COVID Case Tracking Using FOSS

This is an open letter to the Government of Kerala offering help for setting up a system for COVID-19 tracking, in face of the growing controversy over data sovereignity.

To,
The IT Secretary,

Government of Kerala

Re: FOSS Alternatives for COVID Tracking and Response

Dear Sir,

The last few weeks have been dramatic and devastating for the world and humanity as a whole. Firstly I would like to congratulate you on the outstanding work done by the Kerala Government in planning and executing the response to the virus, and setting a great example for everyone to follow.

IT solutions can very quickly help scale up emergency response and coordination efforts, and speed and not cost should rightly be the need of the hour. In this regard, the controversy regarding a proprietary US based system that was deployed by the government is highly unfortunate.

My purpose of writing this letter is to make you aware that similar CRM systems are also available as Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) can be deployed on local, non proprietary platforms with as much speed and scalability. There are many such tools you can easily deploy and tons of local professional talent available to get it done. Kerala government has been at the forefront of FOSS adoption and has a very progressive FOSS first policy that has not only saved a lot of public money, but also has ensured freedom and sovereignty of public data assets.

ERPNext is one of the largest FOSS projects from India, used by the world’s largest corporations and nonprofits. ERPNext has a pre-built CRM solution that can be very useful in COVID-19 tracking and can be used to rapidly customize and build dashboards and social media integrations. Such a solution can be quickly adopted and deployed on standard Linux servers, and we are willing to help you set up the system, and transfer the technology and know-how for your case reporting and tracking requirements.

To speed up the delivery process, we are willing to offer our work pro-bono, after which the government can continue to build the system in-house, hire local talent, or work with us directly to develop the system.

I again take this opportunity to show our support as a FOSS project and vendor to help the Kerala government in this crisis, should you need our support. Please feel free to reach out and connect as you need.

Rushabh Mehta

CEO, Frappe
Email id: rushabh@erpnext.com