We’re collecting all the ways that developers like you all over the world are making a difference during this time of need. After all, we’re all in it together, and you’re the best there is at what you do.
During this pandemic, everyone can play a part. We’re all in this together. Healthcare professionals are on the front line saving lives, and service industry workers once again deserve our unyielding gratitude for keeping our pharmacies and grocery stores stocked, and packages delivered.
We firmly believe that developers are among the most talented, and dedicated professional communities in our society.
Time and time again, our community has provided crucial support to those in need and the professionals helping them. Now is no different. Developers like you are multidisciplined and work across fields, including those above and other crucial areas. Developers working in internet infrastructure, app development, and more are making it possible to continue through this. You are unsung heroes.
We’re collecting posts and news from around the world showcasing what developer-driven companies, individuals, and especially communities are doing to assist in addressing our united task. This post will be updated regularly with new information as we come across it.
Section Quick Links
Developer Community Efforts
Technology Efforts In The News
Official Statements From Technology Companies
Developer Community Efforts
The Developers Alliance highly encourages all developers with the ability to do so to take part in these projects and any others you become aware of that support the relief and impact mitigation of the novel Covid-19 coronavirus.
#BuildforCOVID19 Global Online Hackathon
The COVID-19 Global Hackathon is an opportunity for developers to build software solutions that drive social impact, with the aim of tackling some of the challenges related to the current coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
Competition Timeline
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3/24: Registration opens on Devpost
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3/26: 9:00 AM PST Project submissions open on Devpost
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3/30: 9:00 AM PST Deadline to submit projects, including a 2-minute video walk-through
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Week of 3/30: Judges will endeavor to provide feedback and connect with selected projects shortly after that (so long as these activities remain unaffected)
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4/3: Highlighted projects will be announced
Tech4Covid19
Tech4Covid19 is a movement of 3000+ people: engineers, designers, marketers, health professionals, and many other specialties in the technological community, joining forces to fight the novel coronavirus. The group is organizing and manning over a dozen projects, from fundraising to software development, eCommerce support, symptom tracking, and more. The group started in Portugal but is open to contributors from around the world. The group has a very active Twitter presence and has rallied around the hashtag, #Tech4Covid19. Read more and get involved …
Help With Covid (.com)
Via HelpWithCovid.com, March 2020..
HelpWithCovid.com is providing a one-stop-shop for those with a high level of technical skill to contribute to fighting the pandemic. In their own words:
“Help With COVID is a marketplace for people (especially engineers & software developers, bio, medicine, manufacturing) to find projects to contribute to, and for projects to find help.”
Projects include the building of dashboards, creation of APIs for calling information and processes from other covid-19 relief projects, financial investments into companies and projects who are making a difference, the development of applications for the various professional services that are continuing through the crisis, and more. Join a project or read more…
“Understanding The Impact of COVID-19 With Foot Traffic Data”
Via FourSquare, March 18, 2020.
Foursquare has used its considerable location-based data sets to graph and analyze what has changed since the onset of the pandemic and what the broad (anonymized) behaviors are still present. The measured by means of foot traffic, over a seven day period, in cities and areas most impacted by the novel coronavirus. In their post, Foursquare extrapolates the data into easy digest graphs and highlights changes to travel plans, working from home, warehouse shopping, stocking up, casual dining, nightlife, and more- with hard numbers based on their user data. The reports show what may be seen as a trivial app and cultivated data sets can provide. See graphs and read more….
“Coronavirus COVID-19 Global Cases by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University (JHU)”
Via John Hopkins University.
A professor and graduate student at John Hopkins University have built an interactive map to track coronavirus cases and movement around the globe. It may look immediately familiar to you, as this the dashboard widely being screenshotted and used in the media. This project is a perfect example of how an individual or two, especially with developer skills on their side, can make a huge difference. According to Johns Hopkins the map aggregates data from news media, the World Health Organization, the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Health Commission of the People’s Republic of China, and other various healthcare facilities and medical professionals. Visit the map…
“FOLDING@HOME TAKES UP THE FIGHT AGAINST COVID-19 / 2019-NCOV”
Via Folding@Home, February 2020.
