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Stay at home and at the same time actively contribute to overcoming the Corona crisis? The German government’s hackathon shows that this is possible. More than 42,000 participants networked from 20 to 22 March 2020 and contributed to a wide variety of projects – with overwhelming results. AOE employees also participated.
The goal of the #WirVsVirus Hackathon: to jointly find creative solutions to problems caused by the Covid 19 crisis within 48 hours. The initiative went viral within a short period of time – people from a wide range of professions participated, including development, creation and design. AOE programmers were also involved, including Martin Lux, Moritz Möller and Henry Vogt.
For all three, participation in the hackathon began in a similar way: they had already thought about coming up with solutions to problems raised by Covid-19. Moritz Möller and Henry Vogt dealt with the idea of using unused 3D printers to produce products that are currently in short supply. Martin Lux wanted to provide relevant data about Corona in bundled form via an API. During the hackathon they were able to implement impressive projects together with like-minded people.
Covid-19 leads to an increased demand for infection prevention products in systemically relevant professions. This is currently causing acute supply bottlenecks for such products. At the same time, production facilities and private individuals with 3D printers have free capacities.
Bundle capacities to compensate for bottlenecks for currently in-demand products such as protective masks.
Concept for a platform that brings together so-called makers (producers) and takers (people with a need for products for Covid-19 prevention).
There are numerous data sources on the Internet concerning case numbers of Corona – but nowhere are they bundled and up-to-date. Isolated solutions and projects have already been developed for this problem, including the Corona Data Scraper. However, because the data records are not optimally documented and filtered, they cannot be used in the best possible way.
Quasi-standardized REST interface for the dynamic provisioning of data from the Corona Data Scraper.
The hackathon was initiated by seven social initiatives (Code for Germany, Initiative D21, ImpactHub Berlin, project together, Prototype Fund, Social Entepreneurship Netzwerk Deutschland and tech4Germany), supported by the Federal Chancellery and Digitalrat, under the patronage of Prof. Dr. Helge Braun, Head of the Federal Chancellery and Federal Minister for Special Affairs.
The hackathon showed what we at AOE have always believed in: an agile mindset, creative ideas and flexibility are the basis for quickly achieving good results – especially in times of crisis. This applies individually as well as at the corporate level.
