Re: [liberationtech] Looking for: ICT/telecom expertise in country in Nepal
Done! On 28 Apr 2015, at 22:12, Indiver Badal i...@indiver.com wrote: Hi Nick Sure, please add me to the list. I'm ready to assist in any way I can. Thanks Indiver On Tue, Apr 28, 2015, 12:12 AM Nick Ashton-Hart nash...@consensus.pro mailto:nash...@consensus.pro wrote: + Indiver Dear Bill, I've certainly experienced that dynamic before. I'm very glad to hear that families are all OK. I only wish it were true for everyone, and it is great that PCH has released staff to help out - very much in the Nepali spirit I might add! In this instance, Im not in Nepal right now, and so I won't be telling anyone what they need or anything of the sort. Nor would I be doing any of that if I were there. I'm helping OCHA get access to a pool of people with a variety of skills - especially at the moment in 'telecom triage' but I'm sure it will rapidly expand beyond that. This is a grassroots thing with the list mostly coming from Nepalis referred by NGOs in digital policy and ISOC chapters. Microsoft's country director is helping in large part due to his connections with universities' tech programmes but in typical Nepali fashion also personally. Indiver, if you would like to be added to the gdoc where the list is kept, directly introduced to the chap at OCHA who is helping the teams on the ground with all this, or both, let me know, I'm happy to do either or both. FWIW, the list currently has two PCH people who have put themselves forward: Dibya Khatiwada and Rustan Shrestha. The more the merrier! On 27 Apr 2015, at 20:12, Bill Woodcock wo...@pch.net mailto:wo...@pch.net wrote: On Apr 27, 2015, at 5:53 AM, Yosem Companys compa...@stanford.edu mailto:compa...@stanford.edu wrote: From: Nick Ashton-Hart nash...@consensus.pro mailto:nash...@consensus.pro via bestb...@lists.bestbits.net mailto:bestb...@lists.bestbits.net If you, or someone you know, has hands-on ICTs and especially telecom infrastructure experience and is presently in Nepal can you let me know offlist? I'm trying to help emergency teams in country gain access to in-country expertise. One of our larger offices is in Kathmandu. Our staff and their families are all accounted for and okay, so we’ve released and funded them to do relief work. Presumably they’ll principally be doing ICT-related work, and presumably that will be coordinated through the ICT industry association. The current secretary of the industry association is Indiver Badal i...@indiver.com mailto:i...@indiver.com, who was PCH’s peering coordinator for several years. One issue we’ve observed many times when doing relief work, perhaps worst in the 2004 tsunami, the 2003 conflict in the Congo, and 2010 in Haiti, is that areas with modest ICT infrastructure that was adequate to the sustainable needs of their market, are swamped by aid workers with immodest expectations. i.e. a desire to video-chat with their families every day, play WoW, and download video porn. So they all show up, and declare “repairing the Internet infrastructure” (to levels never before seen) to be their first priority. They run rough-shod over the local infrastructure operators, step on carefully-regulated or carefully-negotiated frequency allocations, etc. I very much hope we won’t have to deal with that in this case. Nepal’s ICT environment is mature, its professionals are expert, and its community is well connected. If and when they need help, they’re perfectly capable of indicating what help they need, and anyone from the outside who believes they know better is WRONG. So, if you’re interested in helping, by all means, make your availability known to Indiver or any of the many other ICT professionals in-country, but please don’t assume that you know what’s needed, or worse, that they don’t. -Bill -- Liberationtech is public archives are searchable on Google. Violations of list guidelines will get you moderated: https://mailman.stanford.edu/mailman/listinfo/liberationtech. Unsubscribe, change to digest, or change password by emailing moderator at compa...@stanford.edu.
