In early 2020, as the coronavirus began to ricochet around the world with terrifying consequence, Harish Pillay decided to do whatever he could to help stop the spread.
The software engineer, who lives in Singapore, heard the government was designing an app to track the virus, so he emailed the minister in charge and asked how he could help. He was part of a fellowship of developers and engineers who volunteered their services, ready to pitch in on a solution.
"The problem was being solved by creating this tool, but there were aspects of trust and confidentiality which also needed to be addressed,” said Pillay, who has worked on Red Hat’s open-source software much of his career and fervently believes in transparent technologies. "We understand all of these things. Let the community help you do the right thing.”