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Ireland donates contact tracing app to Linux Foundation

nearform.com

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Re: Ireland donates contact tracing app to Linux Foundation

#21

Post by Kinrany »

ericlewis wrote: post #5
donaltroddyn wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wasn't sure whether to remove that as a gratuitous adjective. Even without that claim, it's an interesting development, especially as the app cost only €850k. In contrast, our nearest neighbour scrapped their app last month after spending over £11MM (~€12MM) and are now rebuilding on the Apple/Google API: https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-53095336 The code is already up on GitHub: https://github.com/HSEIreland

I worked on this project a bit and have a deep understanding of how it went about, though, I am not sure how much I can talk about that. edit: I guess what can be said was it was a highly efficient project, and there weren't so many fingers in the development pot so to say.

Is this HN-speak for "it was a clusterfuck and there were too many stakeholders with incompatible requirements"?

Re: Ireland donates contact tracing app to Linux Foundation

#22

Post by cj »

Where has a contact tracing app been successfully deployed at a large scale? Have those places seen any positive effect?

Apple/Google's APIs were widely discussed a couple months ago, but (at least in the US) it seems to have fallen off everyone's radar.

Re: Ireland donates contact tracing app to Linux Foundation

#23

Post by adrianmonk »

justinclift wrote: post #18
ponker wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s a little misleading though because the percentage of people who install the country’s contact tracing app is driven much more by the quality of the people than the quality of the app. So this app might be garbage, I don’t think this statistic says much one way or the other.

> the percentage of people who install the country’s contact tracing app is driven much more by the quality of the people That sounds strange. Explain more?

So far it seems like a given country/jurisdiction standardizes on one app for everyone to use. (In theory, apps could be interoperable, but I don't know of this having happened.)

So, the citizens' choice isn't between one app and another app. It is only whether or not to use the app that has been chosen for them.

Therefore, their choice doesn't tell you much about the quality of the app. The primary driver of the decision is whether or not they're willing to take steps to fight the disease.

It's similar to being served dinner on an airplane with only one meal option. They bring you the food, and you either eat it or you don't. The choice doesn't tell you much about whether the food was good. It's more of a reflection of whether you were hungry. The only thing it tells you about food quality is that it (if you eat it) it was somewhere between barely acceptable and excellent.

Re: Ireland donates contact tracing app to Linux Foundation

#24

Post by quonn »

In Germany the app was developed by research institutes. Then canceled. Then SAP picked it up and charged 10 million Euros for what is essentially a few 1000 lines of UI code. The German Telekom got the same amount, just „because“ and will additionally charge 2-3 million per month mostly for the hotline (with limited capacity).

So the total cost will be 50-100 millions. Despite the fact that most technical work was already done by Apple and Google for free.

I‘m not even talking about the fact that my dad got a new phone to run it - sold by T-Mobile (Telekom) of course.

And hardly anyone complained.

Re: Ireland donates contact tracing app to Linux Foundation

#25

Post by rsynnott »

cj wrote: post #22

Where has a contact tracing app been successfully deployed at a large scale? Have those places seen any positive effect? Apple/Google's APIs were widely discussed a couple months ago, but (at least in the US) it seems to have fallen off everyone's radar.

Large-scale deployments in Ireland (1.4 million out of 4.9 million people) and Germany (12 million out of 80 million people), anyway. In Ireland it has lead to the discovery of a number of positive cases, which is positive; if they'd been discovered at all through conventional means that would have taken longer and the people concerned could have been spreading it for longer.

There has also been successful deployments in Taiwan and Singapore, but AIUI they don't use the Apple/Google API and are far more intrusive.

Re: Ireland donates contact tracing app to Linux Foundation

#26

Post by cameldrv »

cj wrote: post #22

Where has a contact tracing app been successfully deployed at a large scale? Have those places seen any positive effect? Apple/Google's APIs were widely discussed a couple months ago, but (at least in the US) it seems to have fallen off everyone's radar.

The Chinese Health Code app has been extremely widely deployed and has probably contributed significantly to containment. I’m not sure how much has been written about exactly how it works though.

Re: Ireland donates contact tracing app to Linux Foundation

#27

Post by rsynnott »

ponker wrote: post #12
messe wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It says worlds most successful, which I presume is referring to the fact that nearly 30% of the population with compatible devices have downloaded it. EDIT: added the 'with compatabile devices' disclaimer

That’s a little misleading though because the percentage of people who install the country’s contact tracing app is driven much more by the quality of the people than the quality of the app. So this app might be garbage, I don’t think this statistic says much one way or the other.

I think it's more about public trust in the app than anything else. Nearform, and the government, were quite effective in establishing public trust; I think it helped that it was open source.

Re: Ireland donates contact tracing app to Linux Foundation

#28

Post by robjan »

blocked_again wrote: post #13
messe wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It says worlds most successful, which I presume is referring to the fact that nearly 30% of the population with compatible devices have downloaded it. EDIT: added the 'with compatabile devices' disclaimer

That's around 1.5 million downloads. Meanwhile, Play Store says India's Covid tracing app was downloaded by more than 100 million+ people. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=nic.goi.aarogy...

An app with a higher percentage of the population enrolled is probably more successful than sheer numbers in this case.

Re: Ireland donates contact tracing app to Linux Foundation

#29

Post by rsynnott »

blocked_again wrote: post #13
messe wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It says worlds most successful, which I presume is referring to the fact that nearly 30% of the population with compatible devices have downloaded it. EDIT: added the 'with compatabile devices' disclaimer

That's around 1.5 million downloads. Meanwhile, Play Store says India's Covid tracing app was downloaded by more than 100 million+ people. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=nic.goi.aarogy...

With these things, you're really trying to get saturation (I think it's usually estimated that they need to get to about 60% adoption to be very useful), so in that context 1.5 million downloads in Ireland is more successful than 100m in India (though neither is good enough).

Re: Ireland donates contact tracing app to Linux Foundation

#30

Post by davidw »

cj wrote: post #22

Where has a contact tracing app been successfully deployed at a large scale? Have those places seen any positive effect? Apple/Google's APIs were widely discussed a couple months ago, but (at least in the US) it seems to have fallen off everyone's radar.

The US isn't exactly on the forefront of efforts to halt the spread of the virus, if you compare and contrast our numbers with places like Germany.
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