WOW IBM Fighting EBola With Supercomputer

[timothy]

Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg aren't the only Silicon Valley heavyweights fighting Ebola: IBM is using its tech know-how to help curb the spread of the disease in West Africa.

 

The company is teaming up with Sierra Leone's Open Government Initiative, Cambridge University's Africa's Voices project, telco firm Airtel, and Kenya's Echo Mobile for various efforts aimed at fighting the deadly disease.

 

Internet connections are not easy to come by in many areas of the affected region, hampering citizen reporting efforts. So IBM and the Open Government Initiative developed a system that lets people report Ebola-related issues and concerns via SMS or voice calls.

"For us to tackle Ebola, it is crucial to maintain an open dialogue between the government and the people of Sierra Leone," Khadija Sesay, director the Open Government Initiative, said in a statement. "IBM has enhanced our work on citizen engagement through the use of innovative technology, and opened up an effective communication channel with the general public so that we can learn from their input and create actionable policies in the fight against Ebola."

IBM can then take that info and - via the power of supercomputing and cloud-based analytics - identify emerging issues before they get out of hand. "As the SMS and voice data are location specific, IBM is able to create opinion-based heat-maps which correlate public sentiment to location information," IBM said.

More importantly, the technology has already highlighted regions with growing numbers of suspected Ebola cases, so officials know where supplies and other assistance is most needed.

"We are uniquely positioned to use innovation to help tackle some of the continent's biggest challenges," IBM Research chief scientist Dr. Uyi Stewart said of the company's first research lab in Africa. "We saw the need to quickly develop a system to enable communities directly affected by Ebola to provide valuable insight about how to fight it. Using mobile technology, we have given them a voice and a channel to communicate their experiences directly to the government."

Nigeria, meanwhile, has recently been declared free of the disease, and it now working with IBM to help support the country's preparedness for future outbreaks. With a technology donation from IBM, the Lagos State Government has opened an Ebola Operations Center, which coordinates disease containment efforts on behalf of the Nigerian government and other organizations.

But this disease is not contained in Africa, and neither are the people fighting it. IBM has volunteers around the globe identifying, cataloguing, and classifying all open data sources related to the outbreak. The goal, according to IBM, is to create a cloud-based Ebola Open Data Repository, which provides governments, aid agencies, and researchers with free and open access to data related to the sickness.

"Data can be a powerful resource for managing and mitigating epidemics," Jeanne Holm, evangelist for Data.gov, said in a statement. "Governments and other organizations have valuable open data that could help in relief efforts—about roads, airports, schools, medical facilities, and populations.

"Such information can help to drive data-driven decisions during times of uncertainty," Holm continued. "IBM is playing a key role in this initiative by helping to identify and gather more open data sources that might inform decisions around Ebola."

Learn more about IBM's Africa research centre in the video below.

Meanwhile, another Microsoft co-founder has pledged a nice chunk of change to help fight the outbreak. Paul Allen has set up tackleebola.com and committed to donate $100 million to the effort.

Original post link http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2471044,00.asp?mailingID=DE6E289618A9A0DD155C29D596570905?mailing_id=1065113

I'm sorry for the mistakes but I have now edited it i hope thats its ok 

Edited October 28, 2014 by timothy

[The Crazed Child]

plot twist

supercomputer gets ebola

[flibberdipper]

For christ's sake, use the automatic font color. I don't use the Night theme, but you can't read shit.

[Archangel1994]

For christ's sake, use the automatic font color. I don't use the Night theme, but you can't read shit.

That shit needs to be made default. Just have the site default the font color to a certain color when you are using a specific theme

[cesrai]

That shit needs to be made default. Just have the site default the font color to a certain color when you are using a specific theme

@Slick do this.

[cesrai]

Nice maybe they will fight malaria or flu.

[Shroomster]

I can't read this! Automatic colour for us night theme users!

[sof006]

OP:.... Fix it, fix it, fix it, fix it, fix it, fix it!

[dalekphalm]

Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg aren't the onlySilicon Valley heavyweights fighting Ebola: IBM is using its tech know-how to help curb the spread of the disease in West Africa.

The company is teaming up with Sierra Leone's Open Government Initiative, Cambridge University's Africa's Voices project, telco firm Airtel, and Kenya's Echo Mobile for various efforts aimed at fighting the deadly disease.