Re: [liberationtech] Looking for: ICT/telecom expertise in country in Nepal
Hi Nick Sure, please add me to the list. I'm ready to assist in any way I can. Thanks Indiver On Tue, Apr 28, 2015, 12:12 AM Nick Ashton-Hart nash...@consensus.pro wrote: + Indiver Dear Bill, I've certainly experienced that dynamic before. I'm very glad to hear that families are all OK. I only wish it were true for everyone, and it is great that PCH has released staff to help out - very much in the Nepali spirit I might add! In this instance, Im not in Nepal right now, and so I won't be telling anyone what they need or anything of the sort. Nor would I be doing any of that if I were there. I'm helping OCHA get access to a pool of people with a variety of skills - especially at the moment in 'telecom triage' but I'm sure it will rapidly expand beyond that. This is a grassroots thing with the list mostly coming from Nepalis referred by NGOs in digital policy and ISOC chapters. Microsoft's country director is helping in large part due to his connections with universities' tech programmes but in typical Nepali fashion also personally. Indiver, if you would like to be added to the gdoc where the list is kept, directly introduced to the chap at OCHA who is helping the teams on the ground with all this, or both, let me know, I'm happy to do either or both. FWIW, the list currently has two PCH people who have put themselves forward: Dibya Khatiwada and Rustan Shrestha. The more the merrier! On 27 Apr 2015, at 20:12, Bill Woodcock wo...@pch.net wrote: On Apr 27, 2015, at 5:53 AM, Yosem Companys compa...@stanford.edu wrote: From: Nick Ashton-Hart nash...@consensus.pro via bestb...@lists.bestbits.net If you, or someone you know, has hands-on ICTs and especially telecom infrastructure experience and is presently in Nepal can you let me know offlist? I'm trying to help emergency teams in country gain access to in-country expertise. One of our larger offices is in Kathmandu. Our staff and their families are all accounted for and okay, so we’ve released and funded them to do relief work. Presumably they’ll principally be doing ICT-related work, and presumably that will be coordinated through the ICT industry association. The current secretary of the industry association is Indiver Badal i...@indiver.com, who was PCH’s peering coordinator for several years. One issue we’ve observed many times when doing relief work, perhaps worst in the 2004 tsunami, the 2003 conflict in the Congo, and 2010 in Haiti, is that areas with modest ICT infrastructure that was adequate to the sustainable needs of their market, are swamped by aid workers with immodest expectations. i.e. a desire to video-chat with their families every day, play WoW, and download video porn. So they all show up, and declare “repairing the Internet infrastructure” (to levels never before seen) to be their first priority. They run rough-shod over the local infrastructure operators, step on carefully-regulated or carefully-negotiated frequency allocations, etc. I very much hope we won’t have to deal with that in this case. Nepal’s ICT environment is mature, its professionals are expert, and its community is well connected. If and when they need help, they’re perfectly capable of indicating what help they need, and anyone from the outside who believes they know better is WRONG. So, if you’re interested in helping, by all means, make your availability known to Indiver or any of the many other ICT professionals in-country, but please don’t assume that you know what’s needed, or worse, that they don’t. -Bill -- Liberationtech is public archives are searchable on Google. Violations of list guidelines will get you moderated: https://mailman.stanford.edu/mailman/listinfo/liberationtech. Unsubscribe, change to digest, or change password by emailing moderator at compa...@stanford.edu.
[liberationtech] Looking for: ICT/telecom expertise in country in Nepal
From: Nick Ashton-Hart nash...@consensus.pro via bestb...@lists.bestbits.net If you, or someone you know, has hands-on ICTs and especially telecom infrastructure experience and is presently in Nepal can you let me know offlist? I'm trying to help emergency teams in country gain access to in-country expertise. Regards, Nick -- Liberationtech is public archives are searchable on Google. Violations of list guidelines will get you moderated: https://mailman.stanford.edu/mailman/listinfo/liberationtech. Unsubscribe, change to digest, or change password by emailing moderator at compa...@stanford.edu.
Re: [liberationtech] Looking for: ICT/telecom expertise in country in Nepal
You might already know about Kathmandu Living Labs, but if not, they might be able to help: http://kathmandulivinglabs.org/ On Mon, Apr 27, 2015 at 8:53 AM, Yosem Companys compa...@stanford.edu wrote: From: Nick Ashton-Hart nash...@consensus.pro via bestb...@lists.bestbits.net If you, or someone you know, has hands-on ICTs and especially telecom infrastructure experience and is presently in Nepal can you let me know offlist? I'm trying to help emergency teams in country gain access to in-country expertise. Regards, Nick -- Liberationtech is public archives are searchable on Google. Violations of list guidelines will get you moderated: https://mailman.stanford.edu/mailman/listinfo/liberationtech. Unsubscribe, change to digest, or change password by emailing moderator at compa...@stanford.edu. -- Lina Srivastava -- linasrivastava.com | twitter http://twitter.com/lksriv | linkedin http://www.linkedin.com/in/linasrivastava -- Liberationtech is public archives are searchable on Google. Violations of list guidelines will get you moderated: https://mailman.stanford.edu/mailman/listinfo/liberationtech. Unsubscribe, change to digest, or change password by emailing moderator at compa...@stanford.edu.
