SCaLE TALK – Los Angeles, California

Product Architect Tess Gadwa gives a talk on parametric geometry and its applications for content discovery, technical analysis, and epidemiology.

Between November 25 (the Wednesday before Thanksgiving) and December 15, 2020, Lotus.fm’s series of time lapse infographics on the spread of COVID-19 went viral on social media, reaching an estimated 6.2 million online viewers with more than 10,000 shares across Facebook and Twitter. These animated 4D data visualizations show cases and deaths from Coronavirus during Fall 20220.

US coronavirus surge since October 2020. #MaskUp folks.

We haven’t even seen the worst yet. We are so damn screwed. #COVID19 pic.twitter.com/98j7UETOMU

— Eric Feigl-Ding (@DrEricDing) December 4, 2020

“Knowing that holiday travel and gatherings could be a dangerous vector for the virus to spread, we worked hard to reach influencers and get the word out among our base. We believe that data science can change the world and save lives. This is one instance where it probably did,” says Product Architect Tess Gadwa.

Lotus.fm produced these visualizations as Public Service Announcements to accompany the Giving Map: our ongoing initiative for grassroots philanthropy in the areas of the US hardest hit by the pandemic. The PSA animations are available for download and reuse in GIF and MP4 formats, under a Creative Commons license. Please contact us if you require a different resolution or format, or would like to request a time lapse for a specific time period or geographic area.

Lotus.fm LLC received an $80,000 grant from the Shelby Cullom Davis Charitable Fund to continue its work on Giving Map, a data-driven grassroots philanthropy web portal currently focused on COVID-19 relief.

“We are excited to begin work on Giving Map 2.0,” says Tess Gadwa, Lotus.fm Product Architect and Program Director of Giving Map. “We had tremendous success with the initial release this summer. People really gravitated to the core concept of the map, whether to learn more about areas of the country affected by COVID-19 or to make charitable donations.”

All funds raised go directly to the nonprofits listed through the site. Giving Map is a pass-through organization and does not take any commissions or fees. The next release of Giving Map will include a more refined user interface to select nonprofits, as well as more opportunities for featured organizations to tell their own stories. It is expected to launch in early 2021.

“Looking at the types of online experiences that are available for e-commerce and for-profit crowdfunding, we feel the same tools can give people truly meaningful ways to connect with and learn from organizations doing important work,” says Gadwa. “Nonprofits have lost many of their key revenue sources, even as demand for their services has skyrocketed. Many are in danger of closure. We believe Internet-based grassroots funding is one way to help close the gap.”

The Giving Map web app draws on case data compiled daily by Johns Hopkins University to show the areas hardest hit by Coronavirus. Donors can contribute in any of ten categories, including Mental Health, Food Insecurity, Shelter Insecurity, and Parks and Environment. It is available for all web browsers on tablet, personal computer, and phone. The code base is open source and freely available on GitHub.

Giving Map is a nonpartisan, not-for-profit initiative created in partnership with Lotus.fm LLC, Ctrl-H PDX, Charity Navigator, and the Shelby Cullom Davis Charitable Fund, and a core team of dedicated open source volunteers.

Our mission is to connect caring people with grassroots organizations working for equity, healing, and sustainability across the globe.

Lotus.fm LLC is a Portland-based, female-founded startup specializing in interactive data visualization and data UX. 

For media inquiries, please contact us by email or at 971.412.2493.

Read founder Tess Gadwa’s newest article in The Startup—“Actionable Data: Where Design and Data Science Converge.”

“What actionable data does is take a measurable, quantifiable data set and connect it to specific calls to action. In essence, it presents you with new information and instead of leaving you to mull (or stew) it provides you with ways to respond. The goal is always to empower users.” 

Read more…

“What if you could donate to a nonprofit whose boots are on the ground right where they’re most needed this week? You can, thanks to Tess Gadwa’s GivingMap.org, whose software visualizes the latest John Hopkins geographic data on the pandemic, and links to Charity Navigator to identify and donate to reputable organizations…”

On August 27, Lotus.fm founder Tess Gadwa was featured on the Software Agents podcast from Cloudbees.

Listen to the full podcast here.

The interactive, data-driven grassroots philanthropy portal known as Giving Map [formerly Greenslate.us] launched today. Giving Map uses the latest COVID-19 data to show the areas of the country most severely impacted by the pandemic; visitors can give in any of 10 nonprofit categories. 

Giving Map was created in partnership with Lotus.fm LLC, Ctrl-H PDX, Charity Navigator, and the Shelby Cullom Davis Charitable Fund, and a core team of dedicated open source volunteers.

Read more