Project Hope: An Informative Messenger Chatbot

We want to help in providing accurate & accessible information, by creating a chatbot that can: provide up to date stats, suggest nearest establishments, provide tips & real-time notification system

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Inspiration

We grew up in a country where access to accurate information is a bit of a challenge, add to that the revolution of all media, chances that they will read, learn & spread fake news is high. We want to help our Filipino countrymen to be well informed at these trying times.

What it does

The user of Hope can:

  • Find nearby establishments: testing centers, checkpoints and more
  • Search statistics by country: cases, recoveries, deaths
  • Find useful resources & tips
  • Subscribe to real-time notifications

How we built it

At first, we developed the first important feature: Search, as a lot of people are conscious about the numbers, we made it a priority, the next one is the Resources feature, this one would provide them tips & useful links to stay informed, then we developed the Quick Update / Quick Access feature, this aims to provide them a list of nearest establishments which are vital for these types of situations, lastly we added a Real-time notification system that sends them occasional updates in which they can opt-out.

Challenges we ran into

The first challenge we ran into is finding the most legitimate source of COVID19 statistics. The second one is the architecture side, how can we make these awesome features with a limited resources.

Accomplishments that We're proud of

We are proud that Project Hope is used by a lot of people, around 500 to be particular in just a week after we launched it. It's just fulfilling that we helped other people, our friends & family members to have access to information at their finger tips.

What we learned

  • We must use our talents to help other people even with limited resources
  • We learned that developing a software is not about how fancy it looks like, it's how it will make an impact to the users
  • We improved our teamwork
  • We learned new tools & platforms: messenger platform, queues using redis

What's next for Project Hope: An Informative Messenger Chatbot

  • Access to the supply line: food, medical and more
  • Using hope as an Emergency hotline
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