London camp virtually

[Jim Cory]

Hi all,

Am a lone virtual worker looking for good works to perform. Have not
been to a camp, but was inspired by the Haiti work. Saw the
Humanitarian Data Portal was a task under the London camp so looked
into it. Timezone mismatch meant I only got to the last hour and did
not seem like much was happening on irc or twitter. It may be that a
virtual worker like myself is a fill-in if some physically present
resource is not available. This requires knowing my skill set and what
I feel comfortable taking on. Not sure if I signed up on the virtual
form, but this may be a way to look up virtual resources needed by an
initiative. Email and chat may be a more effective route for this
connection as long as the right people are connected and the work is a
singular type task.


--
Subscription settings: http://groups.google.com/group/virtualcrisiscamp/subscribe?hl=en-GB

[Heather Leson]

Hi Jim, you're right the virtual worker process isn't fully baked yet. I agree. Want to help me write it?  I think it is a project in itself:

Here's what I think we need:

1. common tool
*IRC fails sometimes depending on port blocking
*Crabgass is not up and running yet. We need to test this. (Would you like to try that?)
*Email is not dialogue.
*twitter is not the right space for the minute
*google wave is not too conducive either
2. we have, we need (task, project, volunteer database). Help distribute talent and share tasks
3. a full virtual worker plan (We wrote this so far:http://wiki.crisiscommons.org/wiki/Volunteer_Starter_Kit)
4. a common check in way - whether it be this list or a conference call. (this is one thing that helped when we were in crisis mode, rather than building mode.

I know it isn't straight project work, but it is the kind of thing that we need to improve on. We also need to do some data mining of the wiki for http://wiki.crisiscommons.org/wiki/City_Research. I am literally going to tap at this until we have a full report on the basic things that happened in the last few months.

Also, depending on your availability, there are conference calls tomorrow

Heather L.


Heather Leson
heathe...@gmail.com
Twitter: heather Leson
Linked In: http://ca.linkedin.com/in/heatherleson
Google Profile:http://www.google.com/profiles/heatherleson

[Sara Farmer]

Apologies Jim - we got somewhat wiped out today by not having any WiFi in the camp again, and our string-and-sealing-wax wifi keeps stealing all my emails :-)   If you're looking for something to do, we also have all the tasks that London didn't do today (see the April 2010 London page http://wiki.crisiscommons.org/wiki/Crisis_Camp_London_April_2010)  - chief for me of which is the ChannelCode XSL task.  I'm happy to send over all my files on this if you fancy creating an XSL stylesheet to turn an XML channels list into an RSS one :-)     Sj. --- On Sat, 17/4/10, Heather Leson <heathe...@gmail.com> wrote:

[Sara Farmer]

Hi Jim,

You can definitely help... for example, it sounds like you might be able to
decipher the instructions that we had for a low-bandwidth Ushahidi
connection... see
http://wiki.crisiscommons.org/wiki/Project_Status_April2010_Low-bandwidth_Ushahidi
for more details.

Thank you, and thank you for bearing with our out-of-wifi selves!



Sara.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Jim Cory" <jco...@charter.net>
To: "Sara Farmer" <sara....@btinternet.com>
Cc: "Jim Cory" <jco...@charter.net>; "Heather Leson"
<heathe...@gmail.com>
Sent: Saturday, April 17, 2010 5:34 PM
Subject: Re: London camp virtually

> Hi Heather, Sara,
>
> Thanks for the ongoing ping. It may help if I describe my skills and
> availability so you can better gauge what to assign me. I am retired from
> my professional job of integrating ArcGIS databases with Oracle and SQL
> Server dbs. I now work about half time on whatever pro bono nonprofit work
> that comes along, mainly focused on web mapping apps (yes, its a switch
> and I am still getting up to speed technically). I am intermediate in
> html, css, and javascript; novice at perl, php, mysql. I can model
> databases to meet various requirements and am learning how to implement
> Ushahidi. I did a google maps/docs mashup to allow publicly submitted
> "green" sites for a Seattle nonprofit.
>
> Please let me know if you think I can lend a hand. I am not so good on the
> people to people kind of thing, but if there is a technical task I can do
> I would be glad contribute.
>
> --
> Jim Cory
> Horizon Mapping
> http://www.horizonmapping.net
> jco...@charter.net

