Slashdot Mirror
New York Red Cross Needs Tech Help
zosa writes: "The New York American Red Cross is in dire need of technology equipment and services. The field workers and sites have little, if any, means of communication and the central office is processing way too much on completely paper systems. Your help in acquiring these resources would be greatly appreciated." You can read more over at this page. Finally something that the average Slashdot reader can do to help.
Sprint PCS is donating Cell phones to the red cross as we speak.
I'm sitting at my desk right now writing a script to activate the phones to the network elements and create the account.
cvg
I wonder what the most effective method of quickly achieving mass connectivity after a disaster like this is.
I'd think you'd want to use as much commodity hardware as possible -- maybe series of 802.11 hubs with integrated satelite uplinks? Definately useful for mass email, downloading instructions, etc....
Frankly, I'm a little shocked that the Army can't set 'em up on this front.
Every year during my review, I just pray the words "slashdot.org" aren't mentioned.
I'm so glad there's something my pasty ass can do besides give money to the Red Cross at Amazon. (Can't give blood. Too much time in England as a carnivore.)
"Enough of this wretched, whining monkey life." -- Marcus Aurelius, _Meditations_, Book 9, 37
E-mail below:
---------------
Thank you for your inquiry to Microsoft.
Microsoft Corporation has announced that it will make a donation of $10 million cash and technical services to support the relief and recovery efforts in the areas devastated by the tragic events of September 11.
The company will make a $5 million cash donation to The September 11 Fund, created by the United Way of New York City and The New York Community Trust. A remaining amount up to $5 million in services, software and volunteers will be made available to organizations serving people in the affected areas who are seeking technology-based solutions.
Microsoft will begin an outreach program to governmental agencies, nonprofit agencies and other community-based organizations to inform these organizations of the availability of technology assistance. Microsoft has already asked NPower New York, a recently created nonprofit technology service provider, to assess and dispatch technology services through their network of local agencies.
The technology assistance could possibly include:
- Providing internet access in temporary shelters,
- Creating a tracking system to assist in relief and recovery efforts,
- Coordinating technical volunteers to set up networks,
Microsoft's intent is to work with the various organizations active in the disaster and recovery response that may be ready to deploy a technology solution though an assessment of the technology needs must be made first.
For more information, please visit our website at
www.microsoft.com/giving.
Sincerely,
Microsoft Community Affairs
Where is the amateur radio community in this? I know that many ham radio operators practice emergency communications simulations just for situations like this, and I'd guess that there are quite a few ham radio ops in NYC.
Yet another reason why the FCC shouldn't auction off the amateur radio spectrum to corporations for a little bit of extra $$.
--
"Open source is good." - Steve Jobs
"Open source is evil." - Microsoft
Note: If you do help...
Leave advocacy for later!
Do not push Linux. If people can't use it, it won't help right now.
There probably won't be 802.11b links. This will probably networking Pentium class machines so people can do data entry. They will almost certainly run Windows.
This is good, because this will make sense to the people who can directly help. If you go there, be prepared to deal with these systems and don't bitch about it.
Not to mention, you'll give Linux a bad name if you still push it in this time of crisis.
-Dan
Actually, being the technical director of ad ops for a dot-com I feel obligated to go OT for a sec: we've been getting mercilessly flamed for sending out an email ad campaign the morning of the tragedy. People don't realise that these things are booked in advance, frequently happen overnight, and aren't easy to shut off (especially when the company hosting our email delivery servers was in NY and was understandably unresponsive). The same goes for ads on a website - we're all running around taking care of business (and reading slashdot as a brief escape) and something like a rich media ad on the site can be easily over-looked. I mean, my company is having to take care of things like adding tons of news content, taking down the British Airways campaign that just went live, putting up Red Cross ads, etc, etc. Cut them some slack. TechTV is located in SF but as they were a client I can tell you for a fact that a lot of their employees are New Yorkers - the ad is probably low on their thoughts right now.
ABC News just reported that contrary to earlier reports, rescue workers do need "small" things like gloves, work boots, Neosporin, flashlights, rain ponchos (rain is coming to the area), oxygen tanks, Kleenex, Band-Aids. If you are in the area, maybe you can point people to the proper places to help (and verify this info).
MS gave $10 million, as posted up above, 12 minutes before your post (you must've missed it since you surely read the thread before posting).
To be sure, Gates and the rest of the wealthy will be donating money. I know of several prominent families who have already pledged multi-million dollar contributions. Most do it anonymously. No one likes a glory hound.
I just called the Red Cross here in MA. They requested that we give blood in about thirty days. Their fear is that once the crisis here has calmed, people will not replenish the much needed supply. Apparently our red stuff has a shelf life of forty-two days.
Do your best to donate anything you can afford. The salvation army is looking for new clothing and medical supplies for the rescue workers.
-Donald
In the meantime, my company would LOVE to put some stuff together. We've already started helping a bit. rational software is putting together a van full of equipment and people to deliver. Please contact Ali Kaufman to see if you can help at all.
If you know of anyone else who can use computers or equipment in the NYC area in relation to this disaster, please tell her or me, dave, and we'll try to coordinate!! It's better than just sending a bunch a stuff and people down and saying, "TAKE IT!"
Dave
I think this is rather sad also, but not because of Microsoft. After all, Microsoft is donating money and technical support, which is sorely needed. They should be commended for it, even in this forum.
What I think is sad is that the Red Cross thinks that they NEED software licenses to be donated. As the previous poster so eloquently put it, nobody would be upset, under the circumstances, if they just got ONE copy of Office and put it on all their laptops. But they think they need 50. Sad.
The last thing anyone needs is a stupid religious type scuffle when stuff just needs to be done. If Linux is the tool you need, use it. If Windows/Mac/BSD/whatever is what will do the job best - use it. Don't think - just do.
