Coronavirus Tech Handbook

The Coronavirus Tech Handbook (www.coronavirustechhandbook.com) started on the 2nd March 2020. It is a crowdsourced online wiki library for technologists, civic organisations, public and private institutions, researchers, and specialists of all kinds working on responses to the pandemic. 

There are current issues with organisations in terms of their resources, capacity and know-how to respond quickly to emergency community needs. The Coronavirus Tech Handbook is a rapidly evolving resource with thousands of expert contributors. It enables rapid information exchange and teams/ communities to form and collaborate around problems. It contains 50 sections, 1000s of projects and has large communities of doctors, parents, data scientists and practitioners. To date it has received over 650,000 views. 

This is a global platform and has so far been translated into 8 languages. We will use this model to scale up new handbooks in partnership with key organisations internationally.

Most collaboration currently happens serially. However, the Coronavirus Tech Handbook is built so that parallel working can occur. This means that many individuals and organisations can work on this at the same time, information constantly being updated in real time.

Many organisations/ civic bodies/ groups and individuals are trying to solve problems related to coronavirus. They aren’t sharing what they know and they don’t know how to best communicate with each other. Therefore work is being replicated & expertise isn’t shared. Projects which have dependencies don’t happen because they require other projects to succeed.

CoronavirusTechHandbook.com enables rapid information exchange, collaboration, networking and solution sharing across a range of local, regional, national and international communities. It avoids duplication of resources and ensures communities are able to share solutions at speed.

We have now developed the platform to allow video chat on each page so that you can create a page and within each section and discuss the document live. This allows for fast iteration of information and we are forming a range of sector specific handbooks in partnership with leading sector organisations. The first one that we are developing is a handbook based around food security.

CoronavirusTechHandbook.com is a crowdsourced online wiki library for technologists, civic organisations, public and private institutions, researchers, and specialists. It is a source of projects, information and responses to the pandemic.

It is a rapidly evolving resource with thousands of expert contributors. It enables rapid information exchange and teams/ communities to form and collaborate around problems.

It has received over 600,000 views. It now contains 50 sections, 1000s of projects and a community of 1000s of doctors, parents, data scientists and practitioners of all other types.

It includes resources on the following areas: 

• Homelessness 

• Unemployment 

• Gig Work 

• Doctors Information

• Education 

• Loneliness

• And many more

Anyone can add to and edit the handbook on docs.plus and there are opportunities for communities to collaborate via Whats’App on each page. We have now developed new opensource technology that integrates video call in documents. This allows face-to-face conversations on issues for each specific community. 

We are using this model to develop a series of handbooks that are focused on issues around the pandemic and will affect global populations. We will work with sector leaders to ensure these are individualised and best used to facilitate successful collaborations and sharing of knowledge and solutions.

There is potential for the reach of this handbook to substantially grow and serve new communities looking to use the platform to further their missions relating to the Covid-19 response.

The user base has changed as needs have changed over the course of the pandemic. At the start, users were mainly medical staff seeking information. Now we have a lot more third sector users and technologists looking at solutions and collaboration. In the beginning our readership was UK weighted, however as usage has increased internationally, UK readership is now 35%.  We have seen rapid growth from the US, which now makes up 24% of traffic. Currently, 40% of our audience is aged 25-34 and 52% are female.

To understand our users we regularly analyse data and have captured many user stories. https://coronavirustechhandbook.com/stories. 

We have undertaken user surveys to learn how they are using the document and how it can be improved. From this research, we have identified a need for sector specific handbooks to benefit different communities. The first we are developing is  https://foodsystemshandbook.org/. We are working on a solution which allows parallel editing with video chat in each section. https://docs.plus/p/demo.

We strongly feel that Coronavirus Tech Handbook aligns to the challenge. Doctors, researchers and other health professionals  use the site regularly to share information, resources, research and enable them to build on already developed knowledge to act faster rather than duplicate efforts. We feel that we are a key enabler for the sector to respond to the pandemic effectively and plan to prevent and mitigate future disease outbreaks. We support so many other communities in their response to the pandemic, bringing communities together to share information, knowledge and ideas and support each other to be more resilient. 

The core team developed the https://electiontechhandbook.uk/ initially for the 2019 UK election. We have learned from this experience that rapid development at time of need made it beneficial to quickly iterate. 

We commenced developing the Coronavirus Tech Handbook in early March 2020. We built on our Election Handbook solutions that used Google Docs and Joedocs. However as we have developed the technology, others have been able to use this for particular countries or issues and we have been able to learn from their experience. 

