Tech in the Time of COVID-19

Concerts are canceled. Graduations are postponed. And "meetups" and "conferences" are slowly becoming nostalgic memories. But quarantines can't stop collaboration, and communities can even grow stronger, thanks to technology.

With this ninth issue of the Hawaii Slack newsletter, we again issue an open invitation to you to bring your team, club, meetup group or social circle into our 'ohana. We can set you and your friends up with a dedicated public or private channel where you can focus on your mission, but meanwhile interact with the broader innovation community!

While you can share our sign-up form on social media, you can use this special link with your organization to bypass the sign-up form and bring them into Hawaii Slack right away!

http://hawaiislack.com/sign-up

Not surprisingly, the most active channel on Hawaii Slack is focused on #covid19. Conversations range from civic tech projects aimed at helping the public navigate to the pandemic to commentary at the latest set of numbers out of the Department of Health.

It was on Hawaii Slack that HawaiiCovidCharts.com was born, a great live-data graphical representation of COVID-19 cases and tests in Hawaii, plus helpful links.

Are you working on something to address COVID-19? Looking for collaborators? Jump into the #covid19 channel and start a conversation!

Meet Hawaii Boy, an Oahu refugee living on Hawaii island for 30 years. A hospitality pro, he managed TGI Friday’s, Sunset Grill, Rose City Diner, and Compadres, to name a few. I managed at all of those places. Most recently he worked in the media industry..

Meet SaM Coldwell, Squire and Monica. Squire works with the Department of Homeland Security and Monica works at Kamehameha Schools. They have a nonprofit that uses improvisation as a means to connect authentically and grow.

Meet Jeffrey Yu, founder of CruisiO but also consulting CTO for Queens Health Systems. He joined to ask about hospital ventilators, and connected immediately with the Kahanu open source ventilator team.

Meet Kaui Lucas, program manager for two DOE programs: Jump Start Breakfast, and the Takai Transition Center program. Also, host of "Making Democracy Work" by League of Women Voters.

Meet Diamond Badajos, assignment editor at KITV and former HNN weekend desk-er. Grew up in Waipahū, graduated from Mililani High, attended UH Mānoa via COP, degree in Hawaiian Studies. Then went to the U. of Oregon for a MA in Journalism. Mom of a (currently cooped up) five-year-old daughter, Manaia.

Many great people, including many media professionals, have joined in the last month. Come say hello in the #introductions channel!

Open positions shared in the last month include:

Be the first to see these job posts on Hawaii Slack's #jobs channel. Are you hiring? Be sure to let everyone know!

Events are going virtual! And we'd love to know about more of them. Visit the #events channel today!

Since our January update, our hui has grown to 699 members who have posed 8.866 messages. If you can think of someone who would make a good addition to the 'ohana, feel free to send them to HawaiiSlack.com or just forward this email!