(no subject)
Aug. 31st, 2005 01:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tylikSo as I sit here, watching my test indices rebuild, and wanting to avoid confronting incomplete documentation of set functions again, I've been thinking a little bit about the relief organizations we've been hearing about in the wake of hurricane Katrina. Mobile, self sufficient kitchen (with showers) making one pot meals. The various arrangements for emergency shelter and transportation.
And it occurs to me that there could be a need in there for information workers. Kind of mobile geek corp disaster relief units...
Okay, let me confess, this is partly inspired by my thought that while I'm personally fairly well prepared for many kinds of natural disasters... with that much infrastructure breakdown, I couldn't guaranty my net connectivity. Which is superficially kind of silly, but when you look at the problems people are having coordinating relief, and when you look at the amount of displacement and confusion and just how hard it is for people to get things sorted out in the wake of a natural disaster, getting good communications infrastructure in place quickly makes a lot of sense.
I kind of see two interlocked projects here.
The first is -- what does a mobile communications unit look like? I mean, there's the vehicular aspect of it, which means probably vans, boats, or maybe if we're really lucky heliocopters. You'd need a generator. You'd need some provision for fueling the generator. (And nifty solar panels. And a portable windmill... er, excuse me.) You'd need some kind of communication connection that would be independant of the local infrastructure. (Any options other than satellite? And if this was set up as a charity, and we get a provider to donate bandwidth?) Ideally you'd want computers or terminals of some kind that can be made available for public use, a wifi point for those who have their own (can you assume that anyone who shows up with their own laptop is a geek and should be put to work?) and phones or phone like things.
The second is more software than hardware... What kind of systems or services can be provided, both to people and other relief agencies to help with organizational efforts? The design constraints are fairly obvious -- it needs to be flexible, it needs to have fairly little administrative overhead, it needs to be easy for many groups to use and integrate into their existing systems -- and really should be as workable for farsighted Joe who has a generator and a working kitchen, and is acting as a neighborhood contact point as it is for the Red Cross or something. It needs to provide information on where resources are, and where they're needed. It needs to provide effective people locating services. It needs to serve as an information clearninghouse.
Thoughts?
Yeah, yeah, I just want to help build, and then fly around in a self contained mobile internet disaster relief heliocopter...
And it occurs to me that there could be a need in there for information workers. Kind of mobile geek corp disaster relief units...
Okay, let me confess, this is partly inspired by my thought that while I'm personally fairly well prepared for many kinds of natural disasters... with that much infrastructure breakdown, I couldn't guaranty my net connectivity. Which is superficially kind of silly, but when you look at the problems people are having coordinating relief, and when you look at the amount of displacement and confusion and just how hard it is for people to get things sorted out in the wake of a natural disaster, getting good communications infrastructure in place quickly makes a lot of sense.
I kind of see two interlocked projects here.
The first is -- what does a mobile communications unit look like? I mean, there's the vehicular aspect of it, which means probably vans, boats, or maybe if we're really lucky heliocopters. You'd need a generator. You'd need some provision for fueling the generator. (And nifty solar panels. And a portable windmill... er, excuse me.) You'd need some kind of communication connection that would be independant of the local infrastructure. (Any options other than satellite? And if this was set up as a charity, and we get a provider to donate bandwidth?) Ideally you'd want computers or terminals of some kind that can be made available for public use, a wifi point for those who have their own (can you assume that anyone who shows up with their own laptop is a geek and should be put to work?) and phones or phone like things.
The second is more software than hardware... What kind of systems or services can be provided, both to people and other relief agencies to help with organizational efforts? The design constraints are fairly obvious -- it needs to be flexible, it needs to have fairly little administrative overhead, it needs to be easy for many groups to use and integrate into their existing systems -- and really should be as workable for farsighted Joe who has a generator and a working kitchen, and is acting as a neighborhood contact point as it is for the Red Cross or something. It needs to provide information on where resources are, and where they're needed. It needs to provide effective people locating services. It needs to serve as an information clearninghouse.
Thoughts?
Yeah, yeah, I just want to help build, and then fly around in a self contained mobile internet disaster relief heliocopter...
