Syndicate: [RRE] Kosovar epost offices

[Andreas Broeckmann <abroeck@v2.nl>]

[looks like a high-end version of the BBs that was suggested in Budapest is
already in the works ...; -a]


Date: Wed, 28 Apr 1999 13:33:03 +0000
From: John West <john@outtherenews.com>
Subject: Kosovar epost offices

---------------------

Tecchies for the Kosovo appeal!

Can your company contribute technology in kind which will create a
virtual community of a million Kosovo Albanians constantly connected
to each other wherever they are - for less than a dollar per person
per year?

Out There News has developed in conjunction with local NGOs in
Macedonia and Albania a searchable database on the Web, which lists
over 60,000 Albanian refugees (www.refugjat.org). We're now working
with the International Red Cross to fold that into their own tracing
systems.

The next step is to build a system where every refugee family in every
hilly refugee camp in Albania and Macedonia can find their friends and
family and STAY connected to them. This is where we need your help.

We're planning a system of 40 email post offices throughout the
Balkans, where staff use laptops and a system of batch processing of
offline messages to communicate within the region. The system will be
mirrored on a website, allowing Albanians in the diaspora in Europe
and North America to know where their loved ones are - and send them
money. The closed system integrates seamlessly with Web technologies,
so that we create an infrastructure the refugees will be able to
access painlessly whatever happens, for good or bad: whether they are
moved out of the region to third countries, or have to flee again
within Albania to avoid a new battlefront - or hopefully go back home
to Kosovo and are given the means to access the Net directly from
there. At registration, right now in the refugee camps, every refugee
family will be given a unique, coordinated email address and a home
page - their own property and platform in cyberspace, which noone can
ever take away from them.

Your hi-tech contribution in kind could slash the cash price of this
for funders and the Red Cross to drop to less than a dollar per person
per year.

Following is a specific wish list to build the system just
outlined. If you can help, please email refugjat@outtherenews.com or
contact me, John West, in London on +44 468 126 956.


For the field:

 - 60 palm tops for initial registration.
 - 60 durable laptops for epost office system maintenance.
 - 40 satellite phone units with data transfer - we are planning for
   2400 baud immediately, more would be better (for Albania).
   Unlimited free usage would be good, limited quota would be workable.
 - 20 GSM mobile phones with data cards (for Macedonia). Unlimited
   free usage would be good, limited quota would be workable.
 - 60 highly portable printers
 - A closed server-client network to handle strongly encrypted
   upload/download between center and individual email post offices.
 - 30 ID barcode card registration systems
 - Software to automate batch uploading and downloading and a user
   friendly Albanian-language interface to it.
 - 40 standard digital cameras
 - 20 flatbed scanners
 - Dedicated email list server hosting up to 100 daily digested,
   moderated discussion lists.


For Web extension

 - A robust web front-ended database (standalone from the closed
   system) which can cope with 600,000 home pages and user IDS. High
   redundant capacity to sustain possible hacks or cracks. Text only
   upload capacity for 600,000 users, JPG picture upload and maintenance
   for 60 central points.
 - Web-based email facility with Albanian language interface, capacity
   rising to 600,000.
 - Strong search technology, attached to front end for look-ups and back-end
   for monitoring system abuse.
 - Machine translation software between Albanian and English.
 - Offers of cash of course, would also be very useful. We estimate a
   need of about $325,000 to cover the entire infrastructure for the
   first year.


Many people in the hi-tech and online world, moved by the tragic
scenes coming out of the Balkans, have intuitively realised that
digital technology can help the Kosovo Albanian refugees reconnect.
Many have made individual efforts to see whether they can contribute
some of their products: whether it is computers, or sat phones or
proprietary software. Some of that kit is even deployed in the region
right now.

Our aim now is to coordinate what our industry can offer, and work
with the Red Cross and UNHCR, the two main bodies entrusted with
registering and tracing refugees and keeping them in contact with each
other. These are the bodies which have experience in dealing on the
ground, the trust of the refugees themselves and the respect of all
governments involved in the conflict.

We need to move both fast and concertedly. If we can set up a system
which connects the Kosovar refugees at their point of registration,
they need never be lost again.


***************************************
John West
Director, Out There News
+44 171 749 9631 office
+44 468 126956 mobile
***************************************


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