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CII Blog
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| 09/05/2005 | CI assists with disaster relief | |  |  |
thought folks might be interested in this thread describing how
community informatics helps with disaster relief - several nonprofit
organizations have worked together to set up a community tech center in
the astrodome, and create a missing persons database.
ann
> Steve, friends and colleagues,
> A centralized database could be incredibly useful. Even at the local
> level, there are significant database issues. I do know however of at
> least three groups working on various versions of a centralized
> database. Plus I also know of several groups creating web crawlers to
> search data in the multitude of people connector sites. At the local
> level in Houston we had persons in the ACT Center connecting through
> www.familymessages.org and persons with Tablet PCs in another part of
> the dome using the MSNBC site over TFA's wireless network in the dome
> because the family messages site was overloaded. It was not a local
> bandwidth issue because even with the hard wired connections in the
> ACT Center, the family messages site was real sluggish when we had 90
> persons at the Center looking for loved ones at the same time. The Red
> Cross has its own internal database, that because of a variety of
> reasons is not connected at this time to other databases. It is my
> understanding however, that a proposed Red Cross solution to this
> problem is expected as early as Monday or Tuesday.
>
> I encourage all of you to keep working on a solution. However, if the
> solution creators could get together, it would even better.
>
> The stories are heartbreaking. While I am working at a macro level, I
> am also able to observe the celebrations when people find loved one or
> experience the heartache of those who are still searching. Yesterday,
> an older gentlemen came into the ACT Center looking for his wife who
> he had not seen in five days. Through one of the online people
> connector sites, he discovered that his wife was on her way to the
> Astrodome from Louisiana to pick him up. At the Superdome they had
> gotten separated in the bus area. She ended up at another site in LA
> and he ended up at the Astrodome. He was distraught when came in and
> left with a huge smile on his face. Then there was another man, a
> 35ish young father who had not seen his wife and two daughters for
> three days. He was frantic to find them. He posted his information
> and looked for information about them on several connector sites. He
> did not find them. Hopefully, what all of these sites and the ACT
> Center created was a greater chance that he would be reunited with his
family.
>
> Will
>
> ________________________________
>
> From: Steve Wright [mailto:SWright@salesforce.com]
> Sent: Saturday, September 03, 2005 5:14 PM
> To: Steve Wright; Will Reed; Richard Jaeggi;
> ctcmembers@lists.ctcnet.org; members@afcn.org; GIO@lists.cait.org
> Cc: Jim Forrest
> Subject: RE: [ctcnet] Hurricane Katrina Relief Efforts in Houston -
> CTC planned for th...
>
>
>
> I totally neglected to mention the good folks who are working together
> to make this happen. I apologize for misrepresenting this program.
>
>
>
> This is a collaborative effort between Social Source Foundation,
> CivicSpaceLabs, salesforce.com and techforall that I know of. There
> are many other orgs pitching in to make this happen. These orgs will
> be listed on http://blog.social-source.com/
>
>
>
> Steve Wright
>
> Program / Technical Director
>
> w: 415 901-5606
>
> f: 415 358-4304
>
> fax2 (for CRM donations): 415 520-0124
>
>
>
> ________________________________
>
> From: Steve Wright
> Sent: Saturday, September 03, 2005 8:40 AM
> To: Will Reed; Richard Jaeggi; ctcmembers@lists.ctcnet.org;
> members@afcn.org; GIO@lists.cait.org
> Cc: Jim Forrest
> Subject: RE: [ctcnet] Hurricane Katrina Relief Efforts in Houston -
> CTC planned for th...
>
>
>
> Jim at al,
>
> Please let me know what we can do at salesforce.com. We can marshall
> remote resources and people who can travel if need be. We can get
> programmers from our company or any of our partners.
>
> Most immedialtly, we will have a centralized database for missing /
> dispalaced person up and running very quickly. The purpose here is to
> use the slesforce.com capacity to pull data from all over the web (via
> rss from existing sites, volunteer input or input by the effected
> populations temselves at centers like yours). We may have Houston
> area customers who can bring some machines or networking equipment.
