<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; ">Hi all,<div><br></div><div>There are a number of other projects in the works to help ensure that Haitians have input into the response and relief efforts, and eventually, into reconstruction, that Haitians have the communications and broadcast infrastructure to communicate at home and that Haitian voices are amplified and available to the world, rather. Of course on the comms side the ISPs, the cell phone companies, and both bilateral and multilateral assistance is quite extensive. On the broadcast and humanitarian information side, the largest is probably run by Internews, which is the coordinating agency for humanitarian information to UNOCHA for this crisis, and is working with a network of community radio stations around Haiti - some 30 I believe. The focus of that project is information for Haitians, by Haitians.</div><div><br></div><div><a href="http://www.internews.af/InfoSavesLives/haiti_partners.shtm">http://www.internews.af/InfoSavesLives/haiti_partners.shtm</a></div><div><br></div><div>My organization, Global Voices, has a special coverage page following and amplifying the citizen media perspective. We also have several staff in Haiti working to ensure that the citizen media perspective can be integrated into other information streams. </div><div><br></div><div><a href="http://globalvoicesonline.org/specialcoverage/haiti-earthquake-2010/">http://globalvoicesonline.org/specialcoverage/haiti-earthquake-2010/</a></div><div><br></div><div>A good place to look for more information is the CDAC ning website: <a href="http://crisescomm.ning.com/">http://crisescomm.ning.com/</a></div><div><br></div><div>ThomsonReuters, the BBC, and a number of other organizations are also intending or already working on projects in Haiti. BBC has a new Creole service, just launched: <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8475381.stm">http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8475381.stm</a></div><div><a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8475381.stm"></a><br><div>Varying reports on cell phone and Internet. </div><div><br></div><div>Internet: all three ISPs are up and running, and were not seriously incapacitated - hence the proliferation of tweeting and blogs immediately after the quake. I understand that the ISPs actually have excess capacity at the moment. One significant challenge is fuel. Both ISPs and cell networks had redundant systems (generators mostly) at their transmission facilities because electricity was always spotty.</div><div><br></div><div>Cell phone networks had significant problems in the early days ensuring flow of power to their towers, I understand. They claim to be returning to normal capacity. Four days ago Digicell claimed it was back to 80% capacity, for example.</div><div><br></div><div>Best, </div><div><br></div><div>Ivan</div><div><br></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px; "><div>Ivan Sigal</div><div>Executive Director, Global Voices</div><div><a href="mailto:i.sigal@globalvoicesonline.org">i.sigal@globalvoicesonline.org</a> l +1 202 361 2712</div><div><a href="http://www.globalvoicesonline.org">www.globalvoicesonline.org</a></div></span></div><div><br><div><div>On Jan 23, 2010, at 10:26 PM, Kendra Kellogg wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite"><div bgcolor="white" background="file:///C:\Program%20Files\Common%20Files\Microsoft%20Shared\Stationery\Glacier%20Bkgrd.jpg" lang="EN-US" link="blue" vlink="purple" style="margin-left: 37.5pt; margin-top: 15pt; "><o:smarttagtype namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="country-region"><o:smarttagtype namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="City"><o:smarttagtype namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="place"><div class="Section1"><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 37.5pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; "><font size="3" color="black" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-size: 12pt; color: black; ">Hi Johan,<o:p></o:p></span></font></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 37.5pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; "><font size="3" color="black" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-size: 12pt; color: black; ">I attended a CrisisCamp in<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Boulder</st1:place></st1:city><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>today to go over a few projects. I will cover what we were told from<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Haiti</st1:place></st1:country-region><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>regarding the communications employed by Haitians as of now. I think your project is a key ingredient. Enabling Hatians to tell their own story is important to identity, healing and national identity. You are on a good right path – non-tech solutions are needed to a get more individual communications out of<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Haiti</st1:place></st1:country-region>. Volunteers will have to interpret them into a technical format.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 37.5pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; "><font size="3" color="black" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-size: 12pt; color: black; ">Communications status in<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">Haiti</st1:country-region></st1:place>:<o:p></o:p></span></font></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 37.5pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; "><font size="3" color="black" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-size: 12pt; color: black; ">SMS, mobile phones (voice only) and two radio stations are functioning – that is all you can rely on. Radio is what is holding the community together right now. Access to these is also a communal effort. Many lost their phones and electronic devices during the earthquakes. This is making any ability for geo-location tough as the phone may not be in the hands of its owner.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 37.5pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; "><font size="3" color="black" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-size: 12pt; color: black; ">An important note is that Smart Phones were not common to the general population before the earthquake. It is only the elite class (10% of the population) that had widespread access to rich media. Ushahidi overcame this hurdle with a short code for SMS messages for their crisis mapping. Frontline SMS is also working on the ground – this is commonly used for internal communications by humanitarian NGO’s. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 37.5pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; "><font size="3" color="black" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-size: 12pt; color: black; ">Internet is down.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 37.5pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; "><font size="3" color="black" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-size: 12pt; color: black; ">What is critical to understand is that the vast majority of<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Haiti</st1:place></st1:country-region>’s population lives on less than two dollars a day.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">Haiti</st1:country-region></st1:place>’s wealth is concentrated into the upper class, and there is a sharp wealth disparity. 60% do not have clean drinking water, and Kerosene is common for light to cut electricity cost. For the majority of the population, radios and basic mobile phones are the only economic probability. Television is often communal. The literacy rate is low – so letters and written communication were also family or communal efforts. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 37.5pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; "><font size="3" color="black" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-size: 12pt; color: black; ">Google Voice is offering free phone calls to<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Haiti</st1:place></st1:country-region><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>for family members for two weeks.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 37.5pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; "><font size="3" color="black" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-size: 12pt; color: black; ">Kendra Kellogg<o:p></o:p></span></font></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 37.5pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; "><font size="3" color="black" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-size: 12pt; color: black; ">E-Advocate Network.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 37.5pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; "><font size="3" color="black" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-size: 12pt; color: black; ">@eadvocate <o:p></o:p></span></font></p><div><div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 37.5pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; "><font size="3" color="black" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-size: 12pt; color: black; "> <o:p></o:p></span></font></p></div></div><p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; "><font size="2" color="#006666" face="Arial"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 102, 102); "> <o:p></o:p></span></font></p></div>_______________________________________________<br>iDC -- mailing list of the Institute for Distributed Creativity (distributedcreativity.org)<br><a href="mailto:iDC@mailman.thing.net" style="color: blue; text-decoration: underline; ">iDC@mailman.thing.net</a><br><a href="https://mailman.thing.net/mailman/listinfo/idc" style="color: blue; text-decoration: underline; ">https://mailman.thing.net/mailman/listinfo/idc</a><br><br>List Archive:<br><a href="http://mailman.thing.net/pipermail/idc/" style="color: blue; text-decoration: underline; ">http://mailman.thing.net/pipermail/idc/</a><br><br>iDC Photo Stream:<br><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/idcnetwork/" style="color: blue; text-decoration: underline; ">http://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/idcnetwork/</a><br><br>RSS feed:<br><a href="http://rss.gmane.org/gmane.culture.media.idc" style="color: blue; text-decoration: underline; ">http://rss.gmane.org/gmane.culture.media.idc</a><br><br>iDC Chat on Facebook:<br><a href="http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2457237647" style="color: blue; text-decoration: underline; ">http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2457237647</a><br><br>Share relevant URLs on Del.icio.us by adding the tag iDCref</o:smarttagtype></o:smarttagtype></o:smarttagtype></div></blockquote></div><div apple-content-edited="true"><br> </div><br></div></div></body></html>