AAAS Media Briefing: The Impacts of Mobile Technology and Regulation in a Pandemic
Tuesday, February 9
3:00 p.m. ET The Impacts of Mobile Technology and Regulation in a Pandemic
Panel session on this topic: Tuesday, 2:00 – 2:45 p.m.
Rob Nicholls will discuss an unpublished comparative study of four countries with low COVID-19 transmission rates (Australia, New Zealand, Taiwan and Singapore), analyzing how these countries are feeding data into contact tracing systems, and the operation of those systems. Unexpectedly, expensive mobile contact tracing apps have been less influential than basic customer relationship management software – which maps out small social networks – combined with well-informed contact tracers and the ability and political will to close borders and provide free, widespread testing. Nicholls proposes that if isolated Pacific Rim countries – which in some cases, such as Fiji, rely on travel, remittances and economic interaction with countries like Australia – were to adopt similar processes, travel bubbles could be created between these countries. Roba Abbas, who researches and develops socio-technical methodologies for public and user participation in technology design to better serve the public interest, will discuss the principles of co-design methodologies as they apply to different contexts. These include how co-design could be applied in obtaining early input on contact tracing apps, and actual data from stakeholder consultations and user-centered design efforts in the context of location-based services and lower limb exoskeletons. Katina Michael will discuss why large-scale technological systems fail even when hundreds of millions of dollars are spent on them, and how usability and public consultation could improve implementation of COVID-19 mobile technological responses. She will share how early work on location-based services for emergency management could inform track and trace deployments, and explore the ethical and practical considerations of developing public interest technology.
Katina Michael, professor, School for the Future of Innovation in Society, Arizona State University -Transnational COVID-19 cases and background: Mobile technology implementations
Rob Nicholls, associate professor of business law, UNSW Business School, University of New South Wales, Australia - Socio-technical and regulatory issues raised by COVID-19 track and trace apps
Roba Abbas, faculty of business and law, University of Wollongong, Australia - Co-designing for the future: New models and frameworks for dynamic ecosystems
You will be briefly introduced by Colin O'Connor, the AAAS staff moderator for this briefing. Each speaker (in this order: Katina, Rob, Roba) will speak for 3-4 minutes.
After all speakers have given their remarks, we will take questions from reporters who have joined the briefing. Colin will read the question for your response. Please turn your microphone "on" to respond to a question.
At 3:45 pm (at the latest), Colin will end the briefing. If there are follow-up questions or requests, reporters will be asked to email media@aaas.org. We will share any such requests with you.