> I'll look into that right now. Please let me know if that is a need.
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Will Reed [mailto:Will.Reed@techforall.org]
> Sent: Sat 9/3/2005 4:51 AM
> To: Steve Wright; Richard Jaeggi; ctcmembers@lists.ctcnet.org;
> members@afcn.org; GIO@lists.cait.org
> Cc: Jim Forrest
> Subject: RE: [ctcnet] Hurricane Katrina Relief Efforts in
Houston
> - CTC planned for th...
> Steve,
> Thanks! We are swamped getting things up and running. Our IT
> coordinator on these projects is Jim.Forrest@techforall.org. His
> direct line is 713.454.6413. For more info go to our blog on
> www.techforall.org
>
> Will
>
> _____
>
> From: Steve Wright [mailto:SWright@salesforce.com]
> Sent: Friday, September 02, 2005 3:21 PM
> To: Richard Jaeggi; Will Reed; ctcmembers@lists.ctcnet.org;
> members@afcn.org; GIO@lists.cait.org
> Subject: RE: [ctcnet] Hurricane Katrina Relief Efforts in Houston -
> CTC planned for th...
>
>
>
> Salesforce.com is offering its data management solution as well as
> configuration assistance to anyone involved in the relief efforts.
>
>
>
> We have a couple of organizations to whom we are actively deploying as
> we speak. If you know of any organizations that can use this help,
> please let me know.
>
>
>
> We are also working closely with CivicSpace and CiviCRM to create a
> robust, searchable database of missing persons that will aggregate
> data from across the web.
>
>
>
> Steve Wright
>
> Program / Technical Director
>
> w: 415 901-5606
>
> f: 415 358-4304
>
> fax2 (for CRM donations): 415 520-0124
>
>
>
> _____
>
> From: Richard Jaeggi [mailto:rj@bigacorn.com]
> Sent: Friday, September 02, 2005 12:45 PM
> To: Will.Reed@techforall.org; ctcmembers@lists.ctcnet.org;
> members@afcn.org; GIO@lists.cait.org
> Subject: RE: [ctcnet] Hurricane Katrina Relief Efforts in Houston -
> CTC planned for th...
>
>
>
>
>
> Three cheers for Will and TFA. This highlights a critical aspect of
> emergency response in which community technology could play a
> pioneering
> role: emergency communications. I haven't really thought this through
> from the technical side, but from the emergency response side
> flexible, robust, and dependable communication is a priority for
> people in crisis, right up there with food and water.
>
>
>
> Internet connection is ideal and works well in the Astrodome. When the
> grid goes down what are the communication options? Text messaging
> worked when voice wouldn't. Ham radio is the old standby. What other
> low cost technical solutions are available?
>
>
>
> rj
>
>
>
> Richard Jaeggi, Director
>
> Community Technology
>
> Howard University Center for Urban Progress
>
> 1840 7th Street, NW
>
> Washington, DC 20001
>
> 202-865-8581
>
> rjaeggi@howard.edu
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> In a message dated 9/1/2005 1:58:29 PM Central Daylight Time,
> Will.Reed@techforall.org writes:
>
> Technology For All(TFA) is working with its community and corporate
> partners to set up a Community Technology Center (CTC) at Houston's
> Astrodome, which will soon be home for 25,000 evacuees from the New
> Orleans Superdome. We are pleased to have the opportunity to help in
> this way and have made an initial commitment to install a 40 station
> CTC. We expect we will need to expand that, but want to move quickly
> with what we can do and then assess the additional need. TFA also
> anticipates working with public leaders and officials to assist in the
> deployment of a Wireless Mesh Network in the Astrodome. Those details
> are under discussion. Pam Gardner (Pam.Gardner@techforall.org
> 713.454.6415) on our staff is coordinating volunteer efforts to set up
> the CTC and then provide programming assistance. TFA will need
> additional computers (Pentium 4 or faster), software, volunteers, $'s
> and organizational capacity to pull this off. Thanks in advance for
> your assistance. As more details are worked out we will pass them
along.
>
>
>
> Will | |
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