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Mark Summer to Keynote 4th ACM Workshop on Networked Systems for Developing Regions

On June 15th, Mark Summer, Chief Innovation Officer at Inveneo, will welcome attendees of the 4th ACM Workshop on Networked Systems for Developing Regions as the keynote speaker.

Mark will start the conference with a presentation on The Importance of Good Connectivity in Disaster Response and Rebuilding in Haiti. He'll detail Inveneo's immediate WiFi access efforts just after the earthquake in Haiti and our long-term capacity building goals that we're working towards now.

A Plan for Haiti ICT Capacity Rebuilding

Looking beyond Port-au-Prince, Haiti

Now that the first stage of our work in Haiti is nearly complete, there is a clear need for a second stage: reconstruction and capacity building in secondary cities and other underserved areas.

Ongoing ICT Need in Haiti

The post‐earthquake migration of populations from Port‐au‐Prince to rural areas has put an additional strain on already under‐resourced regions. These places also suffered severe damage to their infrastructure and yet have not seen the level of rebuilding or responsiveness from the international community as in the capital.

We have already begun receiving and evaluating ICT requests for computing and alternative power systems from a number of NGOs including a multinational healthcare organization, an educational computing group, a rural hospital and others. The need is great. One request specified:

"Needing wifi capabilities in Leogane. [which is] a rural community. [Infrastructure] is completely nonexistent, so logistics and [the prospect of] getting proper help is basically zero."
-Camejo Hospital, Leogane, Haiti

These groups are doing important development work in a variety of sectors but are hampered by the difficulty of connecting to the Internet and to other organizations and communities regionally and internationally.


Partnering with Haitian ISPs

For most Haitian ISPs it hasn’t been a priority to extend their services into more rural areas; the lack of a viable and stable customer base coupled with a dearth of trained staff in these regions has made rural infrastructure development an unattractive business proposition. This is a common problem in many of the regions in which Inveneo works around the world and part of our mission is to help fill this void.

Inveneo has begun discussions with several Haitian ISPs in order to establish Memoranda of Understanding (MOUs) with them; by doing so we can partner with them to provide reliable Internet connectivity for rural-based international and local NGOs. Inveneo’s expertise and support can make ISP expansion into rural areas feasible and profitable through the use of lower cost hardware, open-source software and business models tailored to the needs of resource-poor environments.

Building Local Capacity

We also recognize an urgent need to assist in Haiti’s longer-term reconstruction, mainly through the support and promotion of the local small and medium enterprise (SME) sector. We intend to work towards our proven model, building the skills of local ICT entrepreneurs, in addition to our role in helping to build the ICT infrastructure so vital for NGOs and other organizations serving Haiti’s citizens, as outlined above.

• By engaging with the Haitian ICT community to build long‐term capacity, we will empower local entrepreneurs to bring solutions to organizations in under‐resourced environments.
• By supporting and partnering with entrepreneurial Haitian ICT businesses – like the type we had intended to work with pre‐earthquake – we envision an environment in which local engineers and technologists will be the primary agents of operation in the rebuilding efforts.

Inveneo will continue to work alongside these local partners in an advisory or project management role. We will consult on projects as necessary, providing appropriate computing, hardware and network equipment recommendations. In short, this next phase of Inveneo’s work in Haiti will entail:

1. Fielding requests for connectivity (including solutions identification and deployment) in 5‐6 communities outside of Port‐au‐Prince, for example: Carrefour, Gressier, Jacmel, Leogane, Petit Goave or Grand Goave;
2. Vetting ICT requests for computing and alternative power systems for NGOs operating in the above regions;
3. Extending wireless broadband networks using long‐distance WiFi connections and managing this bandwidth with a combination of staff in Port‐au‐Prince and in California. This could involve collaborating with a select group of local ISPs for their backhaul capacity, or with local/regional ICT experts to provision this connectivity;
4. Identifying and involving Haitian ICT entrepreneurs with both local and technical knowledge and beginning to build up Haitian ICT capacity to respond to NGO technical needs and also rebuild their own independent businesses;
5. Developing local capacity through targeted, tactical trainings with the focus on providing appropriate ICT solutions for use in rural areas.

How You Can Help

We are now seeking financial commitments to support this work in Haiti over the next ten months so that we can continue providing critically important connectivity and sustainable skills development. This effort is lead by Stephanie Seale. – please contact her if you can consider providing support for this important period of transition in rural Haiti.

JustGood.tv & Green WiFi Join Mission*Social

mission*social is proud to welcome JustGood.tv and Green WiFi to the premier collaborative workspace for social enterprises in San Francisco. They join Samasource, Catapult Design and Inveneo on the 5th floor of 972 Mission Street.

mission*social features an open loft layout with hardwood floors and a freight elevator combined with access to video conference rooms and high-speed Internet and a number of other shared servces. But the major benefit of mission*social is the ability to work alongside cutting-edge social enterprises, sharing ideas, tips, and advice in person.


mission*social collaboration

One example of cross-organization collaboration is a recent Inveneo-Samasource partnership to expand Mission 4636.

