[Air-l] Fwd: CNT's wifi project & Katrina

[Steve Jones]

> The Center for Neighborhood Technology’s (CNT) Wireless Community 
> Network
> project (http://wcn.cnt.org) has responded to the call for technical
> expertise in establishing communication infrastructure for first
> responders and evacuees in the Gulf Coast area following the 
> devastation
> of Hurricane Katrina. There is a “desperate need” to re-connect people
> with basic resources which communication systems help facilitate. An
> initial team of CNT network engineers is on its way to Louisiana as a
> component of  Part-15.org (http://www.part-15.org/), an operation of 
> the
> Federal Communication Commission (FCC) to provide the necessary 
> broadband
> and phone services to people with no or limited access to their 
> families
> and friends, emergency services, and government authorities. CNT’s
> Community Wireless Team will help deploy wireless networks, that will
> allow evacuees and first responders to email, make phone calls, post
> pictures of missing people, request services, and report conditions in
> evacuee camps that are popping up across the region, among other 
> important
> tasks.  The networks will be similar to those being deployed in 
> Illinois
> as part of CNT’s Wireless Community Network project.
>
> One of the people down there -- Paul Smith, the Technology Director of 
> the
> WCN project is bloging at wcn.cnt.org/news/