>
>
> Sara Farmer wrote:
>> Apologies Jim - we got somewhat wiped out today by not having any WiFi
>> in the camp again, and our string-and-sealing-wax wifi keeps stealing all
>> my emails :-)
>> If you're looking for something to do, we also have all the tasks that
>> London didn't do today (see the April 2010 London page
>> http://wiki.crisiscommons.org/wiki/Crisis_Camp_London_April_2010) -
>> chief for me of which is the ChannelCode XSL task. I'm happy to send
>> over all my files on this if you fancy creating an XSL stylesheet to turn
>> an XML channels list into an RSS one :-)
>> Sj.
>>

[Sara Farmer]

Hi Jim,

Now about your questions on the Ushahidi low-bandwidth task...

Timelines and deliveries: we're working on that bit too :-). As you can
see, Haiti happened a bit suddenly for everyone: we all went all hands to
the pump to produce the stuff that was needed asap, and are only now working
out how to do 'proper' project management and control. The first step of
this: finding out who 'owns' each project, what its status is, where its
files are and what tasks it needs to do: was started last week (by Kate and
myself), and we're running as fast as we can to catch up with giving the
volunteers a decent view of what's needed and who to contact about it. So
the honest answer about timelines is 'erm'. At the start of CrisisCommons,
the answer was "as soon as possible or more people will die"; this has
mitigated into something that more resembles "as long as it takes but no so
long that the people we're doing it for get fed up with us".

Who requested the work: my email trace shows it starting with Ros Sewell
from Ushahidi, who is also copied on this email (cleverly disguised as
Denise), with the spec that's on our wiki being written by Thomas (cleverly
disguised as kohito... you'll get used to this :-) ) . They are the people
to ask about the specification for the work, and to inform when the work is
done.

And don't worry about all the questions - every question you ask makes us a
bit more aware of more project management and virtual worker things we need
to think about for CrisisCamp. I'm off to bed now - hopefully one of the
Heathers can pick up the question answering from here, otherwise I'll be
back online in about 9 hours' time.

Thank you for volunteering, and for bearing with us!

Sara.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Jim Cory" <jco...@charter.net>
To: "Sara Farmer" <sara....@btinternet.com>
Cc: "Jim Cory" <jco...@charter.net>
Sent: Saturday, April 17, 2010 10:08 PM
Subject: Re: London camp virtually

> Hi Sara,
>
> Took a look at the wiki and at the github link. Sent an email to the
> instance owner, Antonio Lettieri, to see what he was up to. Have some
> ideas, but will wait to hear from Antonio.
>
> How do timelines work with CC projects? Is anyone expecting product soon?
> Who requested the work? Who gets informed when work is completed?
>
> Thanks. Sorry about all the questions.

[Sara Farmer]

Hi Thomas,

 

Sorry - my bad.  I've changed the project manager listed to your name on the CrisisCamp project statuses page - http://wiki.crisiscommons.org/wiki/Project_Statuses_April_2010

 

- hopefully this will stop anyone else from making the same mistake!

 

Thank you,

 

 

 

Sara.

----- Original Message -----

From: Thomas Mckenzie

To: Sara Farmer

Cc: Jim Cory ; virtualc...@googlegroups.com ; Kate Chapman ; ccl_...@tenbus.co.uk ; den...@crisismappers.net

Sent: Saturday, April 17, 2010 10:39 PM

Subject: Re: London camp virtually

Hi Everyone,

I'm the point person for this for the Ushahidi-Haiti project at Crisis Mappers at Fletcher. I'd appreciate if questions came through me, if only because I didn't warn Antonio that folks would be contacting him for this, that he would be responsible for it all.

I'd be happy to clarify my notes/instructions for the lo-band site as well.

Thomas McKenzie
Tufts University, Class of 2011
thomas....@tufts.edu

[Jim Cory]

Hi Thomas,

Not sure when to stop copying everyone with this thread (maybe now I'm
connecting to you). Antonio had posted the last version on github, so I
thought he would have input. Not sure how these things work, team-wise.
Assuming tasks are divided amongst available individuals with perhaps an
agreed technical lead. Are you he or are you more of a coordinator.
Looking for direction as to where to enter this task and lean into it.

Thanks for any guidance. Not concerned about disarray - can handle most
of it if good will intended.

