According to this report from Wired, No10 are asking tech companies to help prevent the 111 call service from being overwhelmed. Let's talk about what that would involve 1/12 wired.co.uk/article/domini…
The online 111 service already takes you through some screening questions. Currently all it really tells you is the government advice: if you have a fever or sustained cough, stay at home for 7 days. If it's debilitating, call the 111 service. 2/12 111.nhs.uk/covid-19/
Relief for the 111 call service could only happen if people (a) can get the same information through another route and (b) feel reassured enough that they don't want to talk to someone about it. 3/12
Getting the same information is the first challenge, particularly as it's a rapidly changing situation. My assumption is that the 111 call centre respondents have a crib sheet / flowchart they use. Publishing that could be a first step. 4/12
Because of rapid changes to the advice, officials are likely to be worried others will use out of date information. You'd have to push out notifications to anyone who was using it so that they could grab the latest version whenever it was updated. 5/12
Turning the crib sheet into machine-readable data would make it easier for others to update tools quickly. For example, if someone built an Alexa skill, reworking the dialogue options by hand based on a PDF document would take time; structured data could be read immediately. 6/12
There are standards for publishing question/answers (FAQs) and for instructions. I couldn't find one with a quick search for flowchart-style data. Does anyone know of one? 7/12 schema.org/Question schema.org/HowTo
If you were doing this smartly, you'd also provide a way for anyone who was using this flowchart to report back summary counts about where people ended up (and maybe the path they took). That could provide useful intelligence eg how many people are self-isolating in an area? 8/12
(Though I wouldn't rely on that data too much: people explore other options than the one that is actually about them when they're going through this kind of information online. That's one reason why just providing information is better than leading people through it.) 9/12
This kind of data infrastructure all takes time and resources to build. My instinct in this case: best to put most effort into getting the online 111 service really great. That'll reduce the risk of bad advice, and give people assurance they're getting official advice. 10/12
Also, in my opinion, the 111 call centre will get overwhelmed because people want reassurance, not because they want information. Someone human telling them they are doing the right thing and it is going to be ok. 11/12
So rather than reaching out to tech companies, government should be asking community groups to provide that service. To be a voice on the end of the line that listens and reassures, and takes them through a great authoritative online 111 service. 12/12
