来自世界各地的科技领袖和卫生当局合作抗击COVID-19

Linux基金会是一个通过开源实现大规模创新的非盈利组织，今天发起了一项新的倡议，利用开源技术帮助世界各地的公共卫生部门（public health authorities，PHAs）抗击COVID-19和未来的流行病。新的LFPH（Linux Foundation Public Health，Linux基金会公共卫生）倡议是由七个主要成员发起的——Cisco、doc.ai、Geometer、IBM、NearForm、腾讯、以及VMware。还有两个暴露通知的托管项目，COVID Shield和COVID Green，目前正在加拿大、爱尔兰和美国几个州部署。

LFPH最初将专注于使用GAEN（Google Apple Exposure Notification，谷歌苹果暴露通知）系统的暴露通知应用程序，并将扩展到支持PHA的测试、追踪和隔离活动的各个方面。

“为了推动这种开源开发，Linux基金会公共卫生正在建立一个由领先技术和咨询公司、公共卫生当局、流行病学家和其他公共卫生专家、隐私和安全专家以及个人开发人员组成的全球社区。”LFPH总经理Dan Kohn说：“我们很高兴启动两个非常重要的开源项目，但我们认为，我们召集会议的功能，以使能协作对抗这种流行病，可能是我们带来最大的影响。”

COVID Shield是由Shopify的一个志愿者团队开发的，目前正在加拿大部署。COVID Green是由NearForm的一个小组开发的，作为爱尔兰政府应对大流行的一部分。自从爱尔兰卫生服务行政部门在两周前部署该计划以来，该国超过三分之一的成年人接受了该计划。这两个应用程序可供其他的PHAs和他们的IT合作伙伴使用和定制，很快由LFPH托管的其他开源项目也将加入进来。Covid Watch、Kiel University of Applied Sciences和US Digital Response也成为了非营利性的准成员。

“在这场严重的全球危机中，我致力于让Linux基金会社区的所有部分支持LFPH，”Linux基金会执行董事Jim Zemlin说。“开源为全球合作提供了一个架构，而这正是我们所强调的公共卫生基础设施建设、安全和维持关键组成部分所需要的。Linux基金会长期以来在十多个垂直领域实现跨行业合作，Dan Kohn领导了CNCF（Cloud Native Computing Foundation，云原生计算基金会）实现了快速增长，并定义了一个数十亿美元的产业，他是领导这项工作的理想人选。”

尤其是在美国，PHAs遭受了数十年的投资不足，迫切需要扩大其能力，以便在百年一遇的大流行期间与整个公众进行接触。科技行业的许多公司和个人都迫切希望帮助PHAs应对这些挑战，LFPH为PHAs提供了一个论坛和工具集，让它们以建设性的方式开展工作。

“我们很高兴为LFPH贡献COVID Green，这是爱尔兰COVID Tracker应用背后的开放源代码，”爱尔兰健康服务执行部门首席信息官Fran Thompson说。“这款应用程序很好地展示了爱尔兰卫生部门与爱尔兰软件业的IT能力相结合的创新。我们对与NearForm合作开展的应对这一流行病的工作感到非常自豪。我们期待通过LF公共卫生与世界各地其他公共卫生当局合作，协助他们快速复制我们的方法，同时吸取他们的经验。”

COVID Shield是由Shopify的40多名开发人员、安大略和加拿大数字服务的成员组成的志愿者团队开发的。虽然不是官方的Shopify项目，但这些努力得到了Shopify首席执行官Tobi Lutke的支持。COVID Shield志愿者Aaron Olson说：“我们非常高兴能够在LFPH的帮助下托管COVID Shield，我们也欢迎其他开发者的贡献，让PHAs能够尽可能轻松地开始使用暴露通知。”