Re: [liberationtech] Looking for: ICT/telecom expertise in country in Nepal
The IETF last year gave an award to a Nepalese gentleman, Mahabir Pun, for connecting villages on different mountain ridges together: https://www.ietf.org/mail-archive/web/gaia/current/msg00248.html I'm not sure how to or if it's possible to get in touch with Mr. Pun or other members of his group... On Mon, Apr 27, 2015 at 8:53 AM, Yosem Companys compa...@stanford.edu wrote: From: Nick Ashton-Hart nash...@consensus.pro via bestb...@lists.bestbits.net If you, or someone you know, has hands-on ICTs and especially telecom infrastructure experience and is presently in Nepal can you let me know offlist? I'm trying to help emergency teams in country gain access to in-country expertise. Regards, Nick -- Liberationtech is public archives are searchable on Google. Violations of list guidelines will get you moderated: https://mailman.stanford.edu/mailman/listinfo/liberationtech. Unsubscribe, change to digest, or change password by emailing moderator at compa...@stanford.edu. -- Joseph Lorenzo Hall Chief Technologist Center for Democracy Technology 1634 I ST NW STE 1100 Washington DC 20006-4011 (p) 202-407-8825 (f) 202-637-0968 j...@cdt.org PGP: https://josephhall.org/gpg-key fingerprint: 3CA2 8D7B 9F6D DBD3 4B10 1607 5F86 6987 40A9 A871 -- Liberationtech is public archives are searchable on Google. Violations of list guidelines will get you moderated: https://mailman.stanford.edu/mailman/listinfo/liberationtech. Unsubscribe, change to digest, or change password by emailing moderator at compa...@stanford.edu.
Re: [liberationtech] Looking for: ICT/telecom expertise in country in Nepal
Also, Flowminder.org was in Nepal last week to set up a mobile / disaster response system there which will be fully operational this summer, and have contracts in place and the system underway, but in the meantime are working to see if they can do ad-hoc work now. Let me know if you want a contact there. On Mon, Apr 27, 2015 at 11:08 AM, Peter Micek pe...@accessnow.org wrote: The Swedish-Finnish telco TeliaSonera operates in Nepal and is engaged in relief efforts, offering 50 free SMS and some free calling. I'll paste their email below, and find their latest alert here: http://www.teliasonera.com/en/newsroom/news/2015/update-on-the-earthquake-i-nepal Peter Update on TeliaSonera’s operations in Nepal following earthquake *TeliaSonera's majority owned company in Nepal, Ncell, is working around the clock to help and support its employees and partners after the major earthquake which hit Nepal this weekend. As of now there are no reports of any of the 515 employees being injured. Ncell also continues its work to keep the mobile network in the country running to facilitate for the rescue operations ongoing.* The highest priority is and has been to locate all employees and to give them the best possible support in their very difficult personal situations. Ncell has of this morning been able to establish the whereabouts of all its employees. On early Monday morning, TeliaSonera sent an aircraft to Nepal with tents, water cleaning facilities and medical supplies to help stabilize and improve working conditions for Ncell's employees in order to secure the operations. Most of Ncell's mobile network in Nepal is working, although overloaded with several hundred sites having power supply problems. This leads to congested networks and Ncell therefore urges everyone to communicate by SMS in order to minimize the strain of the network. Ncell's crisis management team has secured support from suppliers and maintenance teams are trying to restart as many sites as possible. Right now, it is not possible to assess the damages and costs related to the earthquake. To ensure that Ncell’s customers can communicate with families and friends, Ncell has credited SIM cards with an amount sufficient to make necessary calls. Ncell also provides customers with 50 free SMS, as a first action. Calls and SMS between most of TeliaSonera' European operations and Nepal are free of charge, but due to the damage to the network, Ncell has made the judgment that it is not possible to enable free calls in Nepal as it would put additional strain to the network and risk the ongoing rescue operations. This is constantly reviewed. For more information on Ncell and the earthquake please read articles on TeliaSonera.com/newsroom http://www.teliasonera.com/en/newsroom/. *For more information, please contact the TeliaSonera press office +46 771 77 58 30,** pr...