Corona community help initiative

[TheEngineer]

Hello fastlaners,

Due to the recent developments of the Virus I figured that there might be something I can do. But there are of course a couple of questions that are raised by this initiative.
I'm living in Germany and the last couple of days everything seems to be accelerated a bit, schools and universities are or will be closed starting from Tuesday so a lot of healthy people will probably sit at home. Therefore, I started to build a simple website to which people can sign up to, not only the ones sitting at home due to school/university closing but as well the people who are working in the vital parts of the society being nursery, police, firefighters, employees of the local supermarket, etc. such that they can be matched with each other. So there is a home page with a little explanation, a disclaimer (standard google one) and two big buttons (see attachment).

Button 1. I would like to help!
Button 2. I could need some help!

After which the people will be sent to a form in which they can fill out their personal information, availability and the needs they have.

It speaks for itself that this completely free of charge for all users of the platform. But, as I didn't do any research on this because there is just no time for it, some questions are still open.
Laws are of course different per country, let alone per continent. But, in the form I'd like to attach a disclaimer to which the users have to agree in which they are told that the risk will be completely at their own side, such that I can not be hold accountable. Would this be enough, or would this be more or less a "dealbreaker" for the project?

I'm not a webdesigner from profession but have build some basic stuff in the past, so I can find my way around somehow. Anyways, building a form would be possible but using a third party form would be the easier and maybe better option. I though of google forms for this and then somehow seem to integrate this with a mysql database or so. Is there any advise on what form builder would be best for this, and if it can be coupled with a database such that the data can be "easily" processed? Concerning the processing, there is also still an open question on how to process this all in the most suitable way, how to match people and how to "evaluate" or do some "basic screening" of the people by maybe a phone call or so.

And lastly, how to promote this? I can of course share this in my local community with friends and colleagues, but I figured that mailing the newspapers, radiostation (conventional media) might be a good start as well. All advise, or proposals are welcome regarding this, and I know there are quite some people around here who have some marketing experience.

Right now I'm basically doing this on my own, got some input from my girlfriend for the content of the page as she is a native german speaker but other than that, it's a project on my own for now. But if this initiative would take off, more people are needed to support this project.

I know this might not be a too well thought through project, but I figured that it might be something that can help the people in times of Corona. The website is not online yet as I want those questions to be answered first before taking this to the next level in which I can try to get the hosting for free. Time is however not on our side with this.


Stay safe!
- Niels

 

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[Bekit]

Hello fastlaners,

Due to the recent developments of the Virus I figured that there might be something I can do. But there are of course a couple of questions that are raised by this initiative.
I'm living in Germany and the last couple of days everything seems to be accelerated a bit, schools and universities are or will be closed starting from Tuesday so a lot of healthy people will probably sit at home. Therefore, I started to build a simple website to which people can sign up to, not only the ones sitting at home due to school/university closing but as well the people who are working in the vital parts of the society being nursery, police, firefighters, employees of the local supermarket, etc. such that they can be matched with each other. So there is a home page with a little explanation, a disclaimer (standard google one) and two big buttons (see attachment).

Button 1. I would like to help!
Button 2. I could need some help!

After which the people will be sent to a form in which they can fill out their personal information, availability and the needs they have.

It speaks for itself that this completely free of charge for all users of the platform. But, as I didn't do any research on this because there is just no time for it, some questions are still open.
Laws are of course different per country, let alone per continent. But, in the form I'd like to attach a disclaimer to which the users have to agree in which they are told that the risk will be completely at their own side, such that I can not be hold accountable. Would this be enough, or would this be more or less a "dealbreaker" for the project?

I'm not a webdesigner from profession but have build some basic stuff in the past, so I can find my way around somehow. Anyways, building a form would be possible but using a third party form would be the easier and maybe better option. I though of google forms for this and then somehow seem to integrate this with a mysql database or so. Is there any advise on what form builder would be best for this, and if it can be coupled with a database such that the data can be "easily" processed? Concerning the processing, there is also still an open question on how to process this all in the most suitable way, how to match people and how to "evaluate" or do some "basic screening" of the people by maybe a phone call or so.

And lastly, how to promote this? I can of course share this in my local community with friends and colleagues, but I figured that mailing the newspapers, radiostation (conventional media) might be a good start as well. All advise, or proposals are welcome regarding this, and I know there are quite some people around here who have some marketing experience.

Right now I'm basically doing this on my own, got some input from my girlfriend for the content of the page as she is a native german speaker but other than that, it's a project on my own for now. But if this initiative would take off, more people are needed to support this project.

I know this might not be a too well thought through project, but I figured that it might be something that can help the people in times of Corona. The website is not online yet as I want those questions to be answered first before taking this to the next level in which I can try to get the hosting for free. Time is however not on our side with this.


Stay safe!
- Niels

Risks I see:

The people who mark, "I need help" are advertising that they are vulnerable. How will you protect them from the possibility that someone with bad intentions will use the site to find good robbery victims?

The people who mark, "I'd like to help," are advertising that they are generous (and maybe have extra stuff). How will you protect them from the possibility that someone with bad intentions will use the site to identify the people who are the most loaded (again, for the purpose of robbery)?

 

[TheEngineer]

Risks I see:

The people who mark, "I need help" are advertising that they are vulnerable. How will you protect them from the possibility that someone with bad intentions will use the site to find good robbery victims?

The people who mark, "I'd like to help," are advertising that they are generous (and maybe have extra stuff). How will you protect them from the possibility that someone with bad intentions will use the site to identify the people who are the most loaded (again, for the purpose of robbery)?

Thanks for your reply, good point. For the people who mark that they like to help are not being put the open, meaning that the database will be closed for the admin only. This holds for both parties, the database will be at any time only accessible by the admin, or relevant organisations.

Regarding the bad intentions on how to protect the people who need help; this is a bit more complicated indeed, I can only think of doing an initial screening by phone. Another possibility is to limit the services to "doing groceries" instead of more delicate things such as looking after the kids. Maybe putting faith in society and relying on everyone having the best intentions is just naive.

 

[Bekit]

Thanks for your reply, good point. For the people who mark that they like to help are not being put the open, meaning that the database will be closed for the admin only. This holds for both parties, the database will be at any time only accessible by the admin, or relevant organisations.

Regarding the bad intentions on how to protect the people who need help; this is a bit more complicated indeed, I can only think of doing an initial screening by phone. Another possibility is to limit the services to "doing groceries" instead of more delicate things such as looking after the kids. Maybe putting faith in society and relying on everyone having the best intentions is just naive.

Yeah, the "faith in humanity" bit is a decision that everyone will have to make.

We can't rely on everyone to have the best intentions. But hopefully we can mitigate against the risk that the people with bad intentions will be able to carry them out.

For what it's worth, I am exposing myself to the same risks on a very small scale. If you haven't run across my post in the other thread, this is what I'm doing in my community.

HOT! - OFF-TOPIC - Positive Stories: People Stepping Up During The Coronavirus Crisis

When shit hits the fan, there are always people who step up. I thought that this thread would be a good way to log stories of some people doing just that. Please add any similar stories that you might come across...

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Just because there are risks does not mean that there's no way to proceed. I like the way you are thinking. The way I look at it, the more risks you think through ahead of time, the less chance you will have of falling into an unforeseen pitfall.

 

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