--
Jim Cory
Horizon Mapping
http://www.horizonmapping.net
jco...@charter.net

Thomas Mckenzie wrote:
> Hi Everyone,
>
> I'm the point person for this for the Ushahidi-Haiti project at Crisis
> Mappers at Fletcher. I'd appreciate if questions came through me, if
> only because I didn't warn Antonio that folks would be contacting him
> for this, that he would be responsible for it all.
>
> I'd be happy to clarify my notes/instructions for the lo-band site as
> well.
>
> Thomas McKenzie
> Tufts University, Class of 2011

> thomas....@tufts.edu <mailto:thomas....@tufts.edu>

>
>
> On Sat, Apr 17, 2010 at 5:21 PM, Sara Farmer

[Sara Farmer]

Hi Alan,

You probably don't need to be emailing Ros and Antonio directly about this
project right now... Thomas is your point of contact for it and he seems to
have a good idea of what's needed... Jim is already talking to him, so
maybe you three should link up, work out some independent tasks and get the
project moving together? It would be a very good test of how we can do a
transatlantic VirtualCrisisCamp well...

Thanks,




Sj (with my VirtualCrisisCamp hat on this time...).

----- Original Message -----
From: "Alan McNeil Jackson" <al...@aptivate.org>
To: "Jim Cory" <jco...@charter.net>
Cc: "Thomas Mckenzie" <thomas....@tufts.edu>; "Sara Farmer"
<sara....@btinternet.com>; <virtualc...@googlegroups.com>; "Kate
Chapman" <k8ch...@gmail.com>; <ccl_...@tenbus.co.uk>;
<den...@crisismappers.net>; <alet...@gmail.com>
Sent: Sunday, April 18, 2010 12:18 PM
Subject: Re: CC: Ushahidi low band initiative


> Hi Jim, Thomas, Antonio and everyone,
>
> Myself and a fellow colleague from Aptivate had a look at this at
> CrisisCamp (London) yesterday.
>
> We read the document and downloaded what was on github. It was hard to
> tell where it's at, what are the next steps and if someone was actively
> working on it.
>
> We didn't try to make any changes but we do potentially have capacity to
> look at this task during the week.
>
> Once we understand the requirements and who is effectively the "client"
> we could take a co-ordination or lead role on this if that's helpful.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Alan

>
>
> Jim Cory wrote:
>> Hi Thomas,
>>
>> Not sure when to stop copying everyone with this thread (maybe now I'm
>> connecting to you). Antonio had posted the last version on github, so I
>> thought he would have input. Not sure how these things work, team-wise.
>> Assuming tasks are divided amongst available individuals with perhaps an
>> agreed technical lead. Are you he or are you more of a coordinator.
>> Looking for direction as to where to enter this task and lean into it.
>>
>> Thanks for any guidance. Not concerned about disarray - can handle most
>> of it if good will intended.
>>
>
> --

> Alan McNeil Jackson | (al...@aptivate.org)
> Skype: alan.mcneil.jackson
> Mobile: +44 7985 399022
> Phone: +44 1223 760887
>
> Aptivate | (http://www.aptivate.org)
> The Humanitarian Centre, Fenner's, Gresham Road, Cambridge CB1 2ES
>
> Aptivate is a not-for-profit company registered in England and Wales,
> company number 04980791.

[Sara Farmer]

They've all gone very quiet. It's possible that the Aptivate guys are out of the country at the moment.  Guys?  Are you out there?  Is there a project plan running yet?

 

 

Sj.

----- Original Message -----

From: Thomas Mckenzie

To: Antonio Lettieri

Cc: Alan McNeil Jackson ; Jim Cory ; Sara Farmer ; virtualc...@googlegroups.com ; Kate Chapman ; ccl_...@tenbus.co.uk ; den...@crisismappers.net

Sent: Wednesday, April 21, 2010 9:02 PM

Subject: Re: CC: Ushahidi low band initiative

Hi Everyone,

Would it be possible to get a very brief update by Sunday or Monday? I'm curious about things like: did Aptiva take the lead? Is Jim Cory still involved? Have you run into any snags I can help with? Etc.  I just want to track progress, that's all.

Thomas McKenzie
Tufts University, Class of 2011
thomas....@tufts.edu

On Sun, Apr 18, 2010 at 2:22 PM, Antonio Lettieri <alet...@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi All,

Sorry about the confusion on the project. I will try and fill you in best as possible.

