I participated in some great discussions - one on one and in groups - on the issue of trust in humanitarian aid. Trust was seen not just as a artefact of the information ecosystem, but also as a perception amongst those the systems is introduced to. Trust was seen in many different ways - as a protocol and point to point security measure by system designers, as a mutable construct by practitioners and as a complex, dynamic set of social rules coded into humanitarian systems by others. I've explored some of the issues that came out of these discussions in two blog posts. Is technology neutral?

Back in Sri Lanka after Strong Angel III and thought of writing some observations I had on the exercise. See Strong Angel III - Final observations for the full post. Sanjana Hattotuwa

08/25/06 - Friday
Sortie Plan
2508 – Point Loma, Data Collection – 2508
Sortie Lead - Myles Sutherland, ESRI, Tom Patterson, ESRI

The Plan– Visit a variety of sites in the Point Loma area. Make local contacts and collect simulated patient data on a variety of GPS enabled handheld devices such as; PDA, Cell phone, laptops. Transmit data to a data center via the Internet using various communication channels including – 1) Cellular Data Network, 2) Wi-Fi using the EVDO/Wi-Fi Bridge.

Data Flow using the EVDO/Wi-Fi Bridge

GPS enabled handheld w/ Wi-Fi >> Entree Wireless battery powered EVDO/Wi-Fi gateway>> Verizon EVDO Data Service >> Internet >> ESRI data center >> Internet >> ESRI Strong Angel Common Operating Picture >> Virtual Agility Strong Angel III Situational Awareness

Met with Tod Williams, director of technology, Loma Linda University Medical Center and talked about ways to extend the reach of their MTV (METERV) Communications and Command Vehicle. Designed to respond to emergency and disaster situations, the MTV brings the expertise of a critical care center to patients that may be cut off from access to any hospital or medical care.

Tod has been testing a new mobile video head set that broadcasts audio and video over Wi-Fi.

The plan was to utilize the Entree Wireless Mobile Wi-Fi Gateway to extend the reach of the MTV by having Tod and team venture down the beach interviewing patients.

One of the most powerful visual memories of SA III I have is seeing the Second Life sim designed for SA III demonstrated live on site. I've blogged about this and the serious uses of the Second Life platform here.

Didn't know quite where else to post this, but here's an interview that I did with Internews who are part of SA III -

More SA III posts here - http://ict4peace.wordpress.com/

Sanjana Hattotuwa

We're part of an experiment called Strong Angel III, the third in a series of collaborations among many different organizations -- government, nonprofit, corporate and citizen-based -- to improve responses to disasters. You can learn more at the Strong Angel website:

http://www.strongangel3.net

and we hope you'll take a look.

This "Flash Mob" was designed to see whether we could mobilize people like all of us, in a disaster, to help each other get food.

We're not sure how you got the word. But we told people, via many different methods of communication, that we hoped they might bring food in a can, bottle or bag to a location in downtown San Diego or near "the Pyramid" on Thursday at noon. For exact instructions about the time and location, we asked them to text the word "soup" to a short message number -- 35842 -- by 11 a.m. today.

08/23 1900 Wednesday

The Good News- A Work Ticket as been submitted for my Gateway Port assignemennt.

The Bad News. - It is late and I am going home.

Tomorrow will be the day - Keep Smiling

0823 0930 – Wednesday

Met with Linda Branagan, Director of Research, MedWeb, to talk about the day’s scenario.

MedWeb is the industry standard for distributed telemedicine solutions and the delivery of Web-enabled, secure Tele-radiology and Picture Archiving and Communication Systems (PACS).

They have developed a medical response vehicle with a fully equipped mobile communication center that supports a variety of communication networks including satellite, 3G EVDO data and Wi-Fi.

Today MedWeb is planning a sortie to the mission beach lifeguard station to investigate reports of a number of people with flu like symptoms and identify potential patients that are part of the Asian Flu Pandemic.

08/22 0800 - Tuesday
ICS/NIMS training and certification - Better than a wireless network any day
Morning briefing

Wireless network still down

Decided to take the ICS/NIMS training class. Lee Sapaden, Instructor

Very good highly recommended

More to come - keep smiling