@teliasonera.com pr...@teliasonera.com, **visit our** Newsroom http://www.teliasonera.com/en/newsroom/ **or follow us on Twitter **@TeliaSoneraAB https://twitter.com/TeliaSoneraAB**.* On Mon, Apr 27, 2015 at 9:39 AM, Lina Srivastava l...@linasrivastava.com wrote: You might already know about Kathmandu Living Labs, but if not, they might be able to help: http://kathmandulivinglabs.org/ On Mon, Apr 27, 2015 at 8:53 AM, Yosem Companys compa...@stanford.edu wrote: From: Nick Ashton-Hart nash...@consensus.pro via bestb...@lists.bestbits.net If you, or someone you know, has hands-on ICTs and especially telecom infrastructure experience and is presently in Nepal can you let me know offlist? I'm trying to help emergency teams in country gain access to in-country expertise. Regards, Nick -- Liberationtech is public archives are searchable on Google. Violations of list guidelines will get you moderated: https://mailman.stanford.edu/mailman/listinfo/liberationtech. Unsubscribe, change to digest, or change password by emailing moderator at compa...@stanford.edu. -- Lina Srivastava -- linasrivastava.com | twitter http://twitter.com/lksriv | linkedin http://www.linkedin.com/in/linasrivastava -- Liberationtech is public archives are searchable on Google. Violations of list guidelines will get you moderated: https://mailman.stanford.edu/mailman/listinfo/liberationtech. Unsubscribe, change to digest, or change password by emailing moderator at compa...@stanford.edu. -- Peter Micek Senior Policy Counsel Access | accessnow.org http://www.accessnow.org | rightscon.org tel: +1-888-414-0100 x709 Skype: peter-r-m Fingerprint: 6CFE 8E9F ED8E 66B8 BE38 EA59 002C EEF5 A5BD 70B0 *Join the Access team - *we're hiring https://www.accessnow.org/about/jobs! -- Liberationtech is public archives are searchable on Google. Violations of list guidelines will get you moderated: https://mailman.stanford.edu/mailman/listinfo/liberationtech. Unsubscribe, change to digest, or change password by emailing moderator
Re: [liberationtech] Looking for: ICT/telecom expertise in country in Nepal
I had occasion to trek to Mahabir's wireless-connected village Nangi back in 2008 with a team from Winrock International. He was also being considered as an Ashoka Fellow and it appears that he achieved that status. Perhaps either or both organizations could provide current contact info. https://www.ashoka.org/fellow/mahabir-pun Gary -Original Message- From: liberationtech [mailto:liberationtech-boun...@mailman.stanford.edu] On Behalf Of Joseph Lorenzo Hall Sent: Monday, April 27, 2015 9:25 AM To: liberationtech Subject: Re: [liberationtech] Looking for: ICT/telecom expertise in country in Nepal The IETF last year gave an award to a Nepalese gentleman, Mahabir Pun, for connecting villages on different mountain ridges together: https://www.ietf.org/mail-archive/web/gaia/current/msg00248.html I'm not sure how to or if it's possible to get in touch with Mr. Pun or other members of his group... On Mon, Apr 27, 2015 at 8:53 AM, Yosem Companys compa...@stanford.edu wrote: From: Nick Ashton-Hart nash...@consensus.pro via bestb...@lists.bestbits.net If you, or someone you know, has hands-on ICTs and especially telecom infrastructure experience and is presently in Nepal can you let me know offlist? I'm trying to help emergency teams in country gain access to in-country expertise. Regards, Nick -- Liberationtech is public archives are searchable on Google. Violations of list guidelines will get you moderated: https://mailman.stanford.edu/mailman/listinfo/liberationtech. Unsubscribe, change to digest, or change password by emailing moderator at compa...@stanford.edu. -- Joseph Lorenzo Hall Chief Technologist Center for Democracy Technology 1634 I ST NW STE 1100 Washington DC 20006-4011 (p) 202-407-8825 (f) 202-637-0968 j...@cdt.org PGP: https://josephhall.org/gpg-key fingerprint: 3CA2 8D7B 9F6D DBD3 4B10 1607 5F86 6987 40A9 A871 -- Liberationtech is public archives are searchable on Google. Violations of list guidelines will get you moderated: https://mailman.stanford.edu/mailman/listinfo/liberationtech. Unsubscribe, change to digest, or change password by emailing moderator at compa...@stanford.edu. -- Liberationtech is public archives are searchable on Google. Violations of list guidelines will get you moderated: https://mailman.stanford.edu/mailman/listinfo/liberationtech. Unsubscribe, change to digest, or change password by emailing moderator at compa...@stanford.edu.
