Goodness, is that the time?!
Our teams have been working away for a few hours. So, it’s time for an update. If you have missed the intro to this weekend’s event, read first here.
Team: GCD API
Sam, the one man team, has completed his task of converting the spreadsheet into a useable, searchable database in the Cloud. He has also developed the API for applications to get access to the data.
We won’t let Sam go home though, as Team ALISS API has annexed GCD API and Sam is working alongside the others. So, we’re now down to three teams.
Team: ALISS API
Hacker James pointed out that education is part of the development process because most of the team is new to this kind of project. Nevertheless, they have advanced not only their understanding, but also progressed with setting up the development environment. This means that we will hopefully soon have the tools to create a user interface and a template webpage.
A major aspect of the developers’ job is to understand use cases, i.e. how a user might interact with the website. This probably means that the coders will have a few chats with the other teams at some point.
Team: Access All Areas
The team has created more user profiles in a systematic way answering questions such as:
- Who are the users?
- What is their background?
- How old are they?
- What medical conditions do they have?
- Are they likely to live mostly in isolation?
- Which services might they use?
This has then informed ideas on how to connect them to the health database. Suggestions such as targeting ‘men sheds’ or ‘nit and natter’ groups came up. Another big area are the various places people use in their daily life like the post office, the bus or the hair dresser.
However, what happens if digitally disconnected people pick up the info but don’t know what to do next? Could healthcare staff or community links workers help out? It sounds like there will be chats coming up with the Stripy Tops.
To create more independence in the target groups, our team members from iConnect North East have suggested to encourage increasing IT literacy in the community.
Team: Stripy Tops 
The team has developed a basic idea for the layout and main features of the user interface based on 9 + 1 categories of social issues. Each listed provider should display basic contact details, a brief blurb on their service and essential ways to connect. The team would add sections for FAQ, case studies and a professional forum for health service professionals. They would also like to see a functionality to collate stats on the main issues that have been looked up.
The team further looked at some existing apps, like NHS Go, to get a better idea of what’s out there.
A big question that remains open is how service providers will be mapped against the categories and potentially even geographically.
Code The City 