:-P
(Aside - isn't a stupid religious battle at the root of this evil?)
The Red Cross needs technical smarts on the ground right now - you're not in a board room, not in a data center. If you volunteer, just do the job and move on to the next. Concentrate on the users - now is not the time for training, so use what they're used to, or as close as possible to it. Heck, you may even learn something about other systems by deploying them.
I just wish I could get on a plane right now.
Soko
"Depression is merely anger without enthusiasm." - Anonymous
I live in the Maritimes of Canada, and work for the local telco here (Aliant Telecom). We do all the telecom for the Maritimes. Upon recieving some 25 or 30 Airliners originally intended for NY, our company donated literally hundreds of cell phones with unlimted airtime and long distance in all our relief centres. They also installed some 140 landlines with 0-area code long distance and installed some 20 or so DSL internet access sites so the people could get in touch with relatives. The company is saying they are experiencing traffic volumes over 2.5 times the amount they see on Monther's day (the busiest day of the year).
The average Slashdot reader can't bleed into a syringe? Can't donate to Red Cross? Hmmmm
INSIGHTFUL My Arse! I'm deeply offended by this comment. I would imagine that I am a fairly average Slashdot reader, and I can't "bleed into a syringe." I'm not allowed to. There are several categories of people that the US just doesn't want blood from. In my case I just happen to have lived in the UK for more than six months.
Please don't claim that giving blood is something that everyone can do. I'm not obese, I'm not underweight, I'm healthy... but I'm a Brit in the US.
Z.
-- Under/Overrated is meta-moderation, and therefore is Redundant.
Although I hate to get into partisan nonsense at a time like this, I feel it's important to note that half of the items on the request list appear to be licenses for expensive, proprietary software. Considering that MS made $7 billion in profit last fiscal year, I'd say $10 million is the least they could do. And there should be none of this having to ask for licenses-- that's ridiculous (and wouldn't be the case if the Red Cross was using Red Hat or most any other Linux, now would it?).
As for Sun, they had offices in the WTC and at least one executive on the plane that went into the building, so please have a little respect. Sun have bigger problems than how much they are donating to rescue efforts.
As for VA and RH? I dunno. Maybe just as soon as they have a monopoly on overpriced software and turn a profit, we can expect those companies to donate headline sums as well. In the meantime, consider that Slashdot provided news to a lot of people during this past week and a forum to discuss the events. Slashdot is a free service provided by VA at considerable expense in terms of hardware and bandwidth.
If you want to act three flavors of righteous, first do something yourself, and then take quiet pride in being a good person instead of bitching about what others haven't done. Sheesh.
I do not have a signature
What I'm a little concerned about is who is collecting all those loose financial documents blown out of those offices and possibly harvesting info they have no business having.
I see even classic Slashdot is now pretty much unusable on dial up anymore.
Love to see MS try to sue the Red-Cross in their time of need.
Pull your head out man. You say that you would "love" to see MS sue the Red Cross? So they'd get egg all over their faces, right?
At a time of national disaster, maybe you should stop worrying about petty shit like this. Of course MS won't mess with the Red Cross over this, and they've given a ton of aid money and resources out of compassion. Guess what - the people who work at MS aren't actually inhuman monsters, but people like you and me. You should be ashamed at taking this opportunity to mock them.
Invisible Agent
This post is a mirror; when a monkey stares in, no hacker gazes out.
I've been very impressed lately with the frequency and size of donations from businesses/corporations:
Microsoft donated [www.microsoft.com] $5M in cash to United Way in NY, $5M in licenses/support/tech help.
Sprint has donated [www.sprint.com] handsets and redirected a cell from NJ to NYPD. They've also provided phones for city, state and local government officials and to the American Red Cross for use in recovery efforts.
GE has pledged $10 million to a fund that will assist the families of the firefighters, police officers and emergency rescue personnel who perished while responding to the attack on the World Trade Center. [from www.ge.com]
AT&T has donated [www.att.com] $1M to American Red Cross and $10M in prepaid calling cards.
Verizon has offered [newscenter.verizon.com] free local calling to and from payphones on Manhattan streets.
I'm sure there are many more. As I look at Amazon's donation center, it looks like it's going up at about $4000/min.
This makes me proud to be an American.
... that's all i wrote...
Not entirely on topic, but I just heard a brief report on ABC that already there are already spammers soliciting bogus donations for WTC relief. Pretty bloody disgusting...anyone who would stoop so low is in serious need of a buckshot enema.
You're using her as bait, Master!
Will armed officers be put on flights?
Yes, FAA Federal Air Marshals who are armed and trained in the use of firearms on board aircraft will be flying anonymously. Federal Air Marshals are FAA civil aviation security specialists who are specially trained for deployment on anti-hijacking missions. The FAA will not reveal the number or identities of the marshals. The DOT is working with the Department of Defense to see if other highly trained agents may be deployed to augment the Federal Air Marshal force.
As seen on the FAA's website http://www.faa.gov/apa/faq/pr_faq.htm
Considering that M$ will easily make back that $5M in software replacement sales I think they should get the Cheap Bastard Award. This makes me ill.
I simply can not STAND people who judge other charity givers. I personally make a large income for my age, and whenever I give people ALWAYS comment, "Well, that's not much for him". How dare you even have a thought of critisism against a donor. How much have YOU given? Why don't you get a part time job (on top of your full time job) so that you can donate more money. You're not doing enough. Why did you upgrade your computer? You could've donated that money. What, you bought an MP3 player while people go hungry?
What makes ME ill is your arogant attitude. You feel that you have some God given intelect that allows you to determine how much is the "right amount" for an organisation to give to the "right cause".
There is no longer anything that can be done with computers that is nontrivial and clearly legal. -- Paul Phillips