n attendance
Bruce Baikie -Sun
Gilda Garreton -Sun
Marla Parker - Sun
Michael Roy -Founder and Exec. Director CREA
Alexis Tatarsky -Board President CREA
Roger Yeung -Sun
Dan Zucker -Sun
URL: http://www.crea-panama.org/about.html
History: CREA was founded in 2003 by Dr. Michael Roy, a conservation biologist with over 15 years of academic experience.
Mission: CREA was founded on the principles of science, education and community participation and is dedicated to the protection of endangered Central American ecosystems while supporting human development for the global good.
Vision: By means of strong funding partnerships with individuals, public institutions and private businesses, CREA will invest significantly to build a strong and sustainable organisation that will become the point of reference for design and implementation of innovative holistic strategies that protect endangered ecosystems in Central America.
Summary of mtg:
CREA is undertaking a host of different projects that aid us in our understanding of ecosystem function and the threats that these ecosystems face. CREA undertakes some of these projects together with University and/or funding agency partners, while others are publicly supported through donations. They are also planning to "open source" the data collected so their fundings could apply to other endangered ecosystems in the world.
Their mail goal is to stop deforestation by teaching farmers about technologies that don't damage the environment. These technologies are not necessary high tech but they seem to have been forgotten by local farmers.
Their main need is to establish a broadband wireless connection at their main site in the Cocobolo Nature Preserve in Panama:
Two key purposes served by consistent and low cost connectivity:
1.To support wireless sensor network to monitor and study the ecology of threatened tropical rainforests
2.To support development and training program for rainforest dependent communities
Their site is surrounded by 4 non-networked communities that regularly participate in services provided (training and medical care) who would benefit from this project. The ability to provide real-time monitoring using SUNSpots would also greatly benefit the research aspect of CREA. SUNSpots may also be used to create early flood warning system for local communities. Many possibilities.
Sun Labs is currently supporting the use of SUNSpots (in-kind donation and training students at Warren Wilson College to program/use the spots at Cocobolo).
Connectivity is currently provided by satellite connection with few hours per day which is. this is too expensive, slow and unreliable. They have a very low max limit of Gigabytes per month for upload/download. Once the max is exceed, the rate per minute is so high that it can't be sustained.
There are not too many solutions however the Green-Wifi initiative seems to fit very well this project. Bruce explained the project to those who didn't about it (including myself) and it was determined that it could provide a cost-effective solution for CREA. Thus, a first project with them could be to connect CREA's Cocobolo site using Green Wifi.
If we decide to move forward with this project, below are the next steps
1. Sun: Need to decide if this is a project that EWB would like to pursue. Deadline: end of March.
2. Sun: Need to work on the feasibility of using Green-Wifi through the Radio Mobile software. This could involve a group of student experts from University of Andes performing assessment and/or EWB volunteers. This will help to determine if there is a clear line of sight between Cocobolo and Panama City. The solution will probably need a repeater at the hill closer to Panama City because their main site is surrounded by mountains. Approx. 25 miles is the distance between the main site and Panama city.
3. Sun/CREA: Need to know requirements for networking Sun Spots
4. CREA: Research regulations (if any) regarding 2.4 gigahertz/100 miliamps as the working frequency/current of the link.
5. CREA: Need to check where exactly the repeater can be installed because they don't own the land. They also need to figure out how to secure the site. In terms of power, solar panels will be used.
6. CREA: Find a location in Panama City where the link will be connected to the Internet. They will probably need to install the antenna in the high building to guarantee a good visibility to the repeater.
7. CREA/Sun: See if we can get funding (around US$20k) for this project.
CREA as location would also be suitable for education projects.
The data collected would be "open source'd" and it can be the source of many projects that Sun could be interested in. For example multi-threading analysis tools for weather cast prediction.
They don't know yet where and how they will store the massive amount of data they will collect. Here is another opportunity for Sun as storage company.
CREA people were quite enthusiastic about working with EwB-Sun and they were told a decision would be taken by the end of March.
