Sad day

Have just heard that Malcolm Laws passed away last Wednesday. He will be sorely missed by many, many people in the broadband and communications world.

I met him in November 2002 at the first BSG conference when I was given an opportunity to speak to 400 delegates (or so). I was terrified. And writing the speech in the half hour or so before my 'slot' wasn't necessarily a bright move! Malcolm was the facilitator of my session and was hugely supportive of me personally that day, and has been since.

He believed in ABC and the need for it, and was enthusiastic about making it happen. Without him, I suspect that much that ABC has achieved would not have been possible. He opened many doors, and was a catalyst for the actions that led to ABC actually becoming 'real'. Interaxion was a fantastic magazine that had huge potential and Simoli was doing well too when Malcolm had to take a back seat because of illness.

We were all privileged to know him, and my deepest sympathies go to his young family.

New orleans, on the fly WISPS etc

The last post I made was about a flood in Lancashire, Northern England and I'd found a book which highlighted the implementation of landlines and wireless in a crisis situation in the 60's. It surprised me, if you remember (if you don't, read the alst post).

I could have had no idea that the next thing that forced me to post would be a similar crisis, in the noughties, in the US, in a big city. The similarities are alarming. The stories I am hearing from over there in the last few days show that we have learnt BUGGER ALL scuse my French.

If we fail to learn from history, we will continue to face each crisis as a novelty, without the experience to overcome certain hurdles and approach new ones. We are taking x+3 steps back for x forwards. The fact that bodies are still lying in the streets today, almost 14 days after Katrina hit, is horrific. But the fact that no-one has managed to:

1) Set up a wireless network within any of the refugee centres and dish out simple radios to allow communication to the refugees from the aid agencies, FEMA etc even though the FCC AFAIK granted instant emergency licenses
a) FEMA refused to allow into the Super Bowl in New Orleans many of the fully trained and qualified wireless engineers due to lack of "the appropriate papers"
2) set up Skype or similar voice mail boxes on every single mobile number for the stricken states

leaves you wondering about the last remaining global super power's capabilities. Especailly after all they achieved in Aceh, Sri Lanka etc within days and weeks of the tsunami. $51 bn needed in aid for the US? Ho HUM. Your popularity rating in the US was at an all-time low, in case you hadn't noticed. At a guess, it's just plummeted. It has in this house and village anyway. Sympathy is only available for real people, not the senators, etc nor the fact you keep voting them in, or letting them con their way in to 'celebrity government lifestyles' at your expense.

I am not taking credit for the wireless stuff. This came from our CEO, Brian Condon, of Access to Broadband Campaign when I phoned him at Big Hook in Boston yesterday, and he may have overheard it elsewhere, (it's quite likely he came up with it on his own) but c'mon. This is easy stuff. However poor, most of the people stricken by the floods had a mobile, yeah? Then grab the database, stick a Skype voice mailbox on the end of every number and let people search for their friends and family, leave messages etc. It would be so fecking easy to do and cost bugger all to allow people to at least leave a voice mail msg, "We are in Baton Rouge but missing Uncle X. Please leave a msg so we know where you are". "John, I'm calling your number so you knwo we are OK, ring us on 555-etc".

In a world of global communication, the fact that there is still no database of the missing or dead, no internet access for many of the survivors, none of the basic telco stuff that we all take for granted is being used/adapted etc. God, I am so pissed off with the authorities. Because when I see them failing abysmally, I read about community networkers (CANdoers) who have set off out with a few access points and antennas and set up networks that can cope with the crisis comms that this crisis needs.

You want $51 billion Bush to recover from this 'disaster'? Well, give some of it to the telecommunications experts who could have had you in touch with the ground the day you flew low over NO and ever since, if you just realised what they CANdo.