I guess like everyone else I've been watching the tragic events unfold on television with a sense of sadness and powerlessness. Not much that one can do from so far away except at this point to make a donation and to make the kinds of noises that get governments to move away from inactivity. Fortunately my family and I weren't personally impacted so far as we know, but the events took on a very direct force when we saw what seemed to be video from a resort in Thailand where we had stayed 3 years ago and which indicated that the bungalow where we were staying would have been completely inundated by the wave.
And thinking of it and scanning the Net for information and for stories I'm struck by a couple of things concerning the role (and lack of role) of the Net in these events. The Net appears to be playing a very significant part in responding to the needs of those at a distance--the on-lookers for information, stories, ways of contributing and so on; families and friends of those possibly impacted with attempts at creating listings of the found and the lost and for those on the ground to manage the concerns and queries of those farther away; and one expects that behind the scenes much of the co-ordination and planning that is being done by aid organizations is being done in ways that are pushing the boundaries of Computer Mediated Communication and managing at a distance. I guess I'm a bit surprised that the Net wasn't able (yet?) to bridge the information divides between those who had some idea about what might be coming (the scientists and those immediately impacted) and those who might have been able to make some use of that information in the places where the impact took appreciable time to be realized. Those who had the information couldn't use it, and those who needed the information couldn't/didn't get it. The "degrees of separation" imposed by nationality, language and perhaps most important, domains of knowledge and profession (and the related social linkages, network based trusted relationships, communication pathways and so on), just weren't there--and one wonders whether that was simply a matter of it still being early days in our Internetted world or something more profound and permanent. It seems likely that some sort of Tsunami Early Warning System will be set up in the region probably with an ICT base (I seem to recall something similar being in place for the Pacific Islands, for hurricanes as well as Tsunami's I would assume), but given the infrequency of these events, how useful it will be seems questionable. >From a Community Informatics perspective though, I'm wondering whether there is a future role here for our efforts and approaches. Certainly, the "Community" side of the equation will be of immense importance as much of the reconstruction will be done of and through existing local communities. But what of the Informatics side. Don Cameron has indicated considerable skepticism of the value of ICTs in this context where the need for water, shelter and food are so pressing. Certainly, there is a need for Management/Organizational Informatics at least from the perspective of managing aid and a considerable degree of infrastructure reconstruction. But what of "Community Informatics"... Is this something to be left to a later stage when other matters have been dealt with and as Don suggested there is some resources and time available for "recreation", or is it the case, as I have a sense, that CI is something more important than that and should be built into the communities directly as they are being re-constructed. I'm thinking for example of the need for communities to be able to self-organize and self-manage their reconstruction, to access external resources but to manage their deployment locally themselves. I'm also thinking of the probably increased need to create and maintain links with local diaspora and local well-wishers as they are dispersed around the globe and can act as sources of support as for example through remittances. I'm also thinking of the as yet largely unrealized potential for leap-frogging into community based ICT enabled health service, linkages for local economic development, supports to re-building local school systems and so on. And of course, the creation of the kind of information and knowledge networks that would bind these communities, many of which appear to be extremely isolated and with little communication links to the larger world, as ways of providing early warnings of future such events. But maybe all of this is wishful thinking. Best to all for the New Year and particularly to those impacted by the recent events. Mike Gurstein -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: December 30, 2004 12:48 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED] Cc: [email protected]; [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [bytesforall_readers] Re: RE: [Telecentres] how many / emergencysystems Dear Peter, As always a belated response to people in great need, however to maybe offer some hope - Yesterday the Australian Federal Govt announced that Geoscience Australia (http://www.ga.gov.au/) was now tasked with constructing a Tsunami early-warning system for SE Asia similar to that in the Pacific. They are seeking international partners however if necessary will go it alone to see the project completed (as reported). This is mostly in acknowledgement that as with the US, Geoscience Aus was well aware of the Tsunami's approaching Asia through their network of seismic and oceanography sensors and had notified EMA (Emergency Management Australia) who in turn had a capability to provide at least 30 minutes advance warning to most of the impacted areas, and in the case of India more than 1.5 hours warning. Sadly, and to the great frustration of all involved, despite frantic attempts EMA were unable to contact any coordinated Asian authorities to let them know about the threat. We also must acknowledge that even if they had been so able, there was no mechanism in place to notify the people. It all comes down to communications (it's the same with any civil emergency). So to your second point about communications, not only is the technology available; it has been available for nearly a century making the lack of a coordinated communications network throughout SE Asia even more tragic for those involved. The reality is that emergency technology is not expensive; it just requires management, coordination and cooperation to become a reality. From a technological perspective Australia's primary emergency notification system consists of nothing more complex than common house-hold radios. Emergency alerts are broadcast across the public spectrum. Emergency notifications (calls from people needing help when telephony and other techno-based systems fail during Cyclones or floods etc.) are mostly carried by a very old, yet inherently very reliable UHF citizens band radio network monitored by volunteer emergency groups throughout the nation. People are notified about threats on or near our beaches by old air-raid sirens. This is not a system requiring computers or any other form of advanced technology other than a few UHF repeaters at strategic locations to provide nation-wide coverage (you will find fixed and portable UHF transceivers at every remote community or settlement on the continent). The reason it's so reliable during civil emergencies is because it does not rely on computing technologies. The real problems yet to be addressed are those of priorities, coordination and cooperation - the systems themselves are very cheap, however they only work if emergency mitigation is deemed a priority and accompanied by appropriate management and support processes. Whilst we continue to see limited resources being prioritised towards what are mostly 'recreational technologies' like the Internet at the expense of life-preserving systems we probably will not see any true developments. Rgds, Don _______________________________________________ telecentres mailing list [email protected] http://mailman-new.greennet.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/telecentres To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message. _______________________________________________ telecentres mailing list [email protected] http://mailman-new.greennet.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/telecentres To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
