Citizens are acting to make networks of all kinds - humans plus tech - in response to the Coronavirus. Here's a few
As our blogs earlier this week pointed out - on the collective psychology of our response to the Coronavirus, and the singing tenements of Italy - the pandemic has generated a tidal wave of care and mutual support from below, as governments battle to respond from on hight. The empathic response is all the richer, as a reaction to the physical/social distancing that beating the virus requires.
A/UK is constantly thinking about the capacities of communities in the network, communication and distributed age, to be able to organise themselves, their resources and their voice. So in an upheaval like this, we’re looking for when those “citizen action networks” (CANs), in a generic sense, will inevitably form.
And so they have been forming - we present a selection we’ve come across below. If you want to let us know about proto-CANs forming in response to Coronavirus, and post it on our A/UK Action Forum, please become a co-creator today (see icon on page).
The Coronavirus Tech Handbook
Ed Saperia and his crew from Newspeak House are notable for responding to major political and democratic events (like general elections and referenda) by setting up information platforms that aid citizen empowerment, and particularly techies and designers who want to amplify that - see some of their endeavours here.
But they’ve surpassed themselves with this Coronavirus Tech Handbook - an extraordinary archive of resources, ostensibly to help technologists help others in the pandemic, but in fact as comprehensive a handbook as any citizen could directly need. Here’s their content list:
Public Advice Information aimed at the general public, such as public health advice, educational summaries, diagnostic questionnaires, surveys, and hygiene tips
Remote Working & Event Alternatives Tools and best practice for working from home, and guidance for organising and facilitating distributed events, meetings or conferences.
Isolation Toolkit Tips for staying at home and doing social distancing correctly. Includes many resources for psychology & mental health.
Volunteering & Organising Ways to find and manage volunteer actions. Our hospitals and support services will likely be overwhelmed, so how can citizens step in and help?
Communities & Libraries Other places where people are talking about how to fight the Coronavirus outbreak, as well as other libraries of resources like this one.
All The Data Datasets on everything related to the outbreak from a variety of national and international sources, tracking cases, deaths, transmissions, and more.
Infographics Projects to make the data easy to understand. Dashboards, visualisations, graphs, charts, maps, etc.
Models and Forecasting All methods of predicting what’s going to happen in the future, such as mathematical models and prediction markets.
Fighting Misinformation Solutions to online trust, verification, fact checking, and reader experience in the interest of addressing misinformation in all of its forms.
Tools for Scientists Tools and methods to help the research community collaborate efficiently, such as pre-print review, distributed computing, and open science initiatives.
Resources For Doctors Anything that could help a medic. Triage protocols, ventilator settings…
Resources For Nurses Things that help nurses!
If you’re already a co-creator, click here. And if you can, please contribute!
Hardware Designs for physical objects to help detect, prevent or treat Coronavirus. Infection sensors, hygiene hacks…
Ventilators A section split off from Hardware to focus just on making ventilators.
Tools for Schools School’s out! Help for Teachers, Lecturers, Heads, Deans, etc, and for students of all ages. How to run online seminars, etc.
Government Responses What are all the governments doing? Listing actions and comparing approaches.
Coronavirus Tech Funding Cash for CovTech! Jobs, grants, philanthropy.
Miscellaneous Projects that just don’t seem to fit anywhere else. If in doubt, put it here and we'll find a home for it
They have a Facebook page with over 1300 members already. And if you can’t co-create with them, then please contribute something financially.
Covid-19 Mutual Aid UK
Very quickly up and running to address the instant community needs of the Coronavirus - to connect those in self-isolation who might not have the resources, networks or health to cope - was the Covid-19 Mutual Aid UK network. Like the Tech Handbook, they’ve jumped onto Facebook and Twitter as the social front of what they’re doing, and are using their own website and Google Docs to support their main job - which is to germinate as many micro-local “mutual aid” groups as they can (see Seren, one of the organisers, in the tweeted tv interview to the left.).
The instant response has been amazing, at least in terms of numbers of groups - over 300 so far (here’s the full list). They’re making available graphics that could be turned into leaflets dropped into people’s doors, asking if help with a variety of tasks is needed (see gallery below):
“Mutual Aid” in the title may give a clue - but it’s no surprise to us that this is an initiative driven by social anarchism, at least in spirit (and certainly going by this comprehensive piece on the anarchist outlet Freedom News - who provided us with a recent blog on a lively food cooperative in London’s Kentish Town). However, the mainstream media have caught on to their energy (see this Guardian piece). And it’s exactly the kind of fractal spread we seek to impel and amplify in our CAN model.
Dublin has its version of a community response group - and Chicago gets money to where it’s needed
Two more scripts for community help, with activists pouring their experience and enthusiasm into the available networks.
Eoghan Howe in Dublin - see this tweet - has upload a PDF based on his last week or so’s experience of setting up Community Response Groups in Dublin - available from this Google Drive link.
In Chicago, you can donate to someone on the COVID-19 Financial Solidarity Google Doc. Kind, effervescent soul Doe Taryn has created an open Google Spreadsheet that those financially affected by the coronavirus — gay, straight, fluid; male, female, non-identifying — can, without judgment, write in at and ask for help. Read through the litany of testimonies, and send funds to the appropriate Paypal, Venmo, and CashApp accounts you see fit.