Cafe Bucky

Aside from the Marie Antoinette idiocy of Barbara Bush, and the glacial pace of getting the New Orleans rescue effort going last week, one of the things bugging me is “where’s the tech to help out?”. As one example from last week, the communications on the ground were practically non-existent. That’s just not acceptable.

Communications - If you want details, go skim the Katrina Telecommunications Report. I’m no expert, but it seems to me that some entity could quickly start plopping down an ad-hoc wireless network on the rooftops in central New Orleans. Something that would be generator or solar-powered, and most likely WiFi / Radio (see also WiMax: Trial By Fire). Make a mesh network, have a few points uplink to a satellite, and turn the damn thing on. I’m not saying that flood victims are going to wade around with a laptop, looking for a signal, but at least it would be a way for rescue personnel and other workers to tap into the Net and start trading crucial info. You know that, given the equipment, 50 people that attend shows such as OSCON or DefCon could rig up such a thing in a matter of hours. Why isn’t an instant wireless network not part of disaster plans (or if it is, why didn’t we see it last Tuesday or Wednesday?)

Too Many Lost & Found Lists - In one sense, it’s nice that every last network and relief agency has set up some sort of messaging board or DB for friends and relatives to find each other. In another sense, it makes the task of finding someone a little harder (more places to check). There’s a real need for some standardization (what are the fields in a lost & found form?), scraping tools (go grab the lost & found data from some site, where there isn’t an RSS feed), and RSS feeds originating from the various sites. In other words, if we can’t have a centralized lost & found database, at least get the data out there so that others can quickly index it. I see that some people are doing something about this with the Katrina Data Project. Good for them!

Where Are The Pumps? - I’m flabbergasted that it’s going to take so long to drain New Orleans. I’d love to see 100 firehoses thrown over the levees, driven off of generators. Sure, they don’t compete with the “officially sanctioned” levee pumps in terms of moving water, but every little bit helps. A lot of time is being wasted by focusing exclusively on the large pumps. Get that water moving any way you can!

Anne Rice writes in tomorrow’s edtion of the New York Times about New Orleans (Do You Know What It Means to Lose New Orleans?):

But to my country I want to say this: During this crisis you failed us. You looked down on us; you dismissed our victims; you dismissed us. You want our Jazz Fest, you want our Mardi Gras, you want our cooking and our music. Then when you saw us in real trouble, when you saw a tiny minority preying on the weak among us, you called us “Sin City,” and turned your backs.

Well, we are a lot more than all that. And though we may seem the most exotic, the most atmospheric and, at times, the most downtrodden part of this land, we are still part of it. We are Americans. We are you.