About

The open source projects catalogued in the Pandemic Response Repository are powering more efficient and effective public sector responses to the coronavirus pandemic. Many governments are struggling to find the right solutions and to share technology and content they’ve developed with others in need. The solutions listed here are reusable, easily shared among agencies, municipalities and countries, and can be adapted to local needs. The repository will be updated daily based on research by our team and submissions from around the world. We have not undertaken an independent code review of each solution.

The Pandemic Response Repository is the first phase of a more comprehensive Open Source Framework researched and developed by New America to strengthen and modernize government institutions. Across the public sector, private sector, and civil society, there is growing momentum to create open source, digital public goods that can deliver broad benefits for society and be easily modified to meet the needs of different communities. This work is intended to help build that movement. The Pandemic Response Repository is a joint project of the Digital Impact and Governance Initiative (DIGI) and Public Interest Technology (PIT) teams at New America.

How we vet projects

We recognize that when we list projects on this repository, we are giving them a broader platform and reach and encouraging governments across the board to reuse this work in their coronavirus response efforts. We have developed a simple set of criteria for vetting projects prior to listing them on our repository. Projects must be:

Built, run, or maintained by or on behalf of government.

Government response efforts operate in a specific context that tools built for the private sector often do not address. We want to ensure that the tools we list here are usable in the government context, and that they have already shown some promise by being used by at least one government.

Open source and available to the public.

Projects must be open source to be listed here. For projects that are not software-based (e.g. content, guidelines), we look for explicit licenses that allow for reuse of the work.

Currently in use to assist in the response efforts against the coronavirus.

While we recognize that many tools are potentially useful in the response effort, we look to only list tools that have already seen active usage in response efforts. If the tool has been useful in a coronavirus response effort to one government, that serves as a signal to other governments that it is likely applicable in their scenario, as well.

Caveats

The open source projects catalogued in the Pandemic Response Repository are powering more efficient and effective public sector responses to the coronavirus pandemic. While we have done some vetting of projects on this repository, we have not performed any kind of deep code or product review of these projects. These tools are not endorsed by New America and we do not provide any technical support in their implementation or perform independent code reviews. We strongly encourage all governments to conduct due diligence and ensure that the technologies are deployed in an accountable and transparent manner. Although the coronavirus demands a quick response, it must not be at the expense of the rights or security of citizens.

Contributing to Pandemic Response Repository

If you would like to suggest a new project be added to the collection, please use this Google form. If you have general questions about the project, send us an email at DIGI@newamerica.org. For more information on contributing to the source code for the Pandemic Response Repository, see the GitHub repository for this website.

License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

CC BY 4.0