I recently met up with Facebook colleagues Simon Axten and Matt Perault to discuss the role that they and their platform might play in disaster response. So I thought I’d share some thoughts that come up during the conversation seeing as I’ve been thinking about this topic with a number of other colleagues for a while. I’m also very interested to hear any ideas and suggestions that iRevolution readers may have on this.
There’s no doubt that Facebook can—and already does—play an important role in disaster response. In Haiti, my colleague Rob Munro used Facebook to recruit hundreds of Creole speaking volunteers to translate tens of thousands of text messages into English as part of Mission 4636. When an earthquake struck New Zealand earlier this year, thousands of students organized their response via a Facebook group and also used the platform’s check-in’s feature to alert others in their social network that they were alright.
Bentley Walker offers a vehicular or roof-mounted satellite broadband ground station that appears quite attractive for any enterprise or any religion interested in assuring its faithful of access to information services.
Here are their broadband maps for each of the key regions.
Phi Beta Iota: We disagree on the inclusion of the New America Foundation–they are not stakeholders as much as beltway “think-tank” opportunists, and too heavily reliant on proprietary hooks going nowhere. New Software Foundation has been changed to Free Software Foundation. We would add to the above list:
The doctrinal commitment to new cyber and social technologies as a means of solving political problems needs to learn from the past and take a more realistic view, says Armine Ishkanian.
I just finished a conference call on the minimal mandatory requirements for liberation technology for a specific area (there are at least another 50 that would need the same stuff–a generic capability–but in 50 other languages).
2. Open satellite channel over the area in question that can receive collect calls from anyone in the area of interest using an announced number and one of the devices.
3. Downloadable encryption for any cell phone on a use and delete basis from the satellite channel…like digital one time pads with no residue.
3. Satellite radio into the area of interest with real news relevant to that population including news of the diaspora and exile leadership.
4. Internet steganography.
I thought CIA, BBG, and JSOG were supposed to be able to do all that. Evidently not. I am being told that a fund-raising campaign is starting up to provide these capabilities to no fewer than three areas, possibly expanding to sixteen, all privately funded because the USG is not doing it.
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Dawn McCall
Here is a sample headline that sums up the current state of US Government attention to “liberation technology.”
Phi Beta Iota: Ms. McCall is a very accomplished Discovery Channel executive with remarkable achievements in one to many broadcasting. She has been in her current position since 27 July 2010 and does not appear to be headed for Assistant Secretary status anytime soon. The Undersecretary of Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs is Ms. Judith A. McHale, formerly President and CEO of Discovery Communications, parent of the Discovery Channel.
Media: At War (NY Times)
Byline: RAY RIVERA
Date: 24 March 2011
KABUL, Afghanistan — President Hamid Karzai surprised some people this week when he announced that his forces would take over security responsibilities from international forces in the city of Lashkar Gah, capital of the volatile southern province of Helmand, this summer.
But if the news spread quickly, it did not travel by cellphone. That’s because mobile phone networks throughout the province have been silenced for nearly a week now under orders of the Taliban, according to company officials.