Folding@home (FAH or F@h), a distributed computing project to assist scientists and research projects by running simulations of protein dynamics on their personal computers by utilizing unused computational power. Now they are calling on their existing and new users to help with an open science collaboration of multiple laboratories around the world, giving researchers new tools that may unlock new opportunities for developing lifesaving drugs against coronavirus. On Reddit the PC gaming subreddit, r/PCMasterRace has taken the cause and ran with it, amplifying the organization’s reach. Read more…
Technology Efforts In The News
“Instagram Launches Co-Watching To Make Staying At Home More Bearable.”
Via Mashable, March 24, 2020.
“Among the most interesting is a new feature called Co-Watching, which allows users to view Instagram posts together with their friends over video chat. Yes, a watch party for Instagram posts.“
“This Startup Will Map The Coronavirus Spread By Looking At Your Poo.”
Via TheNextWeb, March 20, 2020.
Developers at the MIT-birthed medical startup Biobot are testing sewage for the novel coronavirus. Sewage may indicate areas where outbreaks are about to occur, as the disease will be evident in the sewage before many show symptoms. The startup is aggregating and organizing the data, then providing that data in interactive formats, including a map to researchers. Read more…
“Lyft Offers Drivers To Sign Up For Delivery Services, Founders Donate Salaries During Coronavirus.”
Via Reuters, March 20, 2020.
Ridesharing app Lyft, announced March 20th that its founders would be donating their salaries to drivers in need, whose incomes have dropped nearly 70%. Additionally, they will be creating a “LyftUp Driver Task Force” to help those in need. An email to all drivers by founders John Zimmer and Logan Green said “those who would like to help neighbors get to grocery stores, workers to hospitals and caretakers to their jobs…” could join the task force and provided a google doc to sign up and begin the project’s organization. Read more…
“goPuff Commits $1 Million In Orders to Hospital Workers Across The U.S. With New Health Care Support Initiative”
Via Odessa American, March 20, 2020.
Unique mobile application-driven convenience store and delivery service goPuff will be offering digital credits for use on the service’s wide range of essentials, including cleaning supplies, home needs, over-the-counter medications, food, and drinks to staff working at hospitals across the country. goPuff has begun offering non-contact delivery, is complying with all recommended CDC guidelines and is hiring more drivers to continue deliveries. Read more…
“Facebook To Ban Ads For Hand Sanitizer, Disinfecting Wipes, COVID-19 Test Kits.”
Via The Hill, March 19, 2020.
Facebook Director Of Product Management Rob Leathern tweeted that Facebook will be banning these ads “…to help protect against inflated prices and predatory behavior we’re seeing.” He also noted that Facebook will “…be ramping up our automated enforcement for ads and commerce next week. If we see abuse around these products in organic posts, we’ll remove those, too.” Read more…
“How Open-Source Software Is Tackling COVID-19 Coronavirus.”
Via ZDNet, March 17, 2020.
Technology magazine has compiled a comprehensive list of open source projects that are contributing to the challenges presented by the novel coronavirus, tracking the virus’s movements, and crunching data to assist researchers. Read more…
“Tech Giants Are Getting Creative To Manage The COVID-19 Crisis”
Via The Verge, March 17, 2020.
Alphabet is continuing to push forward with its ambitious testing and public information website, while Amazon is committed to at least 100,00 new hires. Read More…
“Alibaba Co-Founder Jack Ma To Donate Coronavirus Test Kits And Masks To The US”
Via The Verge, March 14, 2020.
Ma relayed on his Twitter: “The pandemic we face today can no longer be resolved by any individual country. Rather, we need to combat this virus by working hand-in-hand. At this moment, we can’t beat this virus unless we eliminate boundaries to resources and share our know-how and hard-earned lessons.” Read more…
“Zoom CEO Eric Yuan Is Giving K-12 Schools His Videoconferencing Tools For Free”
Via Forbes, March 12, 2020.
”Students or teachers who fill out an online form using their school email addresses and are then verified by Zoom will have any accounts associated with that school’s domain also gain unlimited temporary meeting minutes, according to a site set up for the process overnight. “ Read more…
Official Statements From Technology Companies
“Keeping People Safe and Informed About the Coronavirus”
Via Facebook, March 26, 2020.
