Open Efforts regarding COVID 19

For Monday’s lecture, we were assigned with the task to look for any type of open efforts for COVID-19. Initially, I did not think that there would be too many open efforts for this topic. However, I was proven wrong when I did a simple google search of “Open Efforts Coronavirus.” I choose a visualization tool Real-time COVID-19 visualization. This tool tracks the number of cases globally. I thought it is useful and interesting to see the relative spread of this virus, and how countries are flattening the number of cases. Seeing the visualization really allowed me to see how rapidly the virus spread.

There were so many interesting efforts, from software development, to hardware, and to more social good efforts. Some projects that were discussed in class that I found interesting include Opentrons and Open PCR. Both of these projects are for creating rapid test kits. I thought this was interesting because it could be very useful. One of the things the United States is lacking in regard to the coronavirus is testing. Many people are not getting tested because in many places testing is not being done unless you show extreme signs and systems. Both of these efforts are trying to make test kits more accessible to all by allowing people to create their own test kits.

Other open efforts were more human/social good type of projects. Some stand out projects from our class discussion include, World Health Organization app for helping people cope with and mitigate the spread of COVID-19. This app provides people with needed information regarding the virus. Right now, there is so much misinformation going around about the virus. Many new outlets are causing mass panic by the way the information is being delivered. This app allows people to get information on their own terms.

Overall, I thought that this was a very interesting assignment and class discussion. During lecture, I was thinking of ways I could get involved in certain projects.

Progress made in Contributing to OpenFoodFacts

About two weeks ago we submitted our first pull request. We made an installation guide for users and edited the RREADME to reflect that addition. Although the requests were all approved, they still have not been merged. We don’t know why they have not been merged yet. Also, we started working on a new feature for the website. A few weeks ago, I found a Dark Mode feature request issue on their git hub. I commented on the issue, and we started working on it as a group. We are close to done with the feature. I was in charge of working on the CSS file that would change the layout and design of the website. I am very new to HTML and CSS. It was challenging at first trying to read through their HTML code to make the CSS file. But, the process of parsing through their code allowed me to understand HTML on a deeper level. Making this feature has been very fun and interesting.