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September 19, 2005

Grass Roots Technology Projects Supporting Hurricane Katrina Relief

From my good buddy Y, an interesting review:

Here's a quick update on the various grass roots technology projects that are providing resources to Hurricane Katrina Relief efforts. These projects are delivering telecommunication and data communication and infrastructure services to NOLA and the Gulf Coast.

As one self-confessed "geek" wrote in his blog today:

"I may be biased, but it is apparent that technology has played a
tremendous role in the recovery from this disaster. Every site I go to
has donation links for recovery organizations. Millions of dollars are
being donated in such a way. ...The missing persons databases have
reunited thousands with families and loved ones, reunited guardians
with pets....I am personally not qualified for search and rescue,
caring for the sick, pulling people out of flood-ridden houses or
policing the streets.. But I am still very proud to be a part of the
recovery effort in my own little way. I may be a tattooed computer
nerd, a geek if you will, but I still would like to think that my
presence here is making some kind of difference, if only to alert other
geeks, like yourself, that New Orleans needs your support. I just hope
we are able to bring an awareness to those who may not read the
mainstream papers, watch the news."

I am once again encouraging all of you to clean your closets and
garages of used/obsolete computer equipment and peripherals and donate
to the cause. And for those of with corporate jobs, please find out how
your employer recycles or disposes of obsolete equipment.

/index.php?title=Main_Page

Grass Root Projects

1) CU Wireless - Champaign-Urbana Community Wireless Network: Community
Wireless Networking experts from throughout the United States are
heading to the New Orleans/LA region to help rebuild their
telecommunications infrastructure.
http://cuwireless.net/

The CU Wireless effort in the Katrina/Gulf Coast area is being blogged
by Joel Johnson, Jacob Appelbaum, and others.

Joel Johnson's Blog
http://joeljohnson.com/

Jacob Appelbaum's Blog
http://jacob.wordpress.com/

2) Operation Flashlight: A coalition of neighborly Americans hatched
RebuildTheSouth.com on September 3. They have sponsorship/support from
the NAACP. Their mission is to organize structures of the evacuees, by
the evacuees, and for the evacuees. I had sent an e-mail about this
project a few days ago -- now the official web site is up.
http://www.operationflashlight.com/

3)Radio Response: RadioResponse.org is a group of IT professionals,
mostly from the wireless networking community, that focuses on
relieving the communication blackouts that result from widespread
catastrophe. The scope of their operation is currently limited to the
Bay Saint Louis area, with the exception of the shelters that have been
connected in northern Luisiana. However, plans are being made to extend
both ways along the Gulf coast
http://www.radioresponse.org/

4) Project Interdictor/Outpost Crystal: Originally established by
DrecNic to maintain continual data/telecomm connectivity to NOLA
throughout the devastation left by the Hurricane, that phase of the
project has reached end-of-life with great success. DirecNic is now
focusing efforts on re-building is NOC and which was severely damaged
by wind and water; DirecNIC is also working aggressively to restore
business services to it's customers. The volunteer project is adapting
to provide data and web services to other grass roots projects, and
well as providing raw, uncensored reports "direct from the front
lines". Future projects include: recorded audio/transcribed of
emergency scanner feeds (available now), a comprehensive log of news
articles related to the hurricane, and podcasts.
http://mgno.com
http://wiki.nola-intel.org

Posted by mbowen at September 19, 2005 06:52 PM

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