From my understanding, the "client" would be any response team (be it humanitarian, military, government, etc.) utilizing Ushahidi's incident reports during or post emergency. 

Really the goal of the project is pretty simple. 

The Form will contain three specific filters:

• Starting Date (reports since)
• Latitude and Longitude Coordinates
• Categories (one or more categories to filter by)
  • Categories will be filtered by ID.
  • Design some convention that allows the Ushahidi platform to consume and filter by multiple ids (comma separated perhaps).
  • We need to coordinate the ids with the Ushahidi Platform.
• Results can be viewed as:
  • RSS formatted (feed)
  • KML,( which may not be necessary for this phase).

The form simply needs to be intuitive and of course accessible in low bandwidth locations, with the potential of being mobile accessible as well.

At the time we were going to use the feed functionality of the Ushahidi platform. 

It was the fastest way we came up with at the time for gathering some form of reports without having to make too many changes/additions to the platform.

The form was intended to post to the Ushahidi platform with query string parameters that will return filtered incident results:

http://haiti.ushahidi.com/feed/?c=[id or ids]&lat=[latitude]&lon=[longitude]&date=[date_range]

The javascript portion is simply for progressive-enhancement (help with the intuitive portion), if you don't deem it necessary, feel free to leave it out.

Your team can decide whether you want to simply start the project over or go with what is on GitHub.

Please let me know if I need to elaborate a little more on the specifics of the project, I'm not sure how much you've been filled in on.

You can also contact me via skype: alettieri

TJ, please chime in if I have missed anything.

Hope this help move things along and thank you very much for your contribution guys!

-Antonio

On Sun, Apr 18, 2010 at 7:18 AM, Alan McNeil Jackson <al...@aptivate.org> wrote:

Hi Jim, Thomas, Antonio and everyone,

Myself and a fellow colleague from Aptivate had a look at this at
CrisisCamp (London) yesterday.

We read the document and downloaded what was on github. It was hard to
tell where it's at, what are the next steps and if someone was actively
working on it.

We didn't try to make any changes but we do potentially have capacity to
look at this task during the week.

Once we understand the requirements and who is effectively the "client"
we could take a co-ordination or lead role on this if that's helpful.

Cheers,

Alan


Jim Cory wrote:

> Hi Thomas,
>
> Not sure when to stop copying everyone with this thread (maybe now I'm
> connecting to you). Antonio had posted the last version on github, so I
> thought he would have input. Not sure how these things work, team-wise.
> Assuming tasks are divided amongst available individuals with perhaps an
> agreed technical lead. Are you he or are you more of a coordinator.
> Looking for direction as to where to enter this task and lean into it.
>
> Thanks for any guidance. Not concerned about disarray - can handle most
> of it if good will intended.
>

--

[Jim Cory]

Hello Thomas,

I connected with the Aptivate folks but did not hear back about tasks. I
decided to build something on my own just to see what it would take. I
am looking at using the query api built into Ushahidi as a way to slim
down the initial results and then formating reports in a simple list
page. Queries could be built with a multiple choice form and submitted
to the query tool. Not a big deal if the Aptivate people have something
else in mind - I am learning about the tools which I need to anyway. I
may have something up by weeks end for folks to look at.

--
Jim Cory
Horizon Mapping
http://www.horizonmapping.net
jco...@charter.net


Thomas Mckenzie wrote:
> Hi Everyone,
>

> Would it be possible to get a/ very brief /update by Sunday or Monday?

> I'm curious about things like: did Aptiva take the lead? Is Jim Cory
> still involved? Have you run into any snags I can help with? Etc. I
> just want to track progress, that's all.
>

> Thomas McKenzie
> Tufts University, Class of 2011
> thomas....@tufts.edu <mailto:thomas....@tufts.edu>
>
>

> On Sun, Apr 18, 2010 at 2:22 PM, Antonio Lettieri <alet...@gmail.com
> <mailto:alet...@gmail.com>> wrote:
>
> Hi All,
>
> Sorry about the confusion on the project. I will try and fill you
> in best as possible.
>
> >From my understanding, the "client" would be any response team
> (be it humanitarian, military, government, etc.) utilizing
> Ushahidi's incident reports during or post emergency.
>
> Really the goal of the project is pretty simple.
>
> The Form will contain three specific filters:
>

> * *Starting Date* (reports since)
> * *Latitude* and *Longitude* Coordinates
> * *Categories* (one or more categories to filter by)
> o Categories will be filtered by ID.
> o Design some convention that allows the Ushahidi

> platform to consume and filter by multiple ids
> (comma separated perhaps).

