This assignment involves a tragedy and a potential silver lining. The devastation from disasters in Haiti and New Orleans needs no elaboration here; you all saw the pictures. What is interesting is a piece of the technological aftermath—the use of wireless networks. Here are stories describing the situation:
http://www.internetevolution.com/author.asp?section_id=526&doc_id=187568
http://www.smartbridges.com/company/news-and-updates/59-press-release-sb-and-itu-for-haiti
http://www.cisco.com/web/about/doing_business/business_continuity/Paper_124_MSW_USltr_format.pdf
http://www.ibm.com/ibm100/us/en/icons/relief/
http://www.cs.tamu.edu/academics/tr/2011-9-2.pdf
Frank Hayes. Big Easy Wi-Fi. COMPUTERWORLD DECEMBER 05, 2005 (This is a seminal source that is extremely relevant today) http://www.computerworld.com/governmenttopics/government/itgovernment/story/0,10801,106743,00.html?SKC=networking-106743
Nguyen, A. (2011). London undergroun to roll out Wi-Fi at 120 tube stations. ComputerWorld. http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9215337/London_Underground_to_roll_out_Wi_Fi_at_120_tube_stations
Marguerite Reardon. New Orleans to offer free Wi-Fi. ZDNet News: May 15, 2010
And here is a thread from Slashdot, the tabloid web site for the high-tech community, debating some aspects of this situation
New Orleans to Deploy Free Wi-Fi City Wide. Slashdot. http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/11/29/1833202&from=rss
and USAToday http://www.usatoday.com/tech/products/services/2006-03-28-new-orleans-wifi_x.htm
The background information contains a large number of references to deployment of wireless technologies and to their availability in a wide variety of settings, both corporate and urban. You are strongly encouraged also to do further research using search tools in this area, since this is a breaking story, and by the time you get around to doing this module, odds are that the situation will have changed again; you don’t want to look silly by presenting information that is now been rendered obsolete by breaking events. The underlying issues of course remain salient. (Note: Katrina and the Haiti earthquakes are no longer “breaking stories”)
When you have reviewed these materials and done your own research (please be sure to use appropriate citations for any material that you collect on their own), please write a paper addressing the question:
Deploying a Wi-Fi hook-ups in disaster relief – what are the considerations?
In preparing your answer, you might want to consider the following questions:
How complicated is it to deploy this technology?
Who will pay the costs and who will obtain the benefits?
Where is this technology going in the long run?
