Digital Information Hubs

Many governments are struggling to find the right solutions in response to the coronavirus pandemic, and to share technology and content they’ve developed with others in need. The solutions listed in the Pandemic Response Repository (PRR) are reusable, easily shared among agencies, municipalities and countries, and can be adapted to local needs. This brief outlines one common type of solution found in the PRR: digital information hubs.

What’s the challenge?

There is perhaps no more important time for governments to have clear lines of communication to their constituents as during a public crisis. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, governments need to communicate critical public health information to residents, relay shelter-in-place policy updates, and changes to government services to respond to emerging community needs. Residents and businesses rely on accurate information to make informed decisions that impact their health and well-being, and often look to official government sources for direction. The normal means of communicating information is through the government office’s website, but many are not designed to clearly communicate urgent and rapidly-changing news. The lack of content management tools to produce agile information hubs leaves governments with difficult choices in how to spend scarce time and resources to relay critical information to constituents.

What’s the solution?

Governments around the world are creating digital information portals to create clearer and more effective means of communicating content about COVID-19 between public authorities and residents. Many government information portals share the same types of information, such as real-time statistics on cases and deaths, self-assessment tools, frequently asked questions, information on testing centers, public health recommendations, and re-opening plans for schools and businesses.

How does it work?

Government authorities typically add a flag at the top of their existing government website which directs visitors to read more information on the coronavirus pandemic. The composition of the content hub varies by jurisdiction and the data available to local authorities. While some information hubs integrate content within the same layout as legacy government websites, many governments have created new microsites that are mobile-responsive, easier to navigate, and have interactive features to deliver customized content based on user input.

Who are the leaders?

While information hubs have cropped up all over the world, a few cases have stood out. The State of California built the California Coronavirus (COVID-19) Response information hub to share updated statistics, maps, and datasets regarding coronavirus infections, information on testing, public health guidance, FAQs, relevant news articles from the Governor’s Office, and calls for public health volunteers. The Tokyo Metropolitan Government also created a content hub rich with real-time data on coronavirus cases in Tokyo, which was reused by the City and County of San Francisco.

What are the challenges?

Building easily accessible and understandable websites requires the right combination of design, engineering, and operational resources. Governments struggle to build effective digital content hubs at the best of times, let alone when resources are stretched very thin during a public crisis. Some governments build partnerships with outside vendors to quickly build content hubs at the cost of full ownership and customizability as communication needs shift.

Why open source?

Open source information hubs enable governments to reuse existing software and content used by other jurisdictions for their own constituents. Public authorities need to share similar types of information to constituents regardless of geography. By open sourcing the web design of these information hubs, governments can avoid building their own hubs from scratch and merely substitute the information based on local data, instructions and policies. Reusing existing software not only saves time and resources, but it coordinates valuable engineering resources across multiple jurisdictions to create better products for users and governments.