> o We need to coordinate the ids with the Ushahidi
> Platform.
> * Results can be viewed as:
> o RSS formatted (feed)
> o KML,( which may not be necessary for this phase).

>
> The form simply needs to be intuitive and of course accessible in
> low bandwidth locations, with the potential of being mobile
> accessible as well.
>
> At the time we were going to use the feed functionality of the
> Ushahidi platform.
>
> It was the fastest way we came up with at the time for gathering
> some form of reports without having to make too many
> changes/additions to the platform.
>
> The form was intended to post to the Ushahidi platform with query
> string parameters that will return filtered incident results:
>

> *http://haiti.ushahidi.com/feed/?c=[id
> <http://haiti.ushahidi.com/feed/?c=%5Bid> or
> ids]&lat=[latitude]&lon=[longitude]&date=[date_range]*

>
> The javascript portion is simply for progressive-enhancement (help
> with the intuitive portion), if you don't deem it necessary, feel
> free to leave it out.
>
> Your team can decide whether you want to simply start the project
> over or go with what is on GitHub.
>
> Please let me know if I need to elaborate a little more on the
> specifics of the project, I'm not sure how much you've been filled
> in on.
>

> You can also contact me via skype: *alettieri*

>
> TJ, please chime in if I have missed anything.
>
> Hope this help move things along and thank you very much for your
> contribution guys!
>
> -Antonio
>
>

[Jim Cory]

Hi Thomas, Antonio,

Thanks, guys, for the support. As I say I am just learning these tools,
so better ways may exist than the path I am taking. I am focusing on the
lowest common denomenator: low end mobile browser, without much
scripting power built in. I am not thinking map currently, though some
way to select by named area as a lat/long rectangle (eg. central
Port-au-Prince, east P-au-P). One limitation of the query api may be the
same limitation of the feed aproach: inability to include multiple
values/"tasks" in one query (eg, several categories; a category and a
location). Some of this could be handled as a post filter in the script
before presenting the page.

--
Jim Cory
Horizon Mapping
http://www.horizonmapping.net
jco...@charter.net


Thomas Mckenzie wrote:

> I second that!

>
> Thomas McKenzie
> Tufts University, Class of 2011
> thomas....@tufts.edu <mailto:thomas....@tufts.edu>
>
>

> On Wed, Apr 21, 2010 at 7:04 PM, Antonio Lettieri <alet...@gmail.com
> <mailto:alet...@gmail.com>> wrote:
>
> Hi Jim,
>
> That sounds great. Let us know if you need any information or
> additions on the Ushahidi platform side.
>
> Thanks for your help on this.
>
> You're awesome dude!
>
> -Antonio

>
> On Wed, Apr 21, 2010 at 5:51 PM, Jim Cory <jco...@charter.net
> <mailto:jco...@charter.net>> wrote:
>
> Hello Thomas,
>
> I connected with the Aptivate folks but did not hear back
> about tasks. I decided to build something on my own just to
> see what it would take. I am looking at using the query api
> built into Ushahidi as a way to slim down the initial results
> and then formating reports in a simple list page. Queries
> could be built with a multiple choice form and submitted to
> the query tool. Not a big deal if the Aptivate people have
> something else in mind - I am learning about the tools which I
> need to anyway. I may have something up by weeks end for folks
> to look at.
>
> --
> Jim Cory
> Horizon Mapping
> http://www.horizonmapping.net

> jco...@charter.net <mailto:jco...@charter.net>

>
>
> Thomas Mckenzie wrote:
>
> Hi Everyone,
>
> Would it be possible to get a/ very brief /update by
> Sunday or Monday? I'm curious about things like: did
> Aptiva take the lead? Is Jim Cory still involved? Have you
> run into any snags I can help with? Etc. I just want to
> track progress, that's all.
>
> Thomas McKenzie
> Tufts University, Class of 2011
> thomas....@tufts.edu
> <mailto:thomas....@tufts.edu>

