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Skype Journal: Katrina refugee telecom problems you can solve now

September 2, 2005 02:20 AM

Houston Astrodome's refugee city will be online in the next few hours. There are several telephony needs to meet.

Needed Now:

  1. Letting refugees call support services and family. This could be as simple as a bank of VoIP phone booths.
  2. Letting refugees receive calls in the stadium. More complicated, but doable.
Longer term.
  1. Pager or mobile phone service at the stadium. As services are committed, families found, you must be able to locate individuals among the thousands.
  2. Following refugees as they are relocated from the stadium. People in diaspora move across area codes and need numbers that follow the person, not the place. No roaming charges, please.
  3. Supporting volunteers and staff working in the disaster zones and in refugee service. You want to make them productive. And you want them to stay motivated; many will be away from home for long periods. Free connectivity, telephony, videophony, conferencing, etc.
Deeper needs.
  1. Forwarding calls made to sector phone numbers. Redirect calls to washed out home phones to new mobile or voip accounts. This provides business and home continuity amid a diaspora that has torn about homes, workplaces, schools. Crucial for personal and regional economic recovery.


TrackBack (1)

» KatrinaHelp Developments from Conversations with Dina
The KatrinaHelp team is really doing some good work on building a resource for news, aid and relief for those affected by Hurricane Katrina. [Read More]

Tracked on September 2, 2005 11:45 AM


Comments (2)

Here's how we can restore connections between loved one who are separated.

1. Set up computers with Skype at each refugee location with wifi. Log each refugee into Skype with a common code in profile (e.g. "Katme").

2. Master lists can easily be generated from searchs and transferred between locations to administrators for facilitating connections based on name, birthday, address, etc.

3. Refugees or administrators can then begin to communicate with voice or IM. For Free!

Posted by: Rick at September 2, 2005 6:19 AM

Posted by: Gabe Morris at September 2, 2005 7:52 AM