[PLUG] OLPC, Humaninet, and global disaster relief

Keith Lofstrom keithl at kl-ic.com
Fri Feb 8 19:18:02 UTC 2008


> Keith Lofstrom wrote:
> >Humaninet provides emergency communications and logistic support for
...
> >Wifi people and Linux people are welcome and free to attend.


On Fri, Feb 08, 2008 at 08:27:28AM -0800, Winterbeast wrote:
> are these Ham people?

Some are.  Mostly, they set up satellite links through commercial
services, because the end users in the field are *not* licensed amateur
radio operators, and they need more information than can fit on a
typical shortwave link.

Humaninet tries to make it so the people on the ground at a disaster
site can focus on medicine and food and shelter, not on radios,
communication, and transport logistics.  Emphasis on logistics;  they
want to minimize delays and hassle for the field people ("can you get
1000 winter tents purchased and shipped to Katmandu in 24 hours?")
rather than provide calls home for the lonely (though that is very
important, too).  They mostly rely on fixed-base support in the US.
It is easier to shop the web or negotiate with bureaucrats from an
intact operations center in Portland, than from a disaster site in
rural Indonesia.  Still, the field people need a lot of information,
so the satellite links facilitate that, with the fixed-base folk doing
most of the searching and arranging where it is easier and cheaper.

I'm not directly associated with them, but I have been to a few of
their events, and I admire their competence and audacity.

Keith

-- 
Keith Lofstrom          keithl at keithl.com         Voice (503)-520-1993
KLIC --- Keith Lofstrom Integrated Circuits --- "Your Ideas in Silicon"
Design Contracting in Bipolar and CMOS - Analog, Digital, and Scan ICs



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