除了COVID Shield和COVID Green之外，一个较早的跨行业合作，TCN联盟（TCN Coalition），正在合并到LFPH中。TCN联盟是一个全球技术专家社区，支持在COVID-19大流行期间开发保护隐私和交叉兼容的接触通报应用程序。TCN联盟最初是为了确保跨境互操作性和减少重复开发工作而成立的，现在已经发展到支持公共卫生当局与应用程序建设团队和IT供应商的合作。

TCN联盟联合创始人兼首席运营官Andreas Gebhard说：“TCN的领导和成员都很自豪能与Linux基金会一起建立新的LFPH倡议。”TCN联盟执行董事Jenny Wanger补充道：“对于我们自成立以来一直在做的工作来说，这是一个合乎逻辑的下一步。我们期待着更广泛的合作，以帮助引领这一快速而重要的努力。Wanger现在担任LFPH实施者论坛（Implementer’s Forum）的负责人，在那里她协调世界各地正在构建COVID-19工具的实施团队，同时公开记录最佳实践。

上周，LFPH在GAEN研讨会上召集了来自几乎每个开发GAEN应用的国家的代表，并将在未来举办类似的活动，同时还将举办一些关注用户界面/用户体验（UI/UX）、本地化、安全和隐私等领域的SIG（special interest group，特殊兴趣小组）。LFPH还开发了一个互动景观（如下所示），以便跟踪COVID-19应对生态系统中的开放和封闭源应用程序，以及世界各地应用程序发布的现状。关于参加LFPH活动和/或作为成员加入的信息，请到LFPH网站：https://www.lfph.io/。

Quotes from Founding Premier Members:

Cisco, Vijoy Pandey, VP, Emerging Technologies and Incubation:

“Cisco is proud to be a founding Premier member of this initiative and to contribute to this global effort to develop open source software to help fight the biggest pandemic in a century, by enabling open technology for public health. As we have experienced at Cisco many times, technology and open source communities do some of their best work when they collaborate on such a socially relevant common cause.”

doc.ai, Walter De Brouwer, CEO:

“We’re proud to be a founding member of this consortium and contribute our deep experience in the digital health ecosystem to better improve open-source software that will help public health authorities around the world combat this and future epidemics. As a digital health company, we realize the critical need for privacy-first infrastructure to lead the way in mobile health development and will bring that focus to our work with the Linux Foundation Public Health community.”

IBM, Theodore Tanner, Global CTO and Chief Architect Watson Health:

“To meet the global challenge of COVID-19, the world must quickly come together and collaborate in innovative ways while applying best practices from past experience. IBM’s commitment to open source communities spans over two decades, and during this worldwide pandemic we see real value in working with public health authorities and the larger healthcare ecosystem as part of Linux Foundation Public Health. IBM has resources to share – supercomputing power, code, and AI – and we look forward to taking an active role working with leaders across the industry to solve the complex challenges ahead.”

NearForm, Cian O’Maidin, CEO:

“We are thrilled to be a part of the Linux Foundation Public Health consortium in partnership with the Irish Government. As the fulfillment of a lifelong goal to improve the lives of people across the world, our partnership across nations will enable the creation of a new connective tissue for public health where we can work as one team globally to fight COVID.”

Tencent, Dr. Alexander Ng, Vice President, Tencent Public Health:

“Tencent is very glad to be a founding member of LFPH. We hope to improve global public health by participating in open-source initiatives for public health. Tencent is looking forward to bringing more value to the global society. Through open-source cooperation, Tencent will continue to advocate technology for social good.”

VMware, Ajay Patel, senior vice president and general manager, Modern Applications Platform Business Unit, VMware:

“VMware believes in the power of open source software and open ecosystems to deliver incredible software to solve today’s challenges. The charter of the LFPH aligns with our values, our mission, and our purpose and we are proud to be a founding member of this effort. We believe LFPH will ultimately help us rally and contribute key work VMware has been doing to date for customers around the world ranging from: mobile apps to integrate state response and communication; managing PPE inventory; back-to-work attestation and beacon systems; digital and human contact tracing using GAEN and non-GAEN approaches; integrating testing systems and more.”