Emergency Response

Cisco's Emergency Response Network unit gave a presentation on their various options for remote/mobile connectivity. It starts with small suitcase, and goes to a large truck, and all give wireless internet, voice, video, and whatever you need. They've worked in most recent disasters, including 9.11, Katrina, and the Tsunami. Very impressive stuff, and a trememdous use of basically off-the-shelf hardware/software from Cisco. My favorite quote:

"It's not just about bandwidth, it's all about bandwidth."

Tomorrow, they're going to show some hydrogen fuel cells and the big truck. Can't wait!

More ICT4D

We had a presentation from Inveneo, which is a non-profit that provides technology services to developing countries using inexpensive, open source solutions. I had met with them when I was in San Francisco recently, and was very impressed. They've really thought through the full set of issues (power, environmental, etc) that remote locations face with respect to IT. They also have voice solutions. I'm quite interested in looking at their solutions for our more remote areas.

Session #2: Global Connectivity

General status update on the various initiatives around global connectivity - one of my favorite topics.

Jonathan Palmer from WCS, gave a demo of the ICT database, which has mapping!! You can look at a country, and see who has offices there, then get more details on these offices. Awesome! This is a perfect thing for NetHope to do.

Govi from WorldVision brought up an interesting point about the security of the connectivity data. There is lots of data in there that is really for internal use only, but it could be secured. The power of being able to see what others are doing, at a more specific level is very compelling. Matthew made the very good point that it should be a tool that agencies use on a daily basis. I'm excited to see where this goes.

Opening Session: ICT4D

ICT4D is IT for the developing world. It's unclear to me if that means, in our case, providing IT training to kids, for instance, or whether it includes using IT to provide the services we already provide. According to the group, it's both. In any case, many NetHope members are starting to think about how they can provide technology solutions to the end recipients of our efforts. Most of our clients are the staff of our organizations, but not the refugees (in IRC’s case), so we’re starting to think about how to change that. The challenge is how does the IT department impact programming? Is it about getting lots of hardware donations, or is it about the complete lifecycle of technology – the consensus is the latter, not that hardware isn’t important, but it’s not the only thing.


It's interesting to start with this topic, since it's actually not what NetHope does, traditionally. I think it shows the passion that exists within the NetHope community for technology. Lots of challenges for this, but certainly seems worth it. One thing I've been thinking about for a while in this area is GIS. Maps can provide a significant value to our programs, but has a significan technical footprint. IT can play a leadership role here, which clearly falls into ICT4D.