Wednesday, March 18, 2020

Seek where you can help. Now.



I have a simple request of the global Oracle APEX Community, please:

Seek where you can help.  Now.

These are interesting times we're living in, unlike anything I've witnessed in my lifetime. And people are rapidly understanding that they have many information needs, which they needed fulfilled yesterday.  I said this earlier about Brexit and I see the same thing unfolding for COVID-19.  People need information management applications that they've never even dreamed of, but they need them immediately.  This is a classic case of opportunistic applications.  And who better to understand how to design and deliver applications in hours or days than the global Oracle APEX community?  That's you!

If you're on social media, you may have seen Oracle APEX used in a number of interesting scenarios.  Here are a few I'm aware of:

  • In China, Buling Zhang the director of IT at a hospital, wrote an APEX app to gather information about patients (travel history, symptoms, etc.).  He subsequently shared this app with 6 other hospitals.
  • In United Arab Emirates, Muhammad Rehan Javed wrote an APEX application to track attendance.  It was developed in 2 hours and rolled out to 10,000 users.  As he said, it "facilitated in avoiding contact with biometric devices".
  • In the United Kingdom, Dave Waghorn and his team at University Hospital Southampton developed APEX apps in 3 days to help support the handling of COVID-19.

I'm sure you're aware of many more.  I encourage you to find where you can help...not tomorrow, but today.

We have offered our team's services to a couple large organizations, and I strongly encourage you to do the same.  Be proactive about it.  Don't wait for someone to approach you.  Contact your ministry of public health or clinic or hospital at the national, state or local level.  Tell them what you can do and help them manage the information needs they're being overrun with.  Better yet, show them what you can do.  You are talented and experienced to help solve problems exactly like these.

This isn't about Oracle or APEX or even the community.  I'd be satisfied if they never knew what you used to provide a solution for them.  This is about helping people who desperately need your help and expertise, and they are currently unaware of you and what you can deliver.  Please contact someone today.

3 comments:

Trond Enstad said...

Great idea Joel - TODAY it is !!

https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6646316669910171648/

From the APEX Team @ NOVOSHORE
Trond

PK said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
PK said...

APEX is great in fast application development!

We have created Help Exchange using APEX in three man-days. Portal supports Polish hospitals and other institutions in informing about their current needs. Companies and institutions who offer support can also publish information about their free help. Portal is non-profit and available at http://en.gieldapomocy.pl/