Internet connections are not easy to come by in many areas of the affected region, hampering citizen reporting efforts. So IBM and the Open Government Initiative developed a system that lets people report Ebola-related issues and concerns via SMS or voice calls.

"For us to tackle Ebola, it is crucial to maintain an open dialogue between the government and the people of Sierra Leone," Khadija Sesay, director the Open Government Initiative, said in a statement. "IBM has enhanced our work on citizen engagement through the use of innovative technology, and opened up an effective communication channel with the general public so that we can learn from their input and create actionable policies in the fight against Ebola."

IBM can then take that info and - via the power of supercomputing and cloud-based analytics - identify emerging issues before they get out of hand. "As the SMS and voice data are location specific, IBM is able to create opinion-based heat-maps which correlate public sentiment to location information," IBM said.

More importantly, the technology has already highlighted regions with growing numbers of suspected Ebola cases, so officials know where supplies and other assistance is most needed.

"We are uniquely positioned to use innovation to help tackle some of the continent's biggest challenges," IBM Research chief scientist Dr. Uyi Stewart said of the company's first research lab in Africa. "We saw the need to quickly develop a system to enable communities directly affected by Ebola to provide valuable insight about how to fight it. Using mobile technology, we have given them a voice and a channel to communicate their experiences directly to the government."

Nigeria, meanwhile, has recently been declared free of the disease, and it now working with IBM to help support the country's preparedness for future outbreaks. With a technology donation from IBM, the Lagos State Government has opened an Ebola Operations Center, which coordinates disease containment efforts on behalf of the Nigerian government and other organizations.

But this disease is not contained in Africa, and neither are the people fighting it. IBM has volunteers around the globe identifying, cataloguing, and classifying all open data sources related to the outbreak. The goal, according to IBM, is to create a cloud-based Ebola Open Data Repository, which provides governments, aid agencies, and researchers with free and open access to data related to the sickness.

"Data can be a powerful resource for managing and mitigating epidemics," Jeanne Holm, evangelist for Data.gov, said in a statement. "Governments and other organizations have valuable open data that could help in relief efforts—about roads, airports, schools, medical facilities, and populations.

"Such information can help to drive data-driven decisions during times of uncertainty," Holm continued. "IBM is playing a key role in this initiative by helping to identify and gather more open data sources that might inform decisions around Ebola."

Learn more about IBM's Africa research center in the video below.

Meanwhile, another Microsoft co-founder has pledged a nice chunk of change to help fight the outbreak. Paul Allen has set up tackleebola.com and committed to donate $100 million to the effort.

Oringal post link http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2471044,00.asp?mailingID=DE6E289618A9A0DD155C29D596570905?mailing_id=1065113

Hi there

 

Can you please properly format your post? Break this huge block of text up into paragraphs, maybe add some Headers to help organize it? Also please make sure to check your spelling I realize English might be your second (or third) language, so using a Spell Checker would be beneficial.

 

Back on topic: IBM is basically a badass.

 

 

That shit needs to be made default. Just have the site default the font color to a certain color when you are using a specific theme

Generally the problem is people posting text copied from a website, but they are not posting as "Plain Text". Rather, they are posting with whatever formatting the website used, and it is being carried over by their web browser.

[Archangel1994]

Generally the problem is people posting text copied from a website, but they are not posting as "Plain Text". Rather, they are posting with whatever formatting the website used, and it is being carried over by their web browser.

There is literally a bloody button for "Erase format"

[dalekphalm]

There is literally a bloody button for "Erase format"

Oh, certainly. However, Newbs apparently can't see it. Nor do I necessarily expect them to know what each and every formatting button does in the "Reply" options.

 

But yeah, doing news posts is kind of an exception, and should be formatted properly I find the best way to address that is to calmly and kindly inform the poster about his mistakes, and how he can fix them.

[Trik'Stari]

I'd like to ask the IBM supercomputer why it makes sense to quarantine the troops that we're sending over there before allowing them to come back, but it apparently makes no sense to quarantine anyone else who is freely traveling from there to here with a "screening" which is simply asking "have you been around ebola patients" and checking their temperature with a thermal IR gun.

 

Good on IBM for doing something to help those people though, good to see that some can do something still out of a want to do good rather than just to gain political capitol.