Re: [liberationtech] Looking for: ICT/telecom expertise in country in Nepal
The Swedish-Finnish telco TeliaSonera operates in Nepal and is engaged in relief efforts, offering 50 free SMS and some free calling. I'll paste their email below, and find their latest alert here: http://www.teliasonera.com/en/newsroom/news/2015/update-on-the-earthquake-i-nepal Peter Update on TeliaSonera’s operations in Nepal following earthquake *TeliaSonera's majority owned company in Nepal, Ncell, is working around the clock to help and support its employees and partners after the major earthquake which hit Nepal this weekend. As of now there are no reports of any of the 515 employees being injured. Ncell also continues its work to keep the mobile network in the country running to facilitate for the rescue operations ongoing.* The highest priority is and has been to locate all employees and to give them the best possible support in their very difficult personal situations. Ncell has of this morning been able to establish the whereabouts of all its employees. On early Monday morning, TeliaSonera sent an aircraft to Nepal with tents, water cleaning facilities and medical supplies to help stabilize and improve working conditions for Ncell's employees in order to secure the operations. Most of Ncell's mobile network in Nepal is working, although overloaded with several hundred sites having power supply problems. This leads to congested networks and Ncell therefore urges everyone to communicate by SMS in order to minimize the strain of the network. Ncell's crisis management team has secured support from suppliers and maintenance teams are trying to restart as many sites as possible. Right now, it is not possible to assess the damages and costs related to the earthquake. To ensure that Ncell’s customers can communicate with families and friends, Ncell has credited SIM cards with an amount sufficient to make necessary calls. Ncell also provides customers with 50 free SMS, as a first action. Calls and SMS between most of TeliaSonera' European operations and Nepal are free of charge, but due to the damage to the network, Ncell has made the judgment that it is not possible to enable free calls in Nepal as it would put additional strain to the network and risk the ongoing rescue operations. This is constantly reviewed. For more information on Ncell and the earthquake please read articles on TeliaSonera.com/newsroom http://www.teliasonera.com/en/newsroom/. *For more information, please contact the TeliaSonera press office +46 771 77 58 30,** pr...@teliasonera.com pr...@teliasonera.com, **visit our** Newsroom http://www.teliasonera.com/en/newsroom/ **or follow us on Twitter **@TeliaSoneraAB https://twitter.com/TeliaSoneraAB**.* On Mon, Apr 27, 2015 at 9:39 AM, Lina Srivastava l...@linasrivastava.com wrote: You might already know about Kathmandu Living Labs, but if not, they might be able to help: http://kathmandulivinglabs.org/ On Mon, Apr 27, 2015 at 8:53 AM, Yosem Companys compa...@stanford.edu wrote: From: Nick Ashton-Hart nash...@consensus.pro via bestb...@lists.bestbits.net If you, or someone you know, has hands-on ICTs and especially telecom infrastructure experience and is presently in Nepal can you let me know offlist? I'm trying to help emergency teams in country gain access to in-country expertise. Regards, Nick -- Liberationtech is public archives are searchable on Google. Violations of list guidelines will get you moderated: https://mailman.stanford.edu/mailman/listinfo/liberationtech. Unsubscribe, change to digest, or change password by emailing moderator at compa...@stanford.edu. -- Lina Srivastava -- linasrivastava.com | twitter http://twitter.com/lksriv | linkedin http://www.linkedin.com/in/linasrivastava -- Liberationtech is public archives are searchable on Google. Violations of list guidelines will get you moderated: https://mailman.stanford.edu/mailman/listinfo/liberationtech. Unsubscribe, change to digest, or change password by emailing moderator at compa...@stanford.edu. -- Peter Micek Senior Policy Counsel Access | accessnow.org http://www.accessnow.org | rightscon.org tel: +1-888-414-0100 x709 Skype: peter-r-m Fingerprint: 6CFE 8E9F ED8E 66B8 BE38 EA59 002C EEF5 A5BD 70B0 *Join the Access team - *we're hiring https://www.accessnow.org/about/jobs! -- Liberationtech is public archives are searchable on Google. Violations of list guidelines will get you moderated: https://mailman.stanford.edu/mailman/listinfo/liberationtech. Unsubscribe, change to digest, or change password by emailing moderator at compa...@stanford.edu.
