Dean Grey, Founder & CEO, Skylab Apps sits down with John Furrier as a part of the AWS Summit Digital Experience. #AWSSummit #theCUBE https://siliconangle.com/2020/05/13/pop-up-social-app-gamifies-covid-19-prevention-awssummit/ Pop-up social app ‘gamifies’ COVID-19 prevention What would you do with your very own social platform? What would your users post, like, share, etc.? What about a highly specialized pop-up platform for special occasions or emergencies? Thinking this type of thing could be useful for helping out with COVID-19 prevention? Bingo. This is what Skylab Apps Inc. has done with its software service for rapidly building platforms for brands, tribes and organizations. Together with Sirqul, it just launched Do-Your-Part.com and its accompanying application to help prevent the spread of coronavirus. The virtual social community monitors and rewards people for behaviors that help flatten the curve, like staying home, socially distancing, etc. “You have all the actions listed … washing your hands, social distancing, reaching out to heroes, saying thank you, spending time with pets, unplugging. All the things that are just not psychological, but actual COVID actions that are saving lives,” said Dean Grey (pictured), founder and chairman of Skylab Apps. “People voluntarily go on there and report that they’re doing them by clicking on them. It instantly shows up on a wall like an Instagram feed … and everyone now can see what people are doing. They’re high-fiving; they’re cheering each other on; they’re earning badges.” Grey spoke with John Furrier, host of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio, during the AWS Summit Online event. They discussed how social responsibility and gamification fuse together in the #DoYourPart app. (* Disclosure below.) Addicted to social good #DoYourPart could not do what it is doing if it were not for Amazon Web Services Inc.’s donated technology resources, according to Grey. The site and app are picking up a lot of traction, with companies like Budweiser reaching out to offer encouragement and rewards. Skylab operates on the premise that just about everything is tribal, and this can be leveraged to shape people’s behavior for the better. The company published a white paper on value reinforcement systems and the science of engagement, which explains the mechanisms behind this. Grey believes that the psychology of social-media engagement can bring more than selfies and $100,000 Instagram endorsements to the planet. Behaviors that positively impact society and human welfare, like COVID-19 prevention or stopping a bully, can be rewarded and reinforced, Grey pointed out. “What was shocking is we can now show we’ve got kids that have had 200-day streaks over the last year, and they were addicted to the positive things — not just being cute anymore,” he said. Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of the AWS Summit Online event. (* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for the AWS Summit Online event. Neither Amazon Web Services, the sponsor for theCUBE’s event coverage, nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)