[Telecentres] ICTs & Disaster Risk Reduction / Protectingcommunities

[Andy Carvin]

And for those who haven't heard the story yet, a former telecentre 
trainee in Singapore contacted his colleagues and family back in 
Nallavadu, India, warning them about the tsunami, allowing them to use 
the telecentre's resources to save the lives of all their fellow villagers.

http://www.hindu.com/2005/01/01/stories/2005010107320100.htm

I think we need to start exploring ways of articulating the vital role 
telecentres can play in public safety and emergency response situations 
like the tsunami: coordinating community response, collecting the latest 
news/info, interaction point with govt officials, etc. No doubt the 
tsunami will be on people's minds during the February Prepcom, and 
stories like this will help us emphasize the need for telecentres and 
how they can go well beyond serving as a place for surfing the Web or 
checking email....

So with the holidays over and the Prepcom only six weeks away, we need 
to start preparing for the meeting:

Who among us will participate in the prepcom?
What messages do we wish to convey to governments participating there?
What goals do we wish to accomplish during the meeting?

I'd be interested in hearing thoughts on these questions.

thanks,
ac

ps- I've set up a news aggregator regarding the tsunami, if anyone is 
interested: http://www.tsunami-info.org

Gáspár Mátyás wrote:
> Look also at: http://www.sustainableicts.org/cardin%20F.pdf 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: telecentres-bounces at wsis-cs.org
> [mailto:telecentres-bounces at wsis-cs.org] On Behalf Of Laurent Straskraba
> Sent: Sunday, January 02, 2005 3:21 PM
> To: telecentres at wsis-cs.org
> Subject: [Telecentres] ICTs & Disaster Risk Reduction / Protecting
> communities
> 
> 
> 
> Dear all,
> 
> I think many people just get aware these days how such disasters as the 
> great wave in the Indian Ocean, tsunamis, earth quakes, deforestation,
> and 
> other forms of environmental impact are affecting people around the
> globe. 
> Now it should be obvious to anyone that we need to help each other if we
> 
> want to help ourselves.
> 
> For further information on disaster management and prevention, I'd like
> to 
> mention the following examples of disaster prevention one could follow
> up:
> 
> - http://www.unosat.org (UN Satellite imagery for all)
> - http://www.ranetproject.net (International protection project against 
> natural hazards for the poor)
> - http://www.crid.or.cr/crid/ing/index_ing.html (Regional Disaster 
> Information Center for Latin America and the Caribbean)
> - http://www.unisdr.org (International Strategy for Disaster Reduction)
> - http://swiki.ucar.edu/dd/ (Disaster Dynamics, also for K-12 education)
> - http://www.esri.com/news/arcuser/1003/umbrella.html (ESRI article on 
> Protecting Communities)
> - http://sciencepolicy.colorado.edu/socasp/toc_img.html (Societal
> Aspects 
> of Weather)
> 
> I'd be very interested to support better public information systems, 
> especially in the Asia-Pacific region.
> 
> Best regards,
> 
> Laurent
> 
> ---
> Mag. Laurent Straskraba
> Information Society Researcher
> 
> International Partnership & Fund Raising Affiliate
> World Summit Award
> http://www.wsis-award.org
> 
> Information Society Representative
> United Nations Youth & Student Association of Austria
> http://www.afa.at
> 
> 
> post: Ontlstrasse 3, A - 4040 Linz, Austria / Europe
> mobile: +43.650.7711861 (GMT +1)
> e-mail: laurent at straskraba.net
> web: http://www.straskraba.net
> ---
> 
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-- 
-----------------------------------
Andy Carvin
Program Director
EDC Center for Media & Community
acarvin @ edc . org
http://www.digitaldivide.net
Blog: http://www.andycarvin.com
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