Feral Jundi

Friday, October 2, 2009

PMC 2.0: Mesh Networks

   This is important research for PMC’s and PSC’s, because if companies want a simple way for contractors to communicate with each other on some disaster zone or war zone gig, then this will allow them to do that.  Especially since most guys have, or will soon have smart phones that are bluetooth and wifi capable. You could add this capability to your communications plan, and if these guys can make this open source and free, then it would be a no-brainer to utilize Mesh Networks.

   In disaster zones and war zones where there is no infrastructure for 3G or cell towers, or those things were destroyed somehow, you must have a communications infrastructure back up system.  Mesh Networks is a possible solution if they can pull it off.  To make it free is even cooler, because then it will not be something that is exclusive to one company or another.  Along with the Mesh Networks, there must also be a way to encrypt the communications or something, and I am sure some technology will come along to do such a thing.  But first things first–get the Mesh Networks going.

    And for military/police/medical/disaster response crews, this will be awesome. For coordinating purposes and for evolving incidents like the Mumbai attack, you must have communications and information sharing systems that have redundancy built into them. If terrorists or some flood destroys the cell tower(s), then you must have an alternative network for everyone to talk on.  This is smart and I wish them all the luck in their research. –Matt

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Researchers developing free mobile mesh network

Munir Kotadia

Oct 1, 2009

Can provide comms during mobile network blackout?

Researchers from Australia and Singapore are developing a wireless ad-hoc mesh networking technology that uses mobile handsets to share and carry information including high quality video.

The mesh network will make use of Bluetooth or Wifi and could be used at a large sporting event, conference, or even a crowded city centre during an emergency, to swap information between handsets – even if the mobile phone network was offline.

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Thursday, September 24, 2009

Technology: MAG, A 256 Player Virtual War Game Between Three PMC’s

Monday, September 21, 2009

PMC 2.0: Mobile Phone Applications–Feral Jundi Has Been Mobified!

      You’re probably wondering what I am going on about now? Sorry, bare with me.  It’s called the future, and Feral Jundi has now been formatted for mobile phones.  That means if you have an iPhone or whatever, this blog will fit better and read better on your tiny little screen.  Or at least that is the goal, and I am looking forward to any input from the readership about how to make it better.

   Don’t worry though, and I am not getting rid of the web presence here.  It’s just that mobile phones are increasingly the preferred method for reading this stuff these days, and FJ must evolve.  A lot of the emails I get from folks, are all done through phones, and it is important to go with the flow on this and take advantage of this technology and cultural shift.

    Plus, I want to be that site you pull up while you are waiting at the doctor’s office or bank, and I want it to be very easy for you to do that.  Your time is important to me, and it shouldn’t be wasted trying to navigate through several layers of internet and processing just to get to FJ.  That little bit of free time that you have out there, is the most significant aspect of this discussion, because people are using those little windows of time to do what they do normally at home on a laptop or computer.

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Thursday, August 20, 2009

Afghanistan: ‘Alive in Afghanistan’–Combining Ushahidi and Frontline SMS

Filed under: Afghanistan,PMC 2.0,Technology — Tags: , , , , — Matt @ 2:07 AM

    This is awesome, and I am really glad to see this technology continuing to be used in interesting and new ways.  Tim from Free Range International gave me the heads up, and this is me enthusiastically spreading the word!

    I talked about this stuff before during the last conflict in Gaza and about using SMS for COIN operations (not that this is military related, but it is still good for the war effort and getting the people enthused), and it is always cool to see what others are doing with the various technologies out there.

    So with that said, I give you Alive in Afghanistan.  Just go to the site and navigate through all the interesting reportage coming from the field.  Now remember, this stuff is being sent in by all sorts of folks with phones or who have access to computers.  I am sure the SMS option will be the most popular do to the remoteness of some polling stations. I could be wrong, but that would seem more logical.  And I hope to see many Afghanis voting in this sucker, despite the threats from the Taliban. –Matt

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Alive in Afghanistan

Alive in Afghanistan is an independent, non-partisan project, formed in response to the huge success of Alive in Baghdad and Alive in Gaza and the result of the hard work and collaboration of many partners and individuals. Alive in Afghanistan empowers Afghan citizens to participate in society by reporting on their political process. Alive in Afghanistan is launching in time for the August 20th presidential elections so that people across Afghanistan can report fairly on the elections and related events through SMS, email, and the web.

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Monday, August 17, 2009

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