Responding to the ‘Call to Action’

• April 2, 2020
• StJohn Deakins
• no comments

We’re enabling people to share information about COVID-19 via an open-data resource, in order to help us all tackle COVID-19.  Research is conducted in real-time and anonymously. It is shared openly with Institutions, health organisations, researchers – and with you, the general public. 

Together, we can fight Coronavirus faster, save lives, and transition the world to a better place.
We came across this movement on ‘Medium’, calling out to the data stewards of the world: https://medium.com/data-stewards-network/a-call-for-action-813669f32244

We’ve signed up to this movement.

Why?

It spoke to us, in particular about the frustrations around re-using aggregated and anonymised data for tracking disease growth. Data has become such a common currency that it’s sparsely distributed across government, the private sector and the civil sector, with inconsistencies between whom has access. Indeed, data that should be used by researchers for the common good isn’t always there for those who need it. The gaps in data accessibility lead to delays and an incomplete picture. 

In this current crisis, a prime example is COVID-19 testing.  We already know that the more people are tested, the better understanding we have around how the virus has spread globally. More testing means more data, and more data means better knowledge during times like this. This is part of our mission at CitizenMe: making data accessible at all levels. That’s what we’re doing with our Coronavirus/COVID-19 Communities. 

In light of COVID-19, the European Expert Group’s final report on Business-to-Government Data Sharing recommended the following 7 actions to make data collaboration systematic, sustainable, and responsible. We at CitizenMe agree with each and every action, and are implementing them through our COVID-19 Community:

“The CitizenMe COVID-19 community is an open-data research project, designed to enable the world’s citizens to share real-time opinions and data about COVID-19 with the institutions fighting the pandemic.” All data gathered is shared anonymously with health services and researchers, governments, journalists, charities – and with the general public.  If you would like a full anonymised copy of the data, please email us at COVID@citizenme.com