The product that we are outlining in this document is looking to build a solution that helps a group of individuals to organize to survive during a crisis similar to the current Covid-19 pandemic. The justification for this kind of software is that people are not prepared to organize themselves to overcome disasters like we have because we are not accustomed to seeing the world economy collapsing or to have massive layoffs, the lack of food and essentials, and the collapse of the healthcare system of almost every nation. The only thing that comes to our mind is a mix of the apocalyptic tragedy mixed with armageddon with some dips of the World War Z movie.
The paralyzation of the worldwide economy to combat this virus will create a new recession and potentially a depression. This tragedy leaves under-resourced individuals and families without any protections. The current economic projection estimates a drop in the GDP of 24% and a rise in unemployment of 20%. There is a need to create a mechanism to protect them using software that helps them to organize on many levels. The basic principle is that they will survive only if they share resources without money. The money will be one of the shortages during the new crisis because there is no work, they cannot go outside to buy groceries because there is no money.
The software will facilitate the creation of a community of exchange of service and needs using bartering concept. The excess of some will provide the need of others. Each member will share information about what they have and others will provide information about what they need. The software will match those needs and coordinate when someone post or select something. The products could be extended even to nonphysical goods such as spiritual needs, counseling, emotional support to nursing time, house repairing, to medical needs.
The key element in this application is that each member needs to trust each other. Trust will be accomplished only when they know each other and are in a close geographical area. It could be many families living in the same block, a church or any organization. The only people that can participate are by invitation, the information will be encrypted in a way that no one knows what they are doing only them. The product never will be used to profit any organization and it is open-source. The data will belong to the community and we need to explore ways to avoid having the information in a third location possibly creating a peer to peer network of phones and store and sync all the data on each phone. The idea is that the system won’t require any storage but just the phones. The model to follow is the blockchain.
The next level is to expand the application to protect the community. Since some of the communities will be located in dangerous zones, the need to create a protection network will be necessary. The application should allow a panic button to notify the community that an emergency just happens. The application will show the location where the incident happens and a response from all the team members should be available to know how many of them will move to the scene. The protection includes a medical situation where one of the members needs immediate help because doesn’t feel good. The protection should include education via videos, documents, plans that can be public so other communities can share or get the benefits of distributed knowledge. The application should allow organizing the community in teams, roles, responsibilities, tasks. Ideally, the application should allow some kind of communication so everyone can join to discuss issues related to the community. If someone is infected, he/she should communicate to the community so that they can protect themselves and help the infected as well.
Finally, the final stage of the application is to interconnect communities to collaborate in common projects. This level will need further discussion.