Re: [DDN] Katrina Refugees SWARMcast?
Jim Brazell wrote: Hi, My name is Jim Brazell. We have refugees from New Orleans and Thibodeaux here in San Antonio. There are shelters forming where refugees have web access. There cell phones are not working. Communication among the displaced is not tied to a common core of services. Can we form a blog for refugees? ac: Quite easily, Jim. DDN (www.digitaldivide.net) has free blogs for anyone who becomes a member. Or, you could use blogger.com like I did for my hurricane blog. Both are very easy to set up; blogger would also let you have a group blog, with multiple people posting to the site. If you wanted to, you could even just use my blog - http://katrina05.blogspot.com - since it was intended to be used in exactly this way. Does anyone know of a real-time Satellite Company where people can see their property over the web? ac: No, not offhand. There are satellite companies that charge people for this service, but I don't know of any that do it for free online. What is the url for confirmed deaths? ac: Doesn't exist as of yet. There's no one official Katrina site. The red cross may start posting it, or fema.gov. But the Wikipedia page for Katrina is quite extraordinary people. They've done an excellent job keeping it current. They even have a table that shows the death toll, county by county (or parish by parish, as is the case for Louisiana). Is there a missing or lost web site and search (People, Places and Things). ac: Several of them, but none of them official as of this morning. On my blog I'm aggregating missing persons announcements and photos from Craigslist and NowPublic.com, two of the main sources. Hopefully the red cross will get its missing persons database up and running soon. They were slow during the tsunami, and when it was launched, it crashed because of traffic. Is there a podcast? ac: Again, no official podcast. Most of the local newspapers in the region are posting multimedia. A few have been posted to my blog, but not many as of yet. Mine's set up so anyone with access to a phone can call in, leave a voicemail, and have it posted as a podcast. DDNer Chris Warner Carey posted one yesterday about his plans to leave California this weekend to volunteer in the relief efforts, for example. It would be great if more people could post messages like this Is there a RSS bundle of streams? I'm hoping to do this, but haven't had much time as of yet. I did something similar on www.tsunami-info.org, but so far I've been focused more on basic blogging. I'll see if I can pull something together by tonight, but for now I need to concentrate on my day job - yes, I do have a job :-) -- --- Andy Carvin Program Director EDC Center for Media Community acarvin @ edc . org http://www.digitaldivide.net http://www.tsunami-info.org Blog: http://www.andycarvin.com --- ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
Re: [DDN] Katrina Refugees SWARMcast?
Andy Carvin wrote: Jim Brazell wrote: Hi, My name is Jim Brazell. We have refugees from New Orleans and Thibodeaux here in San Antonio. There are shelters forming where refugees have web access. There cell phones are not working. Communication among the displaced is not tied to a common core of services. Can we form a blog for refugees? ac: Quite easily, Jim. DDN (www.digitaldivide.net) has free blogs for anyone who becomes a member. Or, you could use blogger.com like I did for my hurricane blog. Both are very easy to set up; blogger would also let you have a group blog, with multiple people posting to the site. If you wanted to, you could even just use my blog - http://katrina05.blogspot.com - since it was intended to be used in exactly this way. Interesting - are there telecentres at the stadiums? That would be really good. VoIP calls, email... letting people know that they are OK. The blogging would be good too. -- Taran Rampersad Presently in: Georgetown, Guyana [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.knowprose.com http://www.easylum.net http://www.digitaldivide.net/profile/Taran Criticize by creating. — Michelangelo ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
RE: [DDN] Katrina Refugees SWARMcast?
Andy said: Interesting - are there telecentres at the stadiums? That would be really good. VoIP calls, email... letting people know that they are OK. The blogging would be good too. There 2 million people or so displaced to states, regions and cities around the Gulf Coast. A core problem is people are so far apart, their cells phones do not work and there is no single registry of found people.. In other words, missing is only 1/2. The displaced people can not connect with each other because they have no working home phone or cell phone (in many cases). The web is the key. It can allow all of those who are displaced to find each other. We have 3 people from Kenner LA staying with us in San Antonio. Kenner and Metairie are the suburbs of New Orleans and they are close to the axis of the river and the lake. In fact they usually flood before downtown. We need satellite pictures we can zoom down to the roofs and see if homes and cars are under water and to what extent. My dad is from Biloxi and he is now in Florida. He is in the same situation. He can call us but he can not reach his employees, friends and family from Biloxi-New Orleans. The Satellite company, Spaceimaging.com has some great free pictures of New Orleans pre flood and Mobile Alabama post flood. They are imaging New Orleans yesterday and today and will have new images tomorrow. http://www.spaceimaging.com/gallery/default.htm If anyone finds other imaging, please let us know and let's get the word out. The gentleman who created the call for bloggers to direct to his RSS bundle is a great idea. It must be pushed onward past today. Let's create a large filter and aggregation of services. 1) Post Hurricane Satellite Imagery (zoomable to roof tops) 2) Found People 3) People to Locate 4) Confirmed Deaths 5) Info on opening of places to receive people back home 6) Key phone numbers for services 7) Personal accounts of the Hurricane 8) Aid Applications and Data --Jim Brazell -- Taran Rampersad Presently in: Georgetown, Guyana [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.knowprose.com http://www.easylum.net http://www.digitaldivide.net/profile/Taran Criticize by creating. - Michelangelo ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message. ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
[DDN] Katrina Refugees SWARMcast?