> <mailto:thomas....@tufts.edu

> <mailto:thomas....@tufts.edu>>
>
>
>
> On Sun, Apr 18, 2010 at 2:22 PM, Antonio Lettieri
> <alet...@gmail.com <mailto:alet...@gmail.com>

> <mailto:alet...@gmail.com <mailto:alet...@gmail.com>>>

Jim Cory
Horizon Mapping
http://www.horizonmapping.net
jco...@charter.net

[Sara Farmer]

Hi Jim,   It looks like a pretty good way of going about it from here!  Can you keep notes on this, because we have several projects (including HDP) with similar low-bandwidth issues.   Thank you, and thank you for all this excellent work!       Sara. --- On Thu, 22/4/10, Jim Cory <jco...@charter.net> wrote:

[Sara Farmer]

Hi Alan,

If you have spare effort around, then HDP could do with some low-bandwidth
help too...

Sj.

----- Original Message -----

From: "Alan McNeil Jackson" <al...@aptivate.org>
To: "Antonio Lettieri" <alet...@gmail.com>
Cc: "Jim Cory" <jco...@charter.net>; "Thomas Mckenzie"
<thomas....@tufts.edu>; "Sara Farmer" <sara....@btinternet.com>;
<virtualc...@googlegroups.com>; "Kate Chapman" <k8ch...@gmail.com>;
<ccl_...@tenbus.co.uk>; <den...@crisismappers.net>

Sent: Thursday, April 22, 2010 8:51 PM
Subject: Re: CC: Ushahidi low band initiative


> Hi Jim and Antonio,
>
> Sorry for the delay in getting back to you, I've been completely snowed
> under this week so far. I didn't have the time I was hoping to have this
> week to engage properly with this.
>
> Catching up on this thread, Jim, it looks like you're doing great stuff
> that is being appreciated! I certainly don't want to get in the way of
> that or over-complicate things.
>
> At Aptivate we do have a team of developers who have PHP, MySQL, CSS,
> HTML and general web development experience. It looks like some of the
> team will have some free time next week. How can we best help?
>
> (we've also written some guidelines on bandwidth friendly web design
> which you might find useful:
> http://www.aptivate.org/webguidelines/Home.html)
>
> Jim, what time zone are you in? We could do some pair working with you
> if you like.
>
> Antonio, by "client" I meant who would we be reviewing our work and
> providing or clarifying requirements? Would that be you?
>
> Cheers,
>
> Alan
>
>
> Antonio Lettieri wrote:
>> Hi Jim,
>>
>> Great approach. We may be able to help with the limitation your
>> facing. We can work on adding multiple category filtering to the feed as
>> well as including lat&lon coordinates.
>>
>> I don't think the map will be necessary for the moment either and should
>> be something to consider "Version 2". We may be able to work with
>> approximate lat & lon coordinates, then have the feed or api return
>> incidents within the range of the coordintes.
>>
>> How did you envision to go about the post filter?
>>
>> Thanks again, Jim.
>>
>> -Antonio

>>
>> On Thu, Apr 22, 2010 at 9:56 AM, Jim Cory <jco...@charter.net
>> <mailto:jco...@charter.net>> wrote:
>>
>> Hi Thomas, Antonio,
>>
>> Thanks, guys, for the support. As I say I am just learning these
>> tools, so better ways may exist than the path I am taking. I am
>> focusing on the lowest common denomenator: low end mobile browser,
>> without much scripting power built in. I am not thinking map
>> currently, though some way to select by named area as a lat/long
>> rectangle (eg. central Port-au-Prince, east P-au-P). One limitation
>> of the query api may be the same limitation of the feed aproach:
>> inability to include multiple values/"tasks" in one query (eg,
>> several categories; a category and a location). Some of this could
>> be handled as a post filter in the script before presenting the page.
>>
>>
>> --
>> Jim Cory
>> Horizon Mapping

>> http://www.horizonmapping.net <http://www.horizonmapping.net/>

>> jco...@charter.net <mailto:jco...@charter.net>
>>
>>
>> Thomas Mckenzie wrote:
>>
>> I second that!
>>
>> Thomas McKenzie
>> Tufts University, Class of 2011
>> thomas....@tufts.edu <mailto:thomas....@tufts.edu>

