[121447] in North American Network Operators' Group
Re: Katrina response, private and public
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Bill Woodcock)
Tue Jan 19 15:35:37 2010
From: Bill Woodcock <woody@pch.net>
In-Reply-To: <67FF8F18-1EFE-418E-82B2-AD1FA652DB46@centergate.com>
Date: Tue, 19 Jan 2010 12:34:32 -0800
To: nanog <nanog@nanog.org>
Errors-To: nanog-bounces+nanog.discuss=bloom-picayune.mit.edu@nanog.org
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On Jan 19, 2010, at 11:27 AM, Rodney Joffe wrote:
> Is there anything that any of us can do to help, exert influence, etc =
(short of donating which many of us are already doing).
I'm sure other people involved in the relief work can suggest other =
things, but a few comments from my point of view:
- Communications capability underpins the ability of other relief =
workers to do their jobs effectively, so although we, as a community, =
aren't feeding people or tending to their medical needs, we are helping =
those who are doing those crucial jobs by allowing them to focus on =
their work.
- In the short-term, the equipment that's been requested by people on =
the ground has either already been delivered, is onboard a ship that =
left Jacksonville about twelve hours ago, or is being containerized to =
load on a ship that's leaving from Port Everglades tomorrow.
- Also in the short-term, keep an eye out for con-artists who are =
trying to lure people in to fake aid-donation web sites with spam. Law =
enforcement is coordinating internationally to take those offline as =
promptly as possible. If you get fake aid-donation spam, please forward =
it to Tom Grasso <thomas.x.grasso@ugov.gov> or Randy Vickers =
<randal.vickers@dhs.gov>. Either of them or I can pass things along to =
the international coordination group that's addressing this.
- In the mid-term, what our community needs to do is to make sure that =
backhaul infrastructure gets into place to move traffic in the =
1Gbps-10Gbps range from Port au Prince to Miami. There are several =
cable systems which land in Santo Domingo, and Columbus has a branching =
unit off Guantanamo, so our main efforts have been focused on getting a =
festoon cable run around from the Santo Domingo landing (the University =
of Puerto Rico Marine Research labs have committed their cable-laying =
ship, crew, and divers, but we're still looking for an appropriate spool =
of armored singlemode in the 12-24 core range (more certainly wouldn't =
hurt, as this would be unrepeatered), and on finding funding to get =
Columbus to run the spur in from their BU. BTC apparently has fiber =
already existing or in process of turn-up between Port au Prince and the =
Bahamas, but nobody's been able to get a response from them yet about =
its status.
- More generally, as a community, we do good when we make sure that =
places like this, places that may not have large or lucrative markets, =
are still served by diverse fiber, rather than by a single fragile =
monopoly, or not at all, as in Haiti's case. There are many countries =
as vulnerable as Haiti, and many of them have no fiber. Most =
humanitarian disasters happen in poor countries and these are generally =
the countries our community currently has the least capacity to serve. =
We can think a little more broadly than that, looking to a future when =
people in poor countries have more smartphones, and students and small =
businesses are getting online. We don't need to wait for markets to =
develop... we can invest in those markets, and _cause_ them to develop. =
Then they won't be as vulnerable to disasters like this.
- Thinking to the longer term... The majority of people who die in =
humanitarian disasters die of second-order effects like starvation and =
disease that come in the wake of an earthquake or flood or whatever. =
That's just beginning now in Haiti, and will continue for some time. =
The people who died in the earthquake itself will be far outnumbered by =
those who will die as a result of insufficiently prepared emergency =
response. PCH and Cisco have been trying for _years_ to get donors to =
support a ready-to-go emergency communications team for disaster =
response, but it's been impossible to get donors to fund _preparedness_ =
rather than after-the-fact response. But immediately after an emergency =
is the _most expensive_ time to acquire generators and fuel and solar =
panels and wind generators and batteries and satphones and fiber and =
space-segments and so forth. All of that can be _much more cheaply_ =
purchased or contracted for beforehand, and delivered on-site weeks =
earlier. And those weeks are the weeks of effective response that =
reduce second-order deaths in the wake of an emergency. People who =
think they're being helpful with a donation now should understand that =
the donation would have saved ten times as many lives if it had been =
made a year ago, than if it's made now. If your companies have =
charitable foundations, please get them to think about that.
-Bill
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