Hi, My name is Jim Brazell. We have refugees from New Orleans and Thibodeaux here in San Antonio. There are shelters forming where refugees have web access. There cell phones are not working. Communication among the displaced is not tied to a common core of services. Can we form a blog for refugees? Does anyone know of a real-time Satellite Company where people can see their property over the web? What is the url for confirmed deaths? Is there a missing or lost web site and search (People, Places and Things). Is there a podcast? Is there a RSS bundle of streams? Audio, Video, Text Jim Brazell Consulting Analyst, Digital Media Collaboratory, IC2.org, UT at Austin -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Andrew Pleasant Sent: Wednesday, August 31, 2005 7:46 PM To: The Digital Divide Network discussion group Subject: Re: [DDN] Hurricane Katrina mobcast launched Hi, Given the context, the reply is a bit surprising somehow. Nonetheless, as I understand it, the police radio system has been lost to flooding and lack of power so there is little or no coordination 'on the ground' via those regular channels; e.g. police/ firefighters and the like in the streets are without radio contact. (See http://www.fcw.com/article90541-08-31-05-Web .. which I just found on a quick google search on the issue to somewhat verify what I heard on CNN). Additionally, it seems difficult if not impossible to get information to the thousands wandering about or sitting on top of their roofs. There are many without radios, no tv access (flooded and no power). Oddly enough, I did hear some pay phones downtown were working, but then again also that many cell networks were entirely out of commission. Yes, the media 'parachute in' with high-powered and working (e.g. also not wet or out of power) satellite phones and videophones and battery rechargers. They also have food, water, cans of gasoline, and often travel in groups for added security. They don't seem to be (for whatever reason) going into the projects or the heavily flooded areas where many people live(d). And those not flooded or with sufficient economic clout can likely do the same. Helicopters with bullhorns might, maybe, work but it have you ever heard the amount of noise those helicopters throw off? The rescue crews working on the helicopters mainly communicate by hand signal - not radio - because it is so loud. So, I'd say it seems at least in part a technology issue as well. There may be boats and truck loads full of technology. If the technology isn't appropriate or functional in the context, I suppose you can call that a system problem but it strikes me as also a technological one. But then again making a distinction between technology and social/political/economic systems is inherently problematic to begin with. However, I am quite sure that the communication issue, agency crosstalk, you refer to is unfortunately rampant as well. ap Andrew Pleasant wrote: New Orleans official (I think the chief of police but not entirely sure) just told CNN, The biggest problem we are having right now is communications. ap I dunno. I'm seeing videophones capturing images on television, which implies not only that cellular networks are up, but that they are relatively undamaged. The communication itself seems like a system problem. The National Guard is there, the Coast Guard is there, the Police are there (http://www.nola.com/hurricane/t-p/katrina.ssf?/hurricane/katrina/stori es/html/LOOT31.html ) and so on. FEMA's there, the CDC, and of course the Department of Homeland Security. With the amount of technology available through all of these groups, it's hard to say that the communications problem is technical. Helicopters with bullhorns would work, if you think about it. Of course, the people with real problems that are still there - the handicapped/sick/aged - would need to be looked for door-to-door, which with the manpower available is not a very large issue, though time is of the essence. But the people who are left behind... the socio-economically disadvantaged - they don't have weblogs, they probably don't have cell phones and they probably don't have access to regular phones (if the landlines are still working). Yeah, the problem is communication probably - but that's not a technology issue, I think. I think it's all the crosstalk between all the agencies. It might be a regular Charlie Foxtrot when it comes to who's in charge of what... -- Taran Rampersad Presently in: Georgetown, Guyana [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.knowprose.com http://www.easylum.net http://www.digitaldivide.net/profile/Taran Criticize by creating. - Michelangelo ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the