“Since the World Health Organization declared the coronavirus a public health emergency in January, we’ve taken steps to make sure everyone has access to accurate information, stop misinformation and harmful content, and support global health experts, local governments, businesses and communities.”
Facebook detailed the changes with the following section, each consisting of further information and links to multiple new sub-policies.:
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“Making sure everyone has accurate information”
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“Stopping misinformation and harmful content”
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“Supporting global health experts and relief efforts”
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“Supporting local governments, communities and businesses”
For the full extent of the changes, read more…
Combating COVID-19 Misinformation Across Our Apps
Via Facebook, March 25, 2020
Facebook shares updates to misinformation policies and initiatives to prevent the spread of misinformation across Facebook, Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp. Read more…
Keeping People Informed, Safe, and Supported on Instagram
Via Instagram, March 24, 2020.
“Today we’re announcing additional updates: Including more educational resources in Instagram Search Adding stickers to promote accurate information Removing COVID-19 accounts from recommendations, unless posted by a credible health organization Rolling out the donation sticker in more countries and helping people find relevant nonprofits to support Creating a shared story to help those practicing social distancing connect with others, using a “Stay Home” sticker Launching a new way to browse Instagram with friends over video chat.”
Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, Microsoft, Reddit, Twitter, and YouTube Issue Joint Statement.
Via Facebook, March 16, 2020. The businesses stated:
“We are working closely together on COVID-19 response efforts. We’re helping millions of people stay connected while also jointly combating fraud and misinformation about the virus, elevating authoritative content on our platforms, and sharing critical updates in coordination with government healthcare agencies around the world. We invite other companies to join us as we work to keep our communities healthy and safe.”
“Amazon Ramps Hiring, Opening 100,000 New Roles To Support People Relying On Amazon’s Service In This Stressful Time”
Via Amazon, March 16, 2020.
“Company will invest over $350 million globally to increase pay by $2/hour in the U.S., C$2 in Canada, £2/hr in the UK, and approximately €2/hr in many EU countries for employees and partners who are in fulfillment centers, transportation operations, stores or those making deliveries so that others can remain at home….
Getting a priority item to your doorstep is vital as communities practice social-distancing, particularly for the elderly and others with underlying health issues. We are seeing a significant increase in demand, which means our labor needs are unprecedented for this time of year…” – Dave Clark, Senior Vice President of Amazon Worldwide Operations
“An Update On Our Continuity Strategy During COVID-19.” (Twitter Updates Misinformation Policy)
Via Twitter, March 16, 2020.
Twitter has published a post on its official company blog detailing changes to its misinformation policy. In it, Twitter has noted that it will be taking the following steps to improve service and combat misinformation.
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“Increasing our use of machine learning and automation to take a wide range of actions on potentially abusive and manipulative content.”
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“Broadening our definition of harm to address content that goes directly against guidance from authoritative sources of global and local public health information.”
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“Instituting a global content severity triage system so we are prioritizing the potential rule violations that present the biggest risk of harm and reducing the burden on people to report them.”
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Along with detailing infrastructure upkeep, remote work, safety, and more.
Apple’s COVID-19 Response
Via Apple, March 13, 2020.
“Apple’s committed donations to the global COVID-19 response — both to help treat those who are sick and to help lessen the economic and community impacts of the pandemic — today reached $15 million worldwide. We’re also announcing that we are matching our employee donations two-to-one to support COVID-19 response efforts locally, nationally and internationally.”
Mark Zuckerberg Announces Facebook Relief Donation And Matching
Via Mark Zuckerberg, March 13, 2020.
”Facebook is matching up to $10 million in donations, and 100% of funds will directly support the work to prevent, detect and respond to the outbreak around the world. We’ll also match $10 million for the CDC Foundation,
which will launch a fundraiser in the next few weeks focused on combating the outbreak here in the US.”
“Our Latest Efforts to Help Those Affected” (Salesforce’s Commitment)
Via Salesforce, March 11, 2020.
”To support the global response to this virus, Salesforce is donating $1 million to UCSF’s COVID-19 Response Fund and $500K to the CDC Foundation’s Emergency Response Fund…. Finally, we’re making our technology available to help our customers, partners, and communities…. To help teams collaborate while employees are away from the office, Quip Starter will be available for free to any Salesforce customer or non-profit organization through September 30, 2020.”
