I've been working with the The South East Asia Earthquake and Tsunami Blog (SEA EAT) volunteers (well, I'm a volunteer too), and there's an idea I started discussing a few days ago that, sadly, has been unable to progress. I think it's a good idea, and can fill a void.
The premise is that this particular disaster is spread over such a wide geo-political area. While agencies such as the Red Cross and other similar agencies have their own communications network which is robust and time tested, the geographic distribution of the people trying to help makes coordination of communication overwhelming.
It's difficult for people to know what has been said to whom, and who knows what. Weblogs, in such a case, help only the people who can view them. The same with RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds. The general idea is here, if you can get to it.
The idea is simple. Consider one of the people in the field, Morquendi (weblog here) has been reliant on SMS for everything. But with SMS as he is using it, only ONE person receives it. And in an emergency situation, his information can be quickly lost. He is posting some of his SMS messages, but who is going to check his weblog while they are in the field?
The answer is that the volunteer group needs to coordinate communication. SMS is available to all of them, it seems, so SMS it is. And it's possible to have SMS be forwarded to an email list - I am certain - and I am also certain that SMS can be broadcast to selected mobile phones as well. This will probably require a GSM modem.
By sending SMS broadcast messages to an email list as well as selected individuals on the ground, everyone is aware of what is going on in a large geographic area and can help utilize finite resources best. This is something that myself and others within the Caribbean tried to make public (or more public) with ICT Infrastructure Robustness.
The beauty of this is that it fits with HAM Radio operators as well, who can also coordinate utilizing this same network as well as their own.
This could be in place now, if only this information could get to the right people - or used by the right people. It's unlikely that larger agencies will open their networks to the volunteers, but it is quite likely that they would be willing to monitor an email list, or even receive SMS messages.
This, in turn, means the voluntary effort could coordinate better with the more official efforts. Personally, I think this is important since we are not people who are defined by labels such as 'bloggers', and our solutions should not be defined by these labels either. We can do more, and can do it better.
The technical 'How' should be rather simple, though I am not an expert when it comes to SMS. The 'Who' is the real problem, and the 'Why' should be apparent. The 'When' should probably be 5 days ago.
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