IBM is using its software expertise to help solve the Ebola crisis — the company is donating technology to Nigeria and Sierra Leone's governments.
IBM is giving Sierra Leone a "citizen engagement and analytic system" to help citizens communicate with the government via text messages and phone calls about potential outbreaks. Location data from the citizens' cellphones will help the government determine the threat levels in various regions.
The technology in Nigeria, meanwhile, will "strengthen the Lagos State government's preparedness for future disease outbreaks," the company said in a statement. The World Health Organization officially declared Nigeria free of Ebola, and IBM has donated its cloud-based Connections technology to the Nigerian government to ensure the country does not see a new Ebola outbreak. The Connections software will "strengthen the coordination of public health emergency response teams," according to IBM.
IBM volunteers are also spearheading a global effort to classify all of the open data sources that pertain to the Ebola outbreak in West Africa. To create the Ebola Open Data Repository, the volunteers have asked various organizations to contribute data.