That’s great! If I would format it for you for the platform, would you post it? On here people could nicely react to it 
Hello @MariaEuler - go ahead as you like. This is freeware! For other language versions; I have a MS Office licence and can produce machine-translated versions in a simple manner that I could share. The text needs corrections but cuts time by an order of magnitude. - best regards, Martin
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Quick update. Code is 99% ready, but I am stuck because Google cannot validate my credit card (which should be fine). They are not working at full capacity because of Covid! At least, this is what the red popup told me.
Do I need Google? Yes, for searching by address. The free tier has too strict limits, so I have to enable a premium account. Then I was going to use Google for hosting, because it is cheap, no devops, easy and scales well.
Lesson learned. Advanced technologies are fragile.
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Ok, got an idea. Let’s go low tech like in the '90s.
I can generate some html, which could work also offline, from the current website.
I can easily implement search by location offline if I have all the data on the client. Of course it works if data are not big, but it should handle 10k places (even more).
If we have more than 10k places, we can split the app into N apps by municipality/area/neighborhood. If I am in Milan, I do not buy bread in Rome.
The main problem is: how can I collect data? It must be done in a separate form or a part of the app that works online. I think that it is important if data collection can be done in the same app. Any (not-too-Google-dependent) ideas?
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this could be a challenge for next week’s call on surveillance and pandemic response @alberto and @matthias: A surveillance pandemic? A community listening session on emergent post-COVID trends, from contact tracking to special powers - #3 by krozruch
Maybe you should go @mstn
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Some people told me about at least two other apps doing the same thing in my province. So I really do not know if it makes sense to add noise with another app.
What I could do is to release the code as it is. From a csv/json of companies is possible to create an app that works offline. In this way, if anyone needs it, they can clone the project, run a script and deploy the app somewhere. This is basically what the other apps do. At least people from other regions/countries can have a starting point which requires zero coding skills.
In the long (hopefully short) term (when the epidemic is over), I can think about an integration with more services with the goal of promoting local shopping. One of the two apps I mentioned above is “institutional”, made by the local government with associations of retailers and local farmers. I am going to ask them if they want to release that data as opendata.
So, in conclusion, I’ll tidy up what I have and I’ll make it available as a boilerplate. That’s it.
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can you add their names plus link to your repository when you are done?
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Got in contact with people in Serbia with various initiatives linked to Covid.
One of them is https://ostanikodkuce.beograd.gov.rs/ , I like how clear it is.
You have 3 options directly:
- Need help
- I want to donate
- Want to volunteer
As you pick your option you get contact details or a contact form.
They had 1000 calls in 3 days, not so much considering it’s Belgrade but it’s a start.
That could be combined with what we discussed during the last week’s call. They also tried to coordinate efforts with government but had no success there so far. I think it would be really effective if we could get any municipality to cooperate and send out the leaflets we would print.
Everyone checks their mailbox.
@mstn yes, it seems to be the same issue everywhere. Due to lack of coordination there are many teams developing same things. It’s a pity, we should reach out to media to try coordinating things better. There are a lot of communities out there willing to contribute but they often don’t know where to direct their energy.
There is a facebook group also called Visionaries of Serbia, they 3D print equipment needed for medical personnel (delivered around 10 000 so far). Also technical universities making respirators etc…but they are also complaining about a lack of coordination. Could we put our effort in coordination, instead of creating something that possibly already exists?
Also, is there a place where you regularly post about zoom calls or should i connect to zoom and have a schedule there somewhere?
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Good pint about the calls. We do not yet have one shared post where we keep the calls all across edgeryders updated and shared, but we should probably do that. @nadia and @noemi , what do you think, I could replace the pinned COVID response call post in campfire with a pinned list with links to all upcoming community calls which all of us can update when something is scheduled?
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YES! I think we need some community volunteers that just go out and ask people what they are doing and what they need help with. Inviting them to a video chat like we do and help them connect and coordinate - document the conversation, post on the platform then push out so others can see who is doing what and what is needed.
Owen is almost done developing an application that makes it easy to do this from people’s whatsapp and telegram apps - basically they follow a link, and then a chatbot asks them some questions, their answers directly go on the platform and we can push it out as “who is doing what today and how you can help”
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this is the role we had in mind when we asked who want to be collaboration djs
found about that :
“an open, public database of COVID-19 innovations. Suppliers of tech solutions can directly post their details online, and be openly searched and browsed by anyone who has a demand, in a peer-to-peer fashion.”
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this is excellent
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I have to fix some strange behaviors, I think due to github pages. But the main idea is to allow people to build clones from a json file (better csv).
I am going to contact now the folks I talked above. Do you have any suggestions about how to proceed?
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Just tweet or send them a message on Fb saying “hi, I heard about your initiative and would like to support it. Here is a thing I have already built (url to description of what your app does and the github repo), what are you doing next and how can I help?”
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Updates (I write here, let me know if you prefer somewhere else).
The Province of Trento (where I live) released a dataset with 500/600 companies and farms as open data (CC-BY). I have already integrated their data in my app. They have their own platform, but the idea is to build something that can be reproduced in other contexts with just a list of companies.
I am organizing issues here Issues · mstn/aah · GitHub. help-wanted and good-first-issue labels say where I need help. Atm I am not interested in bug reporting, there are bugs, but it is everything wip. Instead I need icons for different kinds of shops.
Today, I am going to find a place for hosting (S3?). The app is 100% html, so I do not need anything too complex. I need also a name! I would like to deploy n websites with url https://{main-city-name}.a-cool-name.com
Another issue: the dataset is public, so I do not think there is any problem in sharing email/phone info about companies. What do you think?
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Fortunately, even during crisis, we have what we need. The best craft beers in Trentino Covid App and Covid App (ok, I know we cannot compete with Belgians).
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hmm is it possible to send bottles abroad?