[Jerakl]

plot twist

supercomputer gets ebola

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8h2ypwgjgU&list=UUPsDdWokYPtOQ7OXXcdUTRw&index=2

 

supscribe 4 free ebola

[flibberdipper]

That shit needs to be made default. Just have the site default the font color to a certain color when you are using a specific theme

Would be nice, actually. But as @colonel_mortis would more than likely say: Maybe in IPBV4.

[dalekphalm]

I'd like to ask the IBM supercomputer why it makes sense to quarantine the troops that we're sending over there before allowing them to come back, but it apparently makes no sense to quarantine anyone else who is freely traveling from there to here with a "screening" which is simply asking "have you been around ebola patients" and checking their temperature with a thermal IR gun.

 

Good on IBM for doing something to help those people though, good to see that some can do something still out of a want to do good rather than just to gain political capitol.

I think the reason is because we KNOW that the soldiers being sent over there will likely come into direct contact with Ebola patients. Whereas the average person travelling into the US likely has not, even if they came from West Africa (Which, there aren't any direct flights to the US from there anyway, that I'm aware of).

 

We, as North Americans, have basically nothing to fear from Ebola, in terms of an epidemic happening here. The infectiousness of Ebola is so poor compared to other diseases, that a 1st world nation can very easily contain the infected and treat them. Yes, there isn't a cure yet, but it's actually really difficult to get infected, assuming you have modern medical technology, and safe, clean environments. It's something like 10 times easier to catch Influenza then Ebola. You basically have to come into direct physical contact with an infected person, and be exposed to their fluids (blood, mucus, "other"). Even standing right beside an infected person will probably not pass it to you, unless you have a compromised immune system.

[Trik'Stari]

I think the reason is because we KNOW that the soldiers being sent over there will likely come into direct contact with Ebola patients. Whereas the average person travelling into the US likely has not, even if they came from West Africa (Which, there aren't any direct flights to the US from there anyway, that I'm aware of).

 

We, as North Americans, have basically nothing to fear from Ebola, in terms of an epidemic happening here. The infectiousness of Ebola is so poor compared to other diseases, that a 1st world nation can very easily contain the infected and treat them. Yes, there isn't a cure yet, but it's actually really difficult to get infected, assuming you have modern medical technology, and safe, clean environments. It's something like 10 times easier to catch Influenza then Ebola. You basically have to come into direct physical contact with an infected person, and be exposed to their fluids (blood, mucus, "other"). Even standing right beside an infected person will probably not pass it to you, unless you have a compromised immune system.

I'm talking about quarantining the health workers who we know will come into contact with the infected. It's not a matter of how infectious the disease is or isn't, it's a matter of common sense, with any infectious disease, you are supposed to quarantine anyone coming into contact with them directly. Also "other" refers to sweat, and possible spewtum from the random cough or sneeze, yet somehow they still don't consider it airborne (apparently it has to travel a certain distance or something). (also the correct term is "contract", not catch, you don't catch a disease from someone, you contract it.)

 

I just think they aren't taking it as seriously as they should be is all. Still, back to topic.

 

IBM doing something good, good for them.

[dalekphalm]

I'm talking about quarantining the health workers who we know will come into contact with the infected. It's not a matter of how infectious the disease is or isn't, it's a matter of common sense, with any infectious disease, you are supposed to quarantine anyone coming into contact with them directly. Also "other" refers to sweat, and possible spewtum from the random cough or sneeze, yet somehow they still don't consider it airborne (apparently it has to travel a certain distance or something). (also the correct term is "contract", not catch, you don't catch a disease from someone, you contract it.)

 

I just think they aren't taking it as seriously as they should be is all. Still, back to topic.

 

IBM doing something good, good for them.

Indeed, I do agree that Health Workers and any other medical personnel directly exposed to patients (including volunteers, etc) should all be quarantined and be given extensive medical examinations before being clear.

 

As for the catch vs contract: Really? That's nitpicking beyond reason We're not medical professionals, and therefore using a layman's term is perfectly acceptable, as it still describes what I mean accurately enough for you to know what I was referring to. But I'll give you that. Thank you for letting me know what the correct term is.

 

I agree that they aren't taking it seriously enough - the entire international community is at blame for the epidemic to begin with. We could have quarantined the infected and waited the disease out before it spread past a single Country, if we'd been on top of this.

[Tonylu1595]

plot twist

supercomputer gets ebola

Lol, why can I not like this more than once? 

[The Crazed Child]

 

supscribe 4 free ebola

Genuinely the best video I've seen from Snipars ever.