The COVID Tracking Project built one of the most widely used coronavirus datasets of the pandemic at a time when it was nearly impossible to get consistent data on the spread of the coronavirus pandemic in the US.
They started the project to answer a journalistic question—how many COVID-19 tests were being done each day in the US—and ended up running a substantial part of the country’s pandemic data provisioning and analysis for more than a year. We’ll sit down with their co-founders Erin Kissane and Alexis Madrigal to talk about what they all built together, how they did it, and what they think it means.
Erin Kissane is a writer and editor with a background in journalism and tech and a co-founder of the COVID Tracking project.
Alexis Madrigal is a staff writer at The Atlantic and a co-founder of the COVID Tracking Project.
This conversation is part of a monthly series of public talks at AnnLab featuring artists, creators, storytellers, organizers, and others who are working at the intersections of media, technology and culture with the purpose of sharing and reflecting on civic media practice, highlighting the work being done and the way folks are working, and to encourage conversation among a growing network.