[Freedombox-discuss] Surviving during natural disasters - Would having a freedom box help?

[Peter Fergusson]

Hi,
I was in Christchurch's (New Zealand) CBD during the the recent earthquake.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Christchurch_earthquake) Fortunately my
family and I and our homes are safe. Many were not so lucky.

It got me thinking, when the power goes out so does the Internet and it
stays down (at least of you) until the power comes back. Even if the network
is up if your equipment (eq wifi router, computer) has no power its still
down for you. An IP network can be used for many methods of communication,
web, email, IM, VOIP etc.

A collection of solar powered WIfFi freedom boxes forming a mesh network out
of the effected area would have many advantages.

   1. If already in place the Internet stays up as long as you have power
   for you WiFi device(laptop/phone/game device). Which allows family and
   friend to find each other while staying off the overcrowded mobile phone
   networks.
   2. If not already in place allows the Internet to be reestablished by
   bringing freedom boxes into an area long (days-weeks) before the power could
   be back up. Reestablishing communication networks is often very high for the
   civil defense agencies (eg FEMA-Federal Emergency Management Agency in the
   USA).
   3. Having a working communications network makes everyone's life better
   during a disaster, help can arrive faster and be better managed.
   4. Once you have a network, possibly high speed, many things are
   possible. Just like the real Internet.
   5. Many others that I did not think of.

I am asking that you take this into account when designing the
software/requirments to allow for using the freedom box this way.

It would be the ultimate in Internet freedom. No isp , no power, no problem
- freedom box.

It would be useful in other circumstances too, in repressive countries there
would not be the liability of having it connected to someones power or
Internet.

Peter
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.alioth.debian.org/pipermail/freedombox-discuss/attachments/20110228/902d3534/attachment.htm>