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

Wed Nov 22 03:40:12 UTC 2006

Thanks all!

The homeland security part of the breadcrumbs technology gave me the 
creeps, but I did like the fact that it is small, portable, robust 
looking, and easy to use anywhere at any time and seems to be quite 
interoperable.

One of the topics and issues i am grappling with, is finding suitable 
communication technologies for people in contested territories, people 
who may have to send data quickly and efficiently and then pack up their 
gear and move on. Or people who may want to collect some data and get it 
off their devices quickly or transfer them quickly for someone else to 
transport. Think of kurds, North Koreans, Burmese, Tibetans in China 
along the border regions, etc. Or people who are not allowed to have 
wireless devices but want something short term that they can move around 
with and communicate to neighbouring villages. Or perhaps a field 
scientist collecting data where she is not supposed to! Like GPS points 
in Sarawak Malaysia! In most cases in rural and remote areas where the 
state controls access to the net. When I saw that breadcrumb thing i 
thought - this could meet the needs of that use case.

At the Dharamsala roadshow we had discussed that it was possible to 
create a homemade portable kit, to do some point to point data transfer 
with some directional antennas, but this breadcrumb thing seemed to have 
addressed all that in one nice little package.

I would however much prefer technology that would meet the needs of some 
of the communities i am dealing with and not from a military shop. If 
you have ideas - have seen some hacks or other examples - I would love 
to hear them!

I like echomyplace!

Cheers
Tracey (http://takahashidojo.blogsome.com/)

Jeff Harrison wrote:
>
> 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 secure <javascript:;>, 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 <http://www.thecarbonproject.com> and Geosocial Networking(tm) at www.echomyplace.com <http://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 Plan© 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:;>,
> 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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