Pandemic stirs up reformist zeal in Silicon Valley
There’s a feeling among some technologists that some of their work in recent years had become mercenary or frivolous
San Francisco — Before the pandemic, Yiying Lu was known for her work designing the Twitter Fail Whale and the dumpling and boba tea emojis. In the past few weeks, Lu said she was called to a higher purpose. From her apartment in San Francisco, she toiled away in a Slack channel with two dozen people she has never met to create a free website called Corona Carecard. It asks Americans to buy gift cards to their favourite local shops, providing a much-needed source of income while stores are shuttered.
Lu is one of hundreds, if not thousands, of workers across Silicon Valley trying to, in their words, hack the virus. The pandemic has stirred up a missionary zeal throughout Silicon Valley. Apple and Google put aside a decade-long rivalry to form an alliance to track the spread of infections. Facebook and Salesforce.com are procuring millions of masks for health-care workers. Jeff Bezos is donating $100m and Jack Dorsey $1bn...
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