For example  https://covid.churcheshandbook.co.uk/

There is currently not anything else out there like this. This is the only platform that culminates large amounts of information and research in one place for a broad range of sectors relating to the Covid-19 response. It also is cutting edge as it allows readers to add, edit and share information and at the same time communicate via integrated video chat and WhatsApp groups within their specific communities. 

Users can find and build on knowledge already out there and resources that have already been developed. This solution has the potential to change so many lives and to find solutions to the pandemic faster. From medical research to PPE protocols to resources for online teaching and learning; the Coronavirus Tech Handbook uniquely allows rapid information exchange and users to find solutions fast, and develop new solutions in real time in collaboration with their communities. 

We have the platform live now and we have received over 650k visitors.

The product was built on Google docs but we found that due the high level of traffic it was not stable enough. 

Therefore, we then moved  https://joedocs.com/which we developed. This allows a unique URL for the page and more parallel users on the same page so that they can view and edit data concurrently. 

We have now developed a solution using www.doc.plus which is even more stable using www.etherpad.com. Listening to feedback from our users we are building an innovative new product that has live video chat in each section https://docs.plus/p/demo which allows for instant video calls to discuss strategies. 

The solution is stable and will be enabled for mobile as well. This allows organisations and issues to rapidly co-author documents on an ongoing basis or in a series of events.

We initially used Google Docs but this was not sufficiently stable. 

We then created Joedocs.com which has the ability to have a unique URL and more people work in parallel and this is where we created the www.coronavirustechhandbook.com

Working on feedback from our users we are building an innovative new product that has live video chat in each section https://docs.plus/p/demo

This is now being used with the https://foodsystemshandbook.org/

This is based on https://etherpad.org/ which is widely used. 

Each sector uses Coronavirus Tech Handbook for their Covid-19 response

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They rapidly share solution based information and resources and learn from others in the field 

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Parallel working means individuals and organisations can work on the same information at the same time and information is constantly being updated in real time

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Duplication is avoided and communities are able to get to solutions faster and build on each others knowledge

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Communities to get to know and trust each other through integrated video and Whats’App  and by sharing and building on resources

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Communities become more resilient and empowered to find solutions

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Communities develop their own handbooks for their issues or organisation

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Communities achieve positive outcomes/ find solutions in the response to the pandemic faster

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Community led solutions and sharing mean that each community is self sustaining

We have had over 650,000 people use the Coronavirus Tech Handbook in over 8 languages. 

We anticipate that there will be at least one more wave and in a year over 1 million will be helped with the Coronavirus Tech Handbook and the other handbooks that we are developing with partners. 

In five years over 2-3 million people will have benefitted from the handbooks that we are publishing. 

Over the next 6 months we wish to have the Coronavirus Tech Handbook ready for the second wave in multiple languages ( it currently exists in 8). We wish to have it available on the new Docs Plus platform so that people will be able to instantly video chat around issues. 

This year we wish to develop a series of handbooks around different issues that effect organisations and issues. We aim to have published 10 other handbooks within a year. We are working with a range of partners to focus on different causes and issues to curate a series of events which will gather experts in their field to learn and share knowledge. 

We anticipate that the model we have developed will be replicated and multiple handbooks that iterate and share information will be create. This will be through partnering with multiple charities and organisations we are in in discussions with. 

In the next five years we wish to learn from this year, develop new solutions that support our communities through rapid publishing and authorship of information and develop a solution that can respond via messenger bots and potentially feature phones so that more can access the information. 

Funding is the first issue. We have received two grants to support us to this stage. However in order to sustain the handbook and scale up, we need additional funding to operate. 

We are testing a SAAS and event hosting model to see if the technology that we have innovated is a replicable model to deliver revenue. 

The docs.plus product is being shown to a number of user who are potentially wishing to use it and we are anticipating turning this into a SAAS product or hosting an number of events so that users participate in the events that are held within the handbook. We anticipate that that there will be a further pandemic and we wish to develop handbook as effectively as possible for the next wave. Groups and methodologies will have been formed in this phase. 

There is a lot of information out there at the moment and we need to focus on marketing and awareness of our solution so that more people know about it and can benefit from it.

We are applying for additional grants to support us to sustain and scale up. If successful we will be able to sustain the Coronavirus Tech Handbook and grow it for use across other issues, countries and organisations. We are collecting data and stories to prove our reach and impact as a highly innovating organisation.

We are currently testing a SAAS and event hosting model to see if the technology that we have innovated is a replicable model to deliver revenue. If this pilot is successful it will help support a more sustainable model. 

We have in place a strong advisory board to help us extend our offering. However we need to focus on our marketing and awareness of our solution having developed a strong product that has helped thousands of people. This will be a focus over the months ahead.

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We have a core team of 6 with an additional team of over 100 volunteers from around the world who have operated as librarians collating and sorting information. 

