Flow Architectures

Chapter 1. Introduction to Flow

At the time of writing this, the world is in crisis. The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted just about all aspects of our personal and professional lives, and there are severe challenges in getting the pandemic contained. While we can take a number of personal actions, such as wearing masks and washing our hands, there is plenty of evidence that shows real containment requires real-time cooperation among communities, countries, and humanity as a whole.

I hope that by the time you read this, the crisis has passed, and you are back to gathering with friends, family, and even total strangers to enjoy the incredible experiences we have created for ourselves as a species. However, the relative success in containing the virus in countries like Malaysia and South Korea demonstrates that other countries struggling with containment could shorten—or at least lessen—the crisis in part with better tools and programs for activities like contact tracing and resource distribution.

Those two examples in particular—contact tracing and resource distribution—are examples of activities that require real-time data coordination worldwide. COVID-19 knows no political or geographical boundaries. Its spread is dictated by the movement of people. To contain it—and support the medical community’s response—we must understand where and how people are moving and making contact with each other. And we need to know that as close to when it happens as possible.

We can’t quickly create ...