>> <mailto:thomas....@tufts.edu
>> <mailto:thomas....@tufts.edu>>
>>
>>

>> On Wed, Apr 21, 2010 at 7:04 PM, Antonio Lettieri
>> <alet...@gmail.com <mailto:alet...@gmail.com>

>> <mailto:alet...@gmail.com <mailto:alet...@gmail.com>>> wrote:
>>
>> Hi Jim,
>>
>> That sounds great. Let us know if you need any information or
>> additions on the Ushahidi platform side.
>> Thanks for your help on this.
>>
>> You're awesome dude!
>>
>> -Antonio
>>
>> On Wed, Apr 21, 2010 at 5:51 PM, Jim Cory
>> <jco...@charter.net <mailto:jco...@charter.net>

>> <mailto:jco...@charter.net <mailto:jco...@charter.net>>>

>> wrote:
>>
>> Hello Thomas,
>>
>> I connected with the Aptivate folks but did not hear back
>> about tasks. I decided to build something on my own just
>> to
>> see what it would take. I am looking at using the query
>> api
>> built into Ushahidi as a way to slim down the initial
>> results
>> and then formating reports in a simple list page. Queries
>> could be built with a multiple choice form and submitted
>> to
>> the query tool. Not a big deal if the Aptivate people have
>> something else in mind - I am learning about the tools
>> which I
>> need to anyway. I may have something up by weeks end for
>> folks
>> to look at.
>>
>> -- Jim Cory
>> Horizon Mapping
>> http://www.horizonmapping.net

>> <http://www.horizonmapping.net/>
>> jco...@charter.net <mailto:jco...@charter.net>
>> <mailto:jco...@charter.net <mailto:jco...@charter.net>>

>> http://www.horizonmapping.net <http://www.horizonmapping.net/>
>> jco...@charter.net <mailto:jco...@charter.net>

>>
>>
>
> --
> Alan McNeil Jackson | (al...@aptivate.org)
> Skype: alan.mcneil.jackson
> Mobile: +44 7985 399022
> Phone: +44 1223 760887
>
> Aptivate | (http://www.aptivate.org)
> The Humanitarian Centre, Fenner's, Gresham Road, Cambridge CB1 2ES
>
> Aptivate is a not-for-profit company registered in England and Wales,
> company number 04980791.

[Jim Cory]

Hi Alan,

Sounds like Aptivate has a lot of resources you are sharing with Crisis
Commons. As far as the Ushahidi loband task goes, I will keep working on
it and hopefully have something up to look at in the next few days. When
you guys are ready I can send you what I have so far. You can decide
whether you want to incorporate any of it in a loband app you build or
partner someone with me to help complete my approach.

I work on computer stuff in the morning, 8am to 1 pm Central US time, so
feel free to call me at 608-233-4730 or skype me at jim.cory during that
time. If it is more convenient to connect at another time, just give me
a heads up and I will plan on being available.

I look forward to working with you.

--
Jim Cory
Horizon Mapping
http://www.horizonmapping.net
jco...@charter.net

Alan McNeil Jackson wrote:
> Hi Jim and Antonio,
>
> Sorry for the delay in getting back to you, I've been completely snowed
> under this week so far. I didn't have the time I was hoping to have this
> week to engage properly with this.
>
> Catching up on this thread, Jim, it looks like you're doing great stuff
> that is being appreciated! I certainly don't want to get in the way of
> that or over-complicate things.
>
> At Aptivate we do have a team of developers who have PHP, MySQL, CSS,
> HTML and general web development experience. It looks like some of the
> team will have some free time next week. How can we best help?
>
> (we've also written some guidelines on bandwidth friendly web design
> which you might find useful:
> http://www.aptivate.org/webguidelines/Home.html)
>
> Jim, what time zone are you in? We could do some pair working with you
> if you like.
>
> Antonio, by "client" I meant who would we be reviewing our work and
> providing or clarifying requirements? Would that be you?
>
> Cheers,
>
> Alan
>
>
>

[Jim Cory]

Hi Alan,

That works. I have the highest speed available from the cable company
(Charter) and am working on a Windows development machine. My web site
is running Linux.

--
Jim Cory
Horizon Mapping
http://www.horizonmapping.net
jco...@charter.net


Alan McNeil Jackson wrote:

> Hi Jim,
>
> We're 6 hours ahead of you.
>
> We could potentially work with you from 0800 CDT (1400 BST)
> to 1200 CDT (1800 BST).
>
> Would that work for you?
>
> What's your bandwidth like? Are you on Windows, Mac, or like us on Linux?

