[i_phish_cats]

I once attended a talk about humanitarian aid during an ebola outbreak a few years ago in africa somewhere. My favorite part was when he went down the list of professions that could help out... from the obvious medical staff, to architects and mechanical engineers for building infrastructure (for building things like containers for storing contaminated feces), etc. He ended with "every kind of engineer can help. except software engineers. you're all useless".

[altsyset]

As with most users people don't know what they need. For example, in this situation, wouldn't a website to demonstrate what is being done be vital? Wouldn't the software engineer setup volunteer registration page? A donation page? Etc etc Wouldn't they benefit with some kind of database about the infected people? What help they already received and what not? Etc etc I think the whole aspect of software engineering is not understood yet.

[Armisael16]

Historically it seems to be the other way around - software engineers plunge in with ideas for how to help and wind up producing something unusable, because they don't have any experience with the problem domain.

[quickthrower2]

The problem with software is it’s too effective! Do you need 500 developers hand writing Linux kernels so you can run computers? Nope just one CD needs to be posted.

Maybe the way we can help is keep building the services we build. If you contribute to wordpress you can help people in these countries, Indirectly, communicate.

Even working at Google providing free gmail, Facebook etc is helpful. Indirectly. Offering free plans of software as a service is another thing.

[adamnemecek]

I mean is that surprising? African countries need infrastructure, western countries need sw.

[i_phish_cats]

Nah, what they really need are crappy fisher-price laptops, one per child.