IBM joins fight against Ebola in Africa
This week IBM announced that it will be providing help in the fight against Ebola usinga several initiatives.
This was revealed through a statement where IBM said these initiatives include
- A citizen engagement and analytics system in Sierra Leone that enables communities affected by Ebola to communicate their issues and concerns directly to the government
- A a donation of IBM Connections technology in Nigeria to strengthen the Lagos State government’s preparedness for future disease outbreaks; and
- A global platform for sharing Ebola-related data.
IBM said its partners include Sierra Leone’s Open Government Initiative, Cambridge University’s Africa’s Voices project, Airtel and Kenya’s Echo Mobile.
IBM’s first African research lab in Kenya has also been roped in to help with the fight against Ebola.
“IBM’s new Africa research lab, in collaboration with Sierra Leone’s Open Government Initiative, has developed a system that enables citizens to report Ebola-related issues and concerns via SMS or voice calls. It provides actionable insight to the government about the day-to-day experiences of communities directly affected by Ebola to help improve its strategy for containing the disease,” noted IBM.
In Nigeria, IBM’s ‘connections’ technology donation is targeted at helping the Lagos State Government strengthen the coordination of public health emergency response teams.
Meanwhile, IBM volunteers across the globe are also leading a community effort to classify all open data sources related to the Ebola outbreak.
The volunteers are calling on organisations worldwide to contribute data with a goal in mind of creating an “Ebola Open Data Repository which will use IBM’s SoftLayer cloud technology to provide governments, aid agencies and researchers with free and open access to valuable open data related to Ebola.”
Via IT Web Africa
