On 10/22/07, Michael J McCafferty <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > All, > > Every time there is some kind of emergency or disaster going on in > the > world I think, "Someone should build a web bulletin board...". Well, I > am not evacuated this time (yet?), and I am in a unique situation to > provide ample servers and bandwidth, etc. for such a project. > I have experienced outages or poor performance with: > http://www.sdcountyemergency.com/ > http://www.211sandiego.org/ > ...and many others that I found regarding info for these fires, via > Google and links from local news station web sites. > > I figure a board could/should provide a place for: > > 1) social outlet > 2) sharing of first hand information. > 3) links to official sources of data. > 3) re-posting of official data and press releases > 4) Community offers of support > 5) photos, stories and first hand accounts > > I need others who are willing to participate in the project: > 1) Technical > 2) Moderation > 3) Creative > 4) promotion and public awareness > > Starting immediately... or as soon as I can get a few volunteers. > I > myself will be volunteering and providing servers and bandwidth. > > Anyone want to join me for a project to help our neighbors ? > Please > contact me at this email address ASAP. > > Thanks, > Mike > > -- > ************************************************************ > Michael J. McCafferty > Principal, Security Engineer > M5 Hosting > http://www.m5hosting.com
Mike, I think this is a great idea, especially for folks outside of the affected area. Another service would be to help locate family, but that's also done by the Red Cross, but that's only if you've evacuated to a Red Cross supported shelter. One very important aspect of doing this would be to verify the first hand information. I hate to say this, but there are some real sickos out there, and I wouldn't want to have misleading info on the board. I know from experience, mostly through the emergency communications aspect, verifying this first hand knowledge is very difficult to do. First responders are extremely challanged to verify what's going on. I would be willing to donate technical, and moderating experience. Since I'm also an amateur radio operator, I do plan on getting more involved in Amateur Radio Emergency Services and could possibly liason between the two. Another idea, since you have a large amount of bandwidth would be to offer to mirror the various official sites from your data center to support the increased load. Even though I'm smoked out here in Santee, this time we didn't have to leave. The winds are shifting, and I'm essentially south of Scripps Ranch, so tonight could be interesting when the wind switches directions and comes on-shore. -- Mark Schoonover, CMDBA http://marksitblog.blogspot.com [EMAIL PROTECTED] Cell: 619-368-0099 Give me ambiguity, or give me something else! --kelsey hudson -- [email protected] http://www.kernel-panic.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/kplug-list
