to develop software to take on the current and potential threats related to the Coronavirus.
Initially, Facebook and Microsoft were the major players supporting the effort, with Twitter, TikTok, Pinterest, Slack, Giphy, WeChat and others coming onboard in close order. According to the #BuildforCOVID19 Hackathon feed, social media and other tech firms have to get their efforts together quickly. Submissions open today and close March 30. Top prospects will be chosen and announced by April 3.
Facebook currently offers standing pages where a user can register as a blood donor or seek Crisis Response resources in cases of disaster. Those concepts emerged from past hackathons. The current COVID-19 crisis is the latest opportunity for badly needed ideas to come forward.
According to Facebook, this latest hackathon is urging software companies and social media firms to build “projects focused around the themes of health, vulnerable populations, businesses, community, education and entertainment.”
With the Coronavirus looming over every aspect of daily life in 2020, clearly the focus of this latest hackathon will be ways developers can make people’s lives safer, easier and more enjoyable through these days of quarantining, social distancing and virus avoidance.
(Source: Forbes https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnscottlewinski/2020/03/26/who-teams-with-social-media-giants-to-develop-software-combating-coronavirus-issues/#1fd0d97d207e )
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