The Open Source Community Responds to COVID-19
As COVID-19 continues to affect all corners of the globe, people have responded to lend assistance to neighbors as well as people they have never met. Doing whatever we can, no matter what amount, is how we are able to make a difference in someone’s life. The Open Source community is no different.
OpenTechResponse is our way of helping where we can devoid of country borders.
The OpenTechResponse:
- brings together COVID-19 related open projects
- introduces a communication space for open tech responders from around the world
- creates a project database across all public repos (GitHub, Gitlabetc)
- provides tools supporting tools including a Discourse Q&A and HelpDesk
- most importantly, launches a matchmaking tool to connect volunteers with projects requesting help from the open source community
The OpenTechResponse Webinar
Listen to the OpenTeams webinar in which Patrick McFadin (DataStax) and Amanda Brock (OpenUK) talk about OpenTechResponse. OpenTechResponse is an initiative that brings the open source communities together to help fight COVID-19 and future disasters.
Whether you’re into software, hardware, data, health or science, you can join OpenTechResponse and do your part with helping to fight COVID-19.
Click here to register
While OpenTechResponse is initially responding to COVID-19, the initiative was created to enable the open source community to respond to any future global crisis as well.
How You Can Get Involved
Matchmaking service
We are looking for 6 COVID-19 response projects to volunteer to be one of the first to use the new matchmaking service.
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Submit your projectWear the badge
Show your support for the open source, open hardware, open science and open data communities’ response to the pandemic by wearing the I support OpenTechResponse banner on social media, your blog, or your website.
Download the media packLike most open projects, OpenTechResponse was set up to scratch an itch, or maybe in response to Coronavirus we should say to stem a fever. It’s an organic community project that has a very simple purpose. It creates a space to bring people across the global open communities together in their response to a disaster. If it helps to remove some silo’s and to support people finding each other to build a cohesive response to disaster then it has served its purpose.
Amanda Brock, CEO, OpenUK
How OpenTechResponse Came to Be
OpenTechResponse was sparked during a call as European countries began lockdown. Isolated in their homes, open source community leaders discussed how they, and the larger open source community, could help.
While discussing open ventilator projects springing up across the globe, they realized an organized response could point the many people wanting to volunteer with projects in need of assistance.
Spearheaded by OpenUK CEO Amanda Brooke, within days leaders from around the globe, pledged their time, resources, and considerable technical know-how to help make this response come to life within days.
Within days of kickoff, more than 150 people volunteered to support the OpenTechResponse initiative. Its immediate focus would be the COVID-19 pandemic.
Patrick McFadin of DataStax was instrumental in ensuring the tools and structure created would bring open communities together in response to any disaster. The goal is to provide the fastest collaboration and most appropriate robust open solutions.
OpenTeams, led by David Charboneau, rapidly built a matchmaking tool that enables developers to list the coding skills and their level of expertise. This is matched with crisis-related projects and nonprofits who need volunteers with these skills. We are currently looking for six projects to be the first to use this new tool.
OpenTechResponse is an organic initiative that is not run or owned by a particular foundation. Although it was started by a few community people, it is being allowed to grow organically.