The project is well underway. We will continue to deliver impact through knowledge sharing beyond the 650,000 views that we have had of the handbook. Improvements will be made by identifying sections that need to be added to the handbook, improved technology, user research and in discussions with our Advisory Board.

The continuing development of the product will benefit and improve New Speak Houses standing as a centre for excellence in responding to civic events. Our continuing learnings, insights and ecosystem around this will be a rich resource for other civic & private institutions to learn from.

The advisory board that is supporting us in our development is below: full list can be viewed at https://coronavirustechhandboo...

Katherine Maher, Executive Director Wikimedia Foundation 

Bill Thompson, Principal Research Engineer, 

BBC R&D Theo Blackwell, Chief Digital Officer, Greater London Authority 

Jeni Tennison, CEO Open Data Institute

Tom Steinberg, founder MySociety, board of ICIJ 

 Mike Butcher, Editor TechCrunch 

 Mike Penrose, Founder of Sustainability Group, Ex. Executive Director of UNICEF UK 

 Lisa Murphy, Digital Strategist Public Health England 

 Irina Bolychevsky, Dir. Standards & Interoperability NHSX, board Open Knowledge Foundation 

 Dr Lee de Wit, Director Political Psychology Lab, University of Cambridge 

We are working with https://allfed.info/ in the development of the https://foodsystemshandbook.org/. 

We are in discussion with multiple other partners to develop new handbooks. 

The Coronavirus Tech Handbook was formed by a core team who are based out of http://newspeak.house/ - the College for Political Technologists that Ed Saperia is Dean and Founder of.  Newspeak House sits at the intersect of open society, technology and democracy. It has until now been a venue for multiple events and has a large ecosystem of individuals and organisations using it. 

We created the Coronavirus Tech Handbook as a grant funded tool to help people in a crisis. However having seen and learnt how users have used the handbook we have identified a need for multiple other handbooks for organisations and issues:

1.) We are holding a series of "events" in a new handbook where multiple people join in the handbook and build the content through co-authoring and chatting. e.g. foodsystemshandbook.org We are looking at charging for holding these 'events' within these handbooks.

2.) We have iterated our product and developed www.docs.plus/p/demo Which allows for instant video calling, chat and co-authorship and we are currently researching with our audience to see their interest. This is proving to be of high interest to our users and so we are looking to gain user and then charge as a SAAS solution.   

We are looking to bring in sustained grants to continue to support the Coronavirus Tech Handbook however recognise that this will not always be possible. We are testing the two other models to see how well they work. 

Once we have tested and modelled the best way to deliver revenue whether that is through holding  digital events within new handbooks, releasing the tool as a Saas solution or as a combination of both. 

We would love to be a part of the Solve community and connect with peers, funders and experts. The 9 month programme will support us to develop and we would hugely benefit from Solve's strategic advice and mentoring on this journey. We are at a crucial moment in the development of the handbook and we are now at a stage where support like this would be a catalyst for us to positively impact millions of people around the world.

We strongly feel that Coronavirus Tech Handbook aligns to the challenge. Doctors, researchers and other health professionals  use the site regularly to share information, resources, research and enable them to build on already developed knowledge to act faster rather than duplicate efforts. We feel that we are a key enabler for the sector to respond to the pandemic effectively and plan to prevent and mitigate future disease outbreaks. We support so many other communities in their response to the pandemic, bringing communities together to share information, knowledge and ideas and support each other to be more resilient. 

We have commenced talking to multiple charities and third sector organisations. 

We seek them to bring forward issues that they face and we wish to develop events that bring together multiple interested parties to help solve these issues. 

We wish to partner with them to use this resource to develop a library of handbooks that help elevate global issues.   

We would like to connect with organisations/ MIT Faculty and Initiatives  who could benefit from the www.doc.plus platform and who can benefit the www.coronavirustechhandbook.co... 

We are seeking the handbook to be translated into additional languages, not just the 10 it is in at the moment. So any groups who could help with this would be an asset. 

We believe that we have a history of catalyzing impact through our work. We are a young, energetic and boundary pushing organisation looking to innovate solutions that can have a positive impact on society, on a local, national and global scale. We are problem solvers, driven by our purpose and wanting to create change. We have evidence of success in the past and with the Coronavirus Tech Handbook are at a Tipping point, where support from Solve could advance our solution to reach and support millions of people, and enable communities to strengthen, find solutions and become more resilient.  

We have proved that the model works in piloting and now are looking to further our impact in the response to the pandemic. This prize would enable us to focus on partnership building, marketing and audience development and scaling up. Ultimately it would help us reach more communities in need, and support communities to quickly respond and find solutions, in this fast changing landscape.