Weaver
Introduction: A primary objective of RANET is to share experiences across regions and countries on how to develop dissemination networks that reach rural and remote communities. RANET began many years ago a newsletter called Weaver, designed to provide basic technical tips and share stories. We called the series Weaver, as it is descriptive of the task facing many technicians, engineers, and project managers. Namely, various technologies and experiences have to be sewn together to develop a functioning system.
The series is revised here. Some entries are technical discussions specific to RANET systems. Other are technical how-to's, which frankly could be found anywhere on the web, but we attempt to cater these to the unique circumstances of a national weather service and community organizer in rural and developing parts of the world. Finally, we hope that our project managers and partners share experiences of the non-technical sort on how to best work with communities, manage a project, and similar subjects. To send comments or suggest/request an article, please e-mail weaver 'at' ranetcommons.net.
The Emergency Managers Weather Information Network (EMWIN) is an operational system of the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) National Weather Service (NWS). Using NOAA GOES meteorological satellites as its primary means of dissemination, the EMWIN program provides a stream of timely and critical information to emergency managers and others in
Following major disasters, such as the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, as well as the recent earthquake in Haiti, the use of mobile for public alert and notification is often discussed. Inevitably, during the early post-disaster phases, there are calls to immediately establish mobile text messaging (SMS) capacity to send out warnings and updates to the public. Often these suggestions come from NGOs, aid workers, and even the public who work outside of the meteorological community and other warning authorities.
Mozambique is very vulnerable to natural disasters, mainly those of hydro-meteorological genesis, such as tropical cyclone, floods and droughts.
One of the limitations of mobile text messaging, when used for public dissemination of information, is its inability to easily authenticate the sender of the message. By this I mean it is possible for someone to spoof a mobile number and message, such that to the recipient the faked message appears to originate from your organization. It is important to address authentication issues to prevent falsified information being distributed by a third party, as well as to maintain the 'authoritative voice' / public trust of a forecast office or watch provider. Quite often mobile s
Recently I was approached by a few individuals who were all considering using FrontlineSMS in their projects. The common question they asked is if FLSMS will run as a Windows service. Any time you want an application to run in the background or when no user is actively logged into the computer, then the software needs to be set up as a service.
The following links to a discussion piece contributed to kiwanja.net. The article discusses issues related to scaling ICT projects, with a look towards FrontlineSMS as an example solution to sustain growth while remaining locally relevant.
http://www.kiwanja.net/blog/2009/09/scale-frontlinesms-and-the-local/
Often when we plan a communications project, long-term sustainability is a primary consideration when selecting the communication platform or tool. Such planning examines durability of equipment, reliability of the network or broadcast system, recurring costs in service and maintenance, expected end-of-life of the system, and similar such factors. Generally the assumption in all this planning is that any system deployed will continue to grow (upscale) or at the very least remain at an initially deployed
In this contribution to Weaver, I provide a basic overview of the different methods and tools available to integrate mobile text messaging (SMS) with automated systems. Or more specifically, I will discuss the options available to allow SMSs to be sent from and received by existing server systems or other 'machine' processes. By 'machine' I mean a server (computer) that automatically sends messages to a human recipient, a server that automatically processes SMSs received from another mobile device, or even applications where two machines exchange information
Neste suplemento (Secção III) ao guia de instruções Weaver sobre o FrontlineSMS, apresentamos a utilização de “Keywords” (Palavras-Chave) para recolha de dados e outras tarefas automatizadas. Apresentarei diversos exemplos hipotéticos que são relevantes para a comunidade hidrometeorológica, mas existem muitíssimas possibilidades. Se ainda não estiver familiarizado com a instalação ou funcionamento de base do FrontlineSMS, por favor leia a Secção I e a Secç&
Na Secção I desta sub-série Weaver, apresentei o FrontlineSMS, forneci algumas informações e conselhos sobre como utilizar esta aplicação de software e, finalmente expliquei a instalação básica. Esta secção, Secção II, incidirá mais detalhadamente em como enviar e receber mensagens, como gerir os contactos e sobre a configuração básica do FrontlineSMS. A Secção III examinará como utilizar a funcionalidade mais avançada de &ldqu
Com os seus mais de 2,2 mil milhões de utilizadores, os telemóveis (telefones portáteis ou celulares) representam uma das tecnologias de comunicação com crescimento mais rápido a nível mundial. Especialmente nos contextos de países em vias de desenvolvimento, as redes móveis expandiram-se para zonas rurais onde ou não existem outros meios de comunicações, ou são demasiado caros ou não são fiáveis. Enquanto os serviços avançados de transferência de d
Dans ce supplément (Section III) au guide Weaver sur FrontlineSMS, nous étudions l’utilisation de mots-clés (Keywords) pour aider à la collecte de données et autres tâches automatisées. Je vais utiliser plusieurs exemples hypothétiques qui ont trait au secteur de l'hydrométéorologie, mais les applications pratiques sont innombrables.
Dans la 1ère section de cette sous-série Weaver, j’ai présenté FrontlineSMS, j’ai offert des informations sur comment utiliser ce programme et j’ai expliqué comment l’installer. Cette 2e section étudie plus en détail comment envoyer et recevoir des messages, comment gérer les contacts et comment paramétrer simplement FrontlineSMS. Dans la 3e section, nous verrons plus en détail les fonctionnalités avancées des mots-clés de FrontlineSMS.
Avec ses quelques 2,2 milliards d’utilisateurs, la téléphonie mobile représente l’une des technologies de communication qui connaît en ce moment une des croissances les plus rapides dans le monde entier. En particulier dans les pays en voie de développement, les réseaux mobiles sont déployés dans des zones rurales où les autres moyens de communication n'existent pas, se révèlent hors de prix ou ne sont pas fiables.
In this addition (Part III) to the Weaver tutorial on FrontlineSMS, we look at the use of Keywords for collection of data and other automated tasks. I will provide several hypothetical examples relevant to the hydro-meteorological community, but there are many, many possibilities. If you are not yet familiar with basic setup and operation of FrontlineSMS, please read Part I and Part II.