Bruce Baikie -Sun
Gilda Garreton -Sun
Marla Parker - Sun
Michael Roy -Founder and Exec. Director CREA
Alexis Tatarsky -Board President CREA
Roger Yeung -Sun
Dan Zucker -Sun
URL: http://www.crea-panama.org/about.html
History: CREA was founded in 2003 by Dr. Michael Roy, a conservation biologist with over 15 years of academic experience.
Mission: CREA was founded on the principles of science, education and community participation and is dedicated to the protection of endangered Central American ecosystems while supporting human development for the global good.
Vision: By means of strong funding partnerships with individuals, public institutions and private businesses, CREA will invest significantly to build a strong and sustainable organisation that will become the point of reference for design and implementation of innovative holistic strategies that protect endangered ecosystems in Central America.
Summary of mtg:
CREA is undertaking a host of different projects that aid us in our understanding of ecosystem function and the threats that these ecosystems face. CREA undertakes some of these projects together with University and/or funding agency partners, while others are publicly supported through donations. They are also planning to "open source" the data collected so their fundings could apply to other endangered ecosystems in the world.
Their mail goal is to stop deforestation by teaching farmers about technologies that don't damage the environment. These technologies are not necessary high tech but they seem to have been forgotten by local farmers.
Their main need is to establish a broadband wireless connection at their main site in the Cocobolo Nature Preserve in Panama:
Two key purposes served by consistent and low cost connectivity:
1.To support wireless sensor network to monitor and study the ecology of threatened tropical rainforests
2.To support development and training program for rainforest dependent communities
Their site is surrounded by 4 non-networked communities that regularly participate in services provided (training and medical care) who would benefit from this project. The ability to provide real-time monitoring using SUNSpots would also greatly benefit the research aspect of CREA. SUNSpots may also be used to create early flood warning system for local communities. Many possibilities.
Sun Labs is currently supporting the use of SUNSpots (in-kind donation and training students at Warren Wilson College to program/use the spots at Cocobolo).
Connectivity is currently provided by satellite connection with few hours per day which is. this is too expensive, slow and unreliable. They have a very low max limit of Gigabytes per month for upload/download. Once the max is exceed, the rate per minute is so high that it can't be sustained.
There are not too many solutions however the Green-Wifi initiative seems to fit very well this project. Bruce explained the project to those who didn't about it (including myself) and it was determined that it could provide a cost-effective solution for CREA. Thus, a first project with them could be to connect CREA's Cocobolo site using Green Wifi.
If we decide to move forward with this project, below are the next steps
1. Sun: Need to decide if this is a project that EWB would like to pursue. Deadline: end of March.
2. Sun: Need to work on the feasibility of using Green-Wifi through the Radio Mobile software. This could involve a group of student experts from University of Andes performing assessment and/or EWB volunteers. This will help to determine if there is a clear line of sight between Cocobolo and Panama City. The solution will probably need a repeater at the hill closer to Panama City because their main site is surrounded by mountains. Approx. 25 miles is the distance between the main site and Panama city.
3. Sun/CREA: Need to know requirements for networking Sun Spots
4. CREA: Research regulations (if any) regarding 2.4 gigahertz/100 miliamps as the working frequency/current of the link.
5. CREA: Need to check where exactly the repeater can be installed because they don't own the land. They also need to figure out how to secure the site. In terms of power, solar panels will be used.
6. CREA: Find a location in Panama City where the link will be connected to the Internet. They will probably need to install the antenna in the high building to guarantee a good visibility to the repeater.
7. CREA/Sun: See if we can get funding (around US$20k) for this project.
CREA as location would also be suitable for education projects.
The data collected would be "open source'd" and it can be the source of many projects that Sun could be interested in. For example multi-threading analysis tools for weather cast prediction.
They don't know yet where and how they will store the massive amount of data they will collect. Here is another opportunity for Sun as storage company.
CREA people were quite enthusiastic about working with EwB-Sun and they were told a decision would be taken by the end of March.