In recent weeks, open source software and hardware have been proving its power to innovate and help healthcare services, schools and confined office workers cope with the new reality of the Covid-19 epidemic.
To start with education, read our report on schools in northern Italy that use Big Blue Button, a video classroom solution, to switch to teaching online. Here at OSOR we use Jitsi for our webinars, online meetings, and interviews. Jitsi is one of the main open source alternatives for videoconferencing and has been cranking out improvements rapidly.
Speaking of alternatives, the French government will be happy that it already runs Matrix, a secure open source chat software solution; read all about it in our recent case study. Other public services might follow suit.
Open source is particularly proving itself in healthcare, where many new smartphone apps based on open source have appeared recently. Examples include those put together by authorities in Spain and Italy to keep their citizens up to date. There are open source apps to help with tracking and tracing, including the one shared by Singapore's Ministry of Health and Government Technology Agency.
These apps rightfully come with public debates about the fundamental rights of individuals and the long-term consequences for society and government. It is worth reading this speech by the European Data Protection Supervisor and the 'Guidance on Apps supporting the fight against COVID 19 pandemic in relation to data protection' published by the European Commission.
There are at least two ongoing projects to build open source mechanical ventilators to assist patients with breathing. One is built on top of Raspberry Pi, Arduino and off-the-shelf parts. The other concentrates on parts that can be made with 3D printers.
The large number of open projects out there makes it hard to keep up. The Commission, including OSOR and others active on the Joinup eGovernment collaboration platform, have banded together in an attempt to aggregate the information. The section on open source now covers 70 projects. We list more than 20 hackathons and conferences, including this pan-European hackathon on 24, 25 and 26 April, and share links to many sets of relevant open data.
Open source in healthcare has featured in our OSOR reporting right from the start in 2007 and also just the other day. The power of open source is now making headlines across the globe. Perhaps that is one silver lining; it could prompt governments to increase support, and to use it even more themselves.
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