The first Infodemic Challenge Demo Day

On May 24th, 2020, teams from across world came together for the virtual Infodemic Challenge: Spotlight ATL Demo Day. Enjoy the video.

A two-weekend global hackathon, the challenge brought together misinformation specialists, hackers, and concerned citizens to respond to the COVID-19 Infodemic. The World Health Organization says:

The 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19) epidemic and response has been accompanied by a massive ‘infodemic’ — an over-abundance of information — some accurate and some not — that makes it hard for people to find trustworthy sources and reliable guidance when they need it.

The purpose of the Infodemic Challenge: Spotlight ATL was convening thinkers and doers to fight harmful COVID-19 misinformation and create actionable solutions to inform and support at-risk Georgians. Team members hailed from United States, Canada, Germany, England, Belgium, Japan, Malaysia, and Australia.

The teams received the support of 21 mentors and 8 jury members from world-leading organizations including Microsoft, Nexus Global, The US State Department, Stanford, Droga5, Ogilvy, Johns Hopkins, Duke, and Facebook as well as Georgian public officials. A selection of industry experts guiding the teams through their solutions include:

• Andrew Essex, CEO and Founder of PLAN A and founding CEO of Droga5
• Dr. Emily Vraga, University of Minnesota professor focused on user-directions corrections of misinformation in social media
• David Jay who serves as Head of Mobilization at The Center for Humane Technology
• Nina Horne, founder of the Samara Family Services, a company offering skill building, peer mentoring, and care coordination.
• Dr. Nathan Walworth (PhD) a Founding Co-Chair of the NEXUS Futurism Working Group
• Clare O’Donoghue Velikic, Facebook’s former and first Politics and Government Partner for Europe, Middle East and Africa
• Dr. Jeremy Rossman, President of the INGO Research-Aid Networks and virology lecturer at Kent University
• Ben Rolnik, Director of the Stanford University Healthcare Innovation Lab
• Dr. Khizer Khaderi, Adjunct Clinical Associate Professor at Stanford University Medical School and CEO of Vizzario Inc.
• Dr. Welton Chang, CTO of Human Rights First, fmr Defense Intelligence Agency disinformation expert

The challenge called for solutions that can “flatten the curve” by disrupting a rampant COVID-19 infodemic, as well as build our collective immunity to future infodemics caused by subsequent waves of COVID-19 and other epidemics.

Seven teams shared their solutions on Demo Day, including a promising new collaboration between the Housing Authority for the City of Albany, GA, and UgoRound, an Australian tech product that sends targeted notifications to users within a specified geotagged area — and therefore enables leaders to provide life-saving information to its residents.

Dr. William Myles, CEO of the Housing Authority for the City of Albany, GA, said, ”We feel forgotten and left behind as the challenge of COVID ravages our community. We have been hit very hard, and I am so hopeful that a group of bright, innovative volunteers has committed to help us. These briefs and creative challenges will surely save lives if we’re able to get quality medical information into the hands of Georgians.”

Other projects include

• A tool for coordinating a brigade of citizen fact checkers to fight COVID-19 misinformation
• A training system for citizen fact checkers
• A community fact checking solution
• Virtual learning experiences for a Post-Covid World
• A game to help students identify misinformation
• Educational Platform to help teachers, students, and parents transition to online learning.

Below is the Infographic for Demo Day.

To receive notifications for future Infodemic Challenges, please register at https://infoimmunity.com.