Bama Tracker’s David Marconnet keeps Alabama up to date on COVID – one chart at a time

This story is part of AL.com’s series “Alabamians who made a difference in 2020,” highlighting people who have made our state a better place to live this year. Stories in this series will publish each day from Dec. 11 to Dec. 31, 2020. Find all stories on the Alabamians who made a difference in 2020 by clicking here.

David Marconnet didn’t expect to be working on his website – BamaTracker.com – this deep into 2020.

He started the COVID tracking site in the spring, thinking he would continue the work as the virus ran its course in the coming weeks. Instead, nine months into the historic and deadly pandemic, BamaTracker – with graphics on cases, hospitalizations and deaths – is as important as ever.

“It has continued much longer than I expected,” said Marconnet, a resident of Huntsville who is Chief Technology Officer of OneTeam.net a firm that provides tech services for government contractors. “I started working on the site just after the (Alabama Department of Public Health) released their COVID-19 dashboard and I wanted to see if I could make something that helped track and explain the data in a way that anyone could understand.

“It was very small at first with only a handful of charts and stats. It grew rapidly after I shared it on social media and started getting feedback from other people.”

Now Bama Tracker is seeing massive web traffic and a Twitter account with more than 10,000 followers. Equally important, it has become one of the go-to resources for Alabamians wanting to keep track of coronavirus numbers in the state.

Marconnet said interest in the site has been far more than he expected. The accompanying feedback led him to expand the information it provides as more is learned about the pandemic.

The information on the site is vast.

“Today, Bama Tracker provides a complete history of the data since ADPH first presented it publicly. It also has a lot of tools and features to dig into the data much deeper than the state-built dashboard. You can compare data county by county, look at many different trends over time, drill into every chart, get daily emails, export the data and so much more,” Marconnet said.

In the beginning, Marconnet said he spent a great deal of time in the evenings building charts and working on the site. Over time, most of the work has been automated and he spends about an hour per day updating the site. His company, OneTeam, has also supported his efforts.

Marconnet said he’s glad the site has been useful to so many people but is also looking forward to the day that it isn’t required reading for many in Alabama.

“I’m hopeful that sometime in 2021 it reaches the end of its usefulness,” Marconnet said. “I hope that the site will remain valuable in the future even after the pandemic for the historical nature of the data. I also hope that it becomes something the average person doesn’t need to check daily, unless the site shifts to tracking something else down the road.”

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