Re: [liberationtech] Looking for: ICT/telecom expertise in country in Nepal
Yes please - there's a spreadsheet that a bunch of people are on and populating with contacts, from techs who can help to ministry, UN agency and the like contact people. If anyone would like to be added to add more names, just give me a gdocs address. I'm getting a lot of incoming emails now, which is great, but which is also swamping me a bit :) On 27 Apr 2015, at 17:34, Lina Srivastava l...@linasrivastava.com wrote: Also, Flowminder.org was in Nepal last week to set up a mobile / disaster response system there which will be fully operational this summer, and have contracts in place and the system underway, but in the meantime are working to see if they can do ad-hoc work now. Let me know if you want a contact there. On Mon, Apr 27, 2015 at 11:08 AM, Peter Micek pe...@accessnow.org wrote: The Swedish-Finnish telco TeliaSonera operates in Nepal and is engaged in relief efforts, offering 50 free SMS and some free calling. I'll paste their email below, and find their latest alert here: http://www.teliasonera.com/en/newsroom/news/2015/update-on-the-earthquake-i-nepal Peter Update on TeliaSonera’s operations in Nepal following earthquake TeliaSonera's majority owned company in Nepal, Ncell, is working around the clock to help and support its employees and partners after the major earthquake which hit Nepal this weekend. As of now there are no reports of any of the 515 employees being injured. Ncell also continues its work to keep the mobile network in the country running to facilitate for the rescue operations ongoing. The highest priority is and has been to locate all employees and to give them the best possible support in their very difficult personal situations. Ncell has of this morning been able to establish the whereabouts of all its employees. On early Monday morning, TeliaSonera sent an aircraft to Nepal with tents, water cleaning facilities and medical supplies to help stabilize and improve working conditions for Ncell's employees in order to secure the operations. Most of Ncell's mobile network in Nepal is working, although overloaded with several hundred sites having power supply problems. This leads to congested networks and Ncell therefore urges everyone to communicate by SMS in order to minimize the strain of the network. Ncell's crisis management team has secured support from suppliers and maintenance teams are trying to restart as many sites as possible. Right now, it is not possible to assess the damages and costs related to the earthquake. To ensure that Ncell’s customers can communicate with families and friends, Ncell has credited SIM cards with an amount sufficient to make necessary calls. Ncell also provides customers with 50 free SMS, as a first action. Calls and SMS between most of TeliaSonera' European operations and Nepal are free of charge, but due to the damage to the network, Ncell has made the judgment that it is not possible to enable free calls in Nepal as it would put additional strain to the network and risk the ongoing rescue operations. This is constantly reviewed. For more information on Ncell and the earthquake please read articles on TeliaSonera.com/newsroom. For more information, please contact the TeliaSonera press office +46 771 77 58 30, pr...@teliasonera.com, visit our Newsroom or follow us on Twitter @TeliaSoneraAB . On Mon, Apr 27, 2015 at 9:39 AM, Lina Srivastava l...@linasrivastava.com wrote: You might already know about Kathmandu Living Labs, but if not, they might be able to help: http://kathmandulivinglabs.org/ On Mon, Apr 27, 2015 at 8:53 AM, Yosem Companys compa...@stanford.edu wrote: From: Nick Ashton-Hart nash...@consensus.pro via bestb...@lists.bestbits.net If you, or someone you know, has hands-on ICTs and especially telecom infrastructure experience and is presently in Nepal can you let me know offlist? I'm trying to help emergency teams in country gain access to in-country expertise. Regards, Nick -- Liberationtech is public archives are searchable on Google. Violations of list guidelines will get you moderated: https://mailman.stanford.edu/mailman/listinfo/liberationtech. Unsubscribe, change to digest, or change password by emailing moderator at compa...@stanford.edu. -- Lina Srivastava -- linasrivastava.com | twitter | linkedin -- Liberationtech is public archives are searchable on Google. Violations of list guidelines will get you moderated: https://mailman.stanford.edu/mailman/listinfo/liberationtech. Unsubscribe, change to digest, or change password by emailing moderator at compa...@stanford.edu. -- Peter Micek Senior Policy Counsel Access | accessnow.org | rightscon.org tel: +1-888-414-0100 x709 Skype: peter-r-m Fingerprint: 6CFE 8E9F ED8E 66B8 BE38 EA59 002C EEF5 A5BD 70B0 Join the Access team - we're hiring! -- Liberationtech is public
