Information & Communications

The ambitious effort to piece together America's fragmented health data

https://www.theverge.com/2020/10/19/21522863/health-data-records-covid-coronavirus-model-nih-privacy-n3c?utm_source=Solutions+Story+Tracker

Nicole Wetsman

The Verge

19 October 2020

Text / 1500-3000 Words

The uncertainty surrounding COVID-19 and the health impacts it may have for different people prompted doctors from across the U.S. to create a national patient database to better study and understand how the virus interacts with other underlying conditions. Although the database itself is adaptable and researchers hope it can also be used in the face of future pandemics, they also say "five years from now, the greatest value of this data set won’t be the data. It’ll have been the methods that we learned trying to get it working."

Towson University professor aims to bolster local election security at voting sites

https://www.baltimoresun.com/maryland/baltimore-county/cng-co-ca-at-towson-election-security-20201016-vrovdo7qyvdu7h2nmyk7addbli-story.html?utm_source=Solutions+Story+Tracker

Taylor DeVille

The Baltimore Sun

16 October 2020

Text / 800-1500 Words

More than 1,930 Maryland poll workers were trained to protect ballot integrity from security threats based on research about where those threats may come from. The program, one of the few in the country focused on election security at polling places themselves, was developed by a researcher inspired by reports of Russian interference with the 2016 election. The research showed Maryland's greatest vulnerabilities were electronic poll data and voter registration, the network connection between election officials and local election boards, and access to ballot scanners at voting sites.

In Rural Virginia, Remote Schoolwork Is Powered by the Sun

https://dailyyonder.com/in-rural-virginia-remote-schoolwork-is-powered-by-the-sun/2020/10/15?utm_source=Solutions+Story+Tracker

Meg McIntyre

The Daily Yonder

15 October 2020

Text / 800-1500 Words

Louisa County schools in Virginia are delivering internet to students living in rural areas through solar-powered hot spots, built by the school's own students. The hotspot is powered by solar panels and receives internet connectivity through cellular or satellite means. Over 22 units have been placed in accessible places like church parking lots and the school district is sharing its blueprints and instructions with other schools across the state.

'It's on the writers': How The Correspondent drives interaction between members and its journalists

https://digiday.com/media/its-on-the-writers-how-the-correspondent-drives-interaction-between-members-and-its-journalists?utm_source=Solutions+Story+Tracker

Lucinda Southern

Digiday

14 October 2020

Text / 800-1500 Words

To entice paying subscribers to its ad-free news site, and to spark informed discourse in its comments section, The Correspondent promotes an unusual degree of interaction between its journalists and readers and actively seeds discussions with experts’ comments. Unlike often-toxic discussion forums on other news sites, The Correspondents' forums foster collaborations between writers and readers on prospective articles and in analyses after publication. While it's too soon to tell if the strategy will retain and expand subscriber rolls, the forums show an unusual level of quality and civility.

How will Lithuania's contact-tracing app work?

https://www.lrt.lt/en/news-in-english/19/1248684/how-will-lithuania-s-contact-tracing-app-work?utm_source=Solutions+Story+Tracker

Giedrius Vitkauskas

Lithuanian Radio and Television (LRT)

13 October 2020

Text / 800-1500 Words

Lithuanian officials are launching a contact-tracing app to better trace the path of coronavirus cases and alert people when they have potentially been exposed. Although there have been delays in the roll-out of the app, other countries have already released the technology and have seen success in people downloading the app as well as quarantining when alerted that they've been in contact with the virus.

With unemployment hotline overloaded and stimulus on hold, PA boosts chatbot 90x

https://billypenn.com/2020/10/13/with-unemployment-hotline-overloaded-and-stimulus-on-hold-pa-boosts-chatbot-90x?utm_source=Solutions+Story+Tracker

Layla A. Jones

Billy Penn

13 October 2020

Text / Under 800 Words

Accessing information about unemployment compensation online just got easier for residents of Pennsylvania. The current chat box capacity is 500 but will be increased to 50,000 by the end of the year. The phone hotline currently receives about 20,000 daily calls and has been difficult to get through since the unemployment benefits began in the wake of the coronavirus shutdown. The website also features a virtual assistant, which answers hundreds of commonly asked questions.