>
>
> Cheers,
>
> Alan
>
> Jim Cory wrote:
>

>> Hi Alan,
>>
>> Sounds like Aptivate has a lot of resources you are sharing with Crisis
>> Commons. As far as the Ushahidi loband task goes, I will keep working on
>> it and hopefully have something up to look at in the next few days. When
>> you guys are ready I can send you what I have so far. You can decide
>> whether you want to incorporate any of it in a loband app you build or
>> partner someone with me to help complete my approach.
>>
>> I work on computer stuff in the morning, 8am to 1 pm Central US time, so
>> feel free to call me at 608-233-4730 or skype me at jim.cory during that
>> time. If it is more convenient to connect at another time, just give me
>> a heads up and I will plan on being available.
>>
>> I look forward to working with you.
>>
>>
>
>




--

Subscription settings: http://groups.google.com/group/virtualcrisiscamp/subscribe?hl=en-GB

[Jim Cory]

Hi everyone,

I wanted to send out an update and a link to a very preliminary version
of the Low Band reporting tool. I talked with Martin Burchell from
Aptivate yesterday over Skype. We discussed the status of the app and my
approach and agreed that he should take a look at the code and then get
back to me with specific recommendations. This will happen next week
sometime. I also spoke with a developer who participates on the the
Ushahidi devchat meetings, Pablo Destefanis. He told me he was working
on a similar low band initiative, though his was specifically designed
for Windows based phones.

One thing Pablo mentioned was that the requirements for the Ushahidi low
band app seemed somewhat light on use cases - how will someone actually
use this app in the field and what way of viewing the reports would be
most helpful. As I get into the details of the app dev I am not sure of
the most appropriate course to take. There are different ways to
optimize the process, but they lead to slightly different results. It
would be good if someone associated with the request could write up
several scenarios describing the use of the app in the field.

The most current version of the app is posted at
http://www.horizonmapping.net/dev/cc/uxml/ushxml.php . The app has a
browser detector built in, but for now the default is to show the lowest
end browser display, wap/wml. This is a very static page with everything
visible and anchor links for jumping around the page. Only certain
html/form elements work on this browser so I had to make some very
limiting design decisions. To retrieve records you need to select at
least one of the radio button options and then click on the Search
button. Right now this returns the same query set of records no matter
what you select. Some of the categories will return thirty or more
records which is a lot for a little cell phone display.

--
Jim Cory
Horizon Mapping
http://www.horizonmapping.net

jco...@charter.net


Thomas Mckenzie wrote:
> @Alan: Have to agree with Antonio, I love what you guys do. And
> Antonio is correct, I'm the client according to your criteria.
>
> @Antonio: Fantastic!
>
> @Everyone: Please ensure me and Antonio are cc'd when you need input.
> I also appreciate being cc'd on workplans or related discussions.

>
> Thomas McKenzie
> Tufts University, Class of 2011
> thomas....@tufts.edu <mailto:thomas....@tufts.edu>
>
>

> On Thu, Apr 22, 2010 at 4:00 PM, Sara Farmer
> <sara....@btinternet.com <mailto:sara....@btinternet.com>> wrote:
>
> Hi Alan,
>
> If you have spare effort around, then HDP could do with some
> low-bandwidth help too...
>
>
> Sj.
>
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Alan McNeil Jackson"

> <al...@aptivate.org <mailto:al...@aptivate.org>>
> To: "Antonio Lettieri" <alet...@gmail.com
> <mailto:alet...@gmail.com>>
> Cc: "Jim Cory" <jco...@charter.net <mailto:jco...@charter.net>>;
> "Thomas Mckenzie" <thomas....@tufts.edu
> <mailto:thomas....@tufts.edu>>; "Sara Farmer"
> <sara....@btinternet.com <mailto:sara....@btinternet.com>>;
> <virtualc...@googlegroups.com
> <mailto:virtualc...@googlegroups.com>>; "Kate Chapman"
> <k8ch...@gmail.com <mailto:k8ch...@gmail.com>>;
> <ccl_...@tenbus.co.uk <mailto:ccl_...@tenbus.co.uk>>;
> <den...@crisismappers.net <mailto:den...@crisismappers.net>>