[wsfii-discuss] P2P and Wireless Systems (was Breadcrumb)

Wed Nov 22 00:33:40 UTC 2006

Jeff et al,

I can't speak for other organizations but our policy at The Carbon Project
is to promote democratic access to location and user-generated content.  You
can say what you want about trends in homeland security, but I think one of
the most challenging issues facing communities worldwide is to build digital
communities that promote 'interaction' at the local level, while still
providing ways to integrate with global knowledge exchange networks.

Some of the tools we hope to contribute to this challenge are P2P and
wireless applications like www.echomyplace.com <http://www.echomyplace.com/>
.

But more importantly, I saw the term "Judoka" in a post below ;) and being a
Judo grappling aficionado I must mention it.

Best Regards,

Jeff

Jeff Harrison | CEO | The Carbon Project | www.thecarbonproject.com
<http://www.thecarbonproject.com/> 

Check out Geosocial Networking(tm) at www.echomyplace.com
<http://www.echomyplace.com/> 

  _____  

From: wsfii-discuss-bounces at lists.okfn.org
[mailto:wsfii-discuss-bounces at lists.okfn.org] On Behalf Of Jeff Buderer
Sent: Wednesday, November 15, 2006 10:30 AM
To: Discuss list on the World Summit on Free Information Infrastructure
Subject: Re: [wsfii-discuss] Breadcrumb Wireless System

Tracey,

No I have not heard about Rajants specific approach:

Rajant Corporation has developed wireless broadband systems and components
that have multiple applications in homeland security, public safety,
emergency and enterprise networking sectors. Rajant Corporation's wireless
LAN systems are portable, mobile, battery powered, meshing, self-healing,
*highly <javascript:;>  secure, 802.11b access points.

The company strategy includes working with government, military, civilian
agencies and first responder organizations to define customer needs and to
identify or create funding sources for customers as well. Rajant has
succeeded in developing both the private sector and federal customer base.

http://www.rajant.com/index.html 

However the approach is not unique and indeed it seems that Rajant is
actually a competitor to Jeff Harrison (who has briefly posted here once),
CEO of The Carbon Project www.thecarbonproject.com and Geosocial
Networking(tm) at www.echomyplace.com is on this list.

My own view is that there is a need for more discussion on the role of
technology in defining our society. While it is understandable that many are
concerned about homeland security the issues, we need to also see the
possibility this power if abused constitutes a potential challenge to our
freedom as well as our privacy.

Their are many opportunities for growth in the military/intelligence and
homeland security sector. I understand the temptation of many to take
advantage of this. However my concern is that cynical politicians will
overblow the terrorist threat (as it can be argued they have with Iraq), to
suit their and their financial backers short term power needs, before
considering the long term needs of each society. Such developments if
unchecked potentially threaten not only the global economy but the very
notion of a authetnic global democracy movement upon which the very
legitamcy of liberal democracies rests.

An alternative model is to address legitimate national security concerns
(primarily terrorism), while also developing global programs to provide low
cost ICT/GIS services to communities along the lines of the NASA to empower
communities with the idea that global insecurity results from global income
inequality.

Wil Orr, Prescott College

Wil Orr, BS., BSEE, MBA, is Director of the USGS Science Impact Center for
Visualization He is also Director of the Sustainability and Global Change
Program at Prescott College, and Managing Partner of Blueline Consulting
Group, LLC (www. blueline-group.com <http://blueline-group.com/> ). 

Wil and his team work to develop practical applications for state, regional
and local governments from scientific and technological advances within
USGS, NOAA, DoD, NASA and other federal agencies.  They have developed a
model-based Digital Comprehensive PlanC to reduce costs of the long term
planning process.  An additional product is an event assessment model to
evaluate the impacts of natural or human-caused disasters.   These tools are
then used to assist local / regional governments in coping with growth
(sprawl), weather extremes, loss of agricultural lands/open space and other
related issues.   Prior to joining the faculty at Prescott College he spent
10 years in local government management positions with the cities of Tucson
and Scottsdale where he managed new initiatives in sustainable community
development and advanced technology applications.  Also a former Fire Chief,
Wil has practical experience in the emergency management services.   He
currently holds 6 patents in the GIS and remote sensing fields, with a
seventh pending.

Wil's group provides integrated growth, disaster modeling, impact assessment
and decision support systems for communities and regional planning
organizations across the United States.

http://web.mit.edu/dusp/epp/music/about/CenterDirectors.html

These are exactly the kinds of things OVF wants to have to do as part of the
deployment of Open Digital Villages (ODVs). We envision these ODVs as part
of larger integrated knowledge systems, which we be deployed to provide
local communities with the resources and the training to accurately measure
local environmental resources as part of a whole systems approach to
sustainable development. Complementing this would be the development of a
local portal and wireless network as well as capacity building efforts on to
facilitate communications locally with a central hub or series of them to
provide broadband connectivity to the rest of the world in bandwidth
poor/last mile regions. Eventually it is anticipated that such efforts will
be evolve into locally oriented entreprenurial efforts so that operations
and also expansion of these projects can be funded through business
development at these centres.

Jeff

 P. Lauriault wrote: 

Hey have any of you used or heard of this thing? 

http://www.rajant.com/index.html 

   Rajant Corporation has developed wireless broadband systems and 
   components that have multiple applications in homeland security, 
   public safety, emergency and enterprise networking sectors. Rajant 
   Corporation's wireless LAN systems are portable, mobile, battery 
   powered, meshing, self-healing, *highly secure  <javascript:;>
<javascript:;>, 
   802.11b access points. 

A fellow judoka sent the link to me. Is there such a thing as a hacker /
community made version equivalent to this thing? This company looks a little
scarry to me, and something tells me that they would not sell it to
community activists! And if they did i think it would be monitored! 

Cheers 
Tracey 

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