Re: [liberationtech] Looking for: ICT/telecom expertise in country in Nepal
+ Indiver Dear Bill, I've certainly experienced that dynamic before. I'm very glad to hear that families are all OK. I only wish it were true for everyone, and it is great that PCH has released staff to help out - very much in the Nepali spirit I might add! In this instance, Im not in Nepal right now, and so I won't be telling anyone what they need or anything of the sort. Nor would I be doing any of that if I were there. I'm helping OCHA get access to a pool of people with a variety of skills - especially at the moment in 'telecom triage' but I'm sure it will rapidly expand beyond that. This is a grassroots thing with the list mostly coming from Nepalis referred by NGOs in digital policy and ISOC chapters. Microsoft's country director is helping in large part due to his connections with universities' tech programmes but in typical Nepali fashion also personally. Indiver, if you would like to be added to the gdoc where the list is kept, directly introduced to the chap at OCHA who is helping the teams on the ground with all this, or both, let me know, I'm happy to do either or both. FWIW, the list currently has two PCH people who have put themselves forward: Dibya Khatiwada and Rustan Shrestha. The more the merrier! On 27 Apr 2015, at 20:12, Bill Woodcock wo...@pch.net wrote: On Apr 27, 2015, at 5:53 AM, Yosem Companys compa...@stanford.edu wrote: From: Nick Ashton-Hart nash...@consensus.pro via bestb...@lists.bestbits.net If you, or someone you know, has hands-on ICTs and especially telecom infrastructure experience and is presently in Nepal can you let me know offlist? I'm trying to help emergency teams in country gain access to in-country expertise. One of our larger offices is in Kathmandu. Our staff and their families are all accounted for and okay, so we’ve released and funded them to do relief work. Presumably they’ll principally be doing ICT-related work, and presumably that will be coordinated through the ICT industry association. The current secretary of the industry association is Indiver Badal i...@indiver.com, who was PCH’s peering coordinator for several years. One issue we’ve observed many times when doing relief work, perhaps worst in the 2004 tsunami, the 2003 conflict in the Congo, and 2010 in Haiti, is that areas with modest ICT infrastructure that was adequate to the sustainable needs of their market, are swamped by aid workers with immodest expectations. i.e. a desire to video-chat with their families every day, play WoW, and download video porn. So they all show up, and declare “repairing the Internet infrastructure” (to levels never before seen) to be their first priority. They run rough-shod over the local infrastructure operators, step on carefully-regulated or carefully-negotiated frequency allocations, etc. I very much hope we won’t have to deal with that in this case. Nepal’s ICT environment is mature, its professionals are expert, and its community is well connected. If and when they need help, they’re perfectly capable of indicating what help they need, and anyone from the outside who believes they know better is WRONG. So, if you’re interested in helping, by all means, make your availability known to Indiver or any of the many other ICT professionals in-country, but please don’t assume that you know what’s needed, or worse, that they don’t. -Bill -- Liberationtech is public archives are searchable on Google. Violations of list guidelines will get you moderated: https://mailman.stanford.edu/mailman/listinfo/liberationtech. Unsubscribe, change to digest, or change password by emailing moderator at compa...@stanford.edu.
