from Hacker News

Ireland donates contact tracing app to Linux Foundation

by donaltroddyn on 7/20/20, 1:17 PM with 129 comments

• by quonn on 7/20/20, 4:20 PM

  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.

• by marvion on 7/20/20, 3:35 PM

  Isn't this just a meaningless ad?

  The company is part of the development. Afaik many apps are open source. "Donating it" means offloading the support and profit from Linux Foundations status.

  Nearform is involved in integrating the backend into the countries health system... so they offload the app and just do the work that gets paid well. ?

• by cj on 7/20/20, 4:13 PM

  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.

• by donohoe on 7/20/20, 4:53 PM

  Is there an actual contact tracing app for the US or any US states yet?

• by leommoore on 7/20/20, 6:17 PM

  This pandemic is global so anything that helps countries to combat the virus is a good thing. The Irish app seems pretty good but the great thing about open source is that you can branch it to make your own app or just use the code to learn how others resolved the technical issues associated with creating a decentralized contact tracing app.

  Of course an app is not a panacea but as developers we can't create vaccines or provide medical assistance. Its not perfect, as it depends on getting enough people to use it. No mean feat when there are people who don't even believe Covid exists or think it is only dangerous to older people and don't want to take any precautions like wear masks or socially distance. Even then, there are lots of technical challenges trying to use a technology like Bluetooth for a purpose for which it was never intended.

  There will be a vaccine at some point (plenty of anti-vaccine people too, which might be a problem for the future) and there will be better treatments in the medium term but right now, speed is important and if it helps States to save time and get a contact tracing app quickly then it has to be a good thing. That way we are all safer.

• by tester756 on 7/20/20, 10:27 PM

  I've heard opinion that those apps are _not insanely successful_ project

  Even despite having milions downloaded copies, then it wasn't "broadcasting" a lot of keys

  https://ctt.pfstr.de/

  Can someone say something about this? how valid this on?

• by papower on 7/20/20, 1:45 PM

  The "worlds most famous" claim is from the website and not the poster

• by shintakezou on 7/20/20, 6:49 PM

  It seems something like a trojan horse in some core concept about freedom and privacy. It also helps, I am sure.