Notes from KICKOFF - hopefully these will be helpful for all participants

2pm Dallas Makerspace
April 20, 2014

Attendees:
Stephen Wylie
Stacy
Steve R
Ralph
Pat H
Brooks
Cone

Goal is an application useful in the event of an outage

Ralph suggested a mesh network out of android phones - see guy in Australia

Steve + Stacy suggest an App that warns when watching Netflix or Hulu (not live tv)

Pat suggested that we look to SAME program

Stacy - effective FM radio notifications

Rockbox or sansa player

Ham radio or mesh network with antennas

long distance wifi opportunities -

use radio based technology or something that is flash-based

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_emergency_response_team
CERT team stuff - activate when there’s a really bad storm/ groups of 5 to 15 people going through neighborhood

HAM certified

Wifi range is a mile and a half but only under perfect conditions - if it’s in your pocket, it’s not gonna be able to connect

VOIP does work in a mesh network

radio and map locations needed - like for simple grid searches

GPS - direct data translation

pre-loaded maps beforehand

Pat suggested that we need to keep it simple - complex software will not work

Ham radio is dead simple

immediate safety of life and property - ham radio

cheap ham radio is $35 plus antennas

we should stay within any rules and regs

MERS 1

USB interface

slow scan tv

narrow band emergency messaging system - meant for forwarding messages
NBEMS http://www.arrl.org/nbems

Pat suggested WinLink - email for amateur radio, used by open water sailors
http://www.winlink.org/

emergency managers in area have win link addresses

very short message to let people know they’re ok
imk - to represent "I’m Okay”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Mobile_Radio_Service
$80 for a license that’s good for 5 years

DMS Ham Club

In an emergency, anything goes

FRS http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Family_Radio_Service

github has a ton of code that might be reusable

like the Red Cross app

HSMM - high speed multimedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Speed_Multimedia

some ideas floated already here locally:
DFW freenet
http://p7.meraki.com/network/dfwfreenet

Shawn Porter at TheLab.ms in Plano said they were interested in a citywide mesh network

share radio space - talk to ham guys and create a partnership with local towers

Dallas Amateur Radio Club - 5.8gig

Can we make something work if the power goes down? Solar or batteries?

Important to get the cost less that $125 a node

>> looking to hand out a $200 prize for weather app
like interrupting smart tv apps

>> 2nd category is emergency response

>> $200 for best hybrid app

Steve suggested doing something with CERT operations manual - maybe pick from there to build an app

Just an SOS tool would be great

We don’t have to do a complicated RF thing

Pat, Stacy are judges

3:30 meeting concludes; next step is for attendees need to form teams and work on projects - submit the results starting May 2 and judging on May 4. http://dfw-weather.challengepost.com/details/dates