Samasource is translating text messages from earthquake victims in Haiti so relief workers can better understand the conditions there. In an effort to expand their 4636 program so Haitians can do the translations, they needed to ship computers to their Haitian workers, but found the logistical challenge of shipping to a disaster zone daunting.

Enter Inveneo, which has its own own Haiti Response. They added Samasoure's equipment to their own resupply shipment, and arranged for express delivery to Port-au-Prince. This quick collaboration saved Samasource valuable time and much headache.

If you'd like to experience the mission*social difference, be sure to contact us today!

Increasing ICT Capacity in Haiti

Andris Bjornson on the Multilink communications tower

Today is the one-month anniversary of the Haiti earthquake. Amidst the destruction, the people of Port-au-Prince are rebuilding. Inveneo is honored to be one small part of that effort by facilitating high-speed Internet access to NetHope members - the world's leading international humanitarian organizations - and to smaller social-service organizations as well.

Increasing Bandwidth Capacity

Our long-distance WiFi network now has a dozen nodes and to increase the network's Internet bandwidth availability and reliability, we've partnered with two local Internet Service Providers (ISPs), Multilink and Access Haiti.

Inveneo engineers connected to Multilink's network though a long-distance WiFi link from their Bouthillier communications tower, and to Access Haiti via their WiMax network. Both terrestrial connections add redundancy to the original VSAT satellite connection from ITC Global.


Building Local Partner Capacity

Now that locals and aid workers in Haiti are starting to transition from initial emergency response to long-term rebuilding, Inveneo is seeking to expand our role from deploying communications for relief efforts to building local capacity. We hope to introduce our innovative Certified ICT Partner program and develop an ecosystem of ICT companies that provide skilled and cost-effective installation and support services for organizations in need of life-impacting ICTs.

With programmatic support, we can train local partners to offer prospective clients local ICT installation and maintenance services supported by Inveneo's cutting edge research and development into appropriate ICT systems.

Our Silicon Valley-inspired training and support, and the specialized tools and equipment to expand into rural and underserved areas, already has large scale impact throughout sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. Thanks to Inveneo's current sponsors - Inveneo and our Certified ICT Partners have already brought access to valuable and innovative ICTs to more than 1,000,000 people in rural and underserved areas of the developing world.

We’re looking forward to doing the same throughout Haiti, where an enthusiastic and knowledgeable ICT community is eager to rebuild their country.

Vital Communications for Health Relief Efforts

Andris Bjornson installing PROFAMIL's WiFi link

As we continue to expand and strengthen long-distance WiFi networks for NetHope members in and around Port-au-Prince, it’s a time of transition for Inveneo staff in Haiti.

Brian Shih and Oliver Jiang have replaced Mark Summer and Andris Bjornson, bringing new skills and energy to our deployment activities, which now include extending high-speed Internet access to select non-NetHope organizations, as opportunities arise. Relief agencies can use Inveneo's Emergency ICT Help Request to be considered.

A Health Organization in Need

PROFAMIL, a Haitian reproductive health organization, provides mobile and clinic-based services to women and families in Port-au-Prince, Jacmel, and Port Prix, Haiti. PROFAMIL is a national member of the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF).

The earthquake destroyed its clinic buildings in Port-au-Prince and Jacmel, crippling its ability to provide its services to local Haitian communities - mobile health clinics for victims of the earthquake now living in tent cities. They needed Internet access to direct resupply and response efforts with national affiliate clinics in PROFAMILIA Dominican Republic and IPPF headquarters in New York City.

We first learned of their need via Inveneo's Emergency ICT Help Request, and quickly mobilized to help. We brought high-speed Internet access to their new, post-quake location using our proven 7-step WiFi deployment process.


Immediate, Life-Saving Impact

PROFAMIL couldn't wait to use the new bandwidth. Before we had even finished, their doctors were making Skype phone calls to the USA with their iPhones. In the next few days, they completed long, reliable, high-quality Skype video calls on laptop computers.

PROFAMIL staff exchanged files, shared screens, and re-commenced their work providing pre- and post-natal care, counseling and family healthcare to PROFAMIL clients with urgent clinical needs. Amid the physical destruction viewable through the grainy laptop cameras, the voices and faces of the Haitian team were a source of strength to IPPF staff worldwide.

The reliable, stable and fast Internet connection afforded IPPF headquarters in NYC new avenues to start to rebuild infrastructure in a measured, sustainable fashion, including re-establishing supply chains for solar power, tents and medicines. This effort may have taken weeks or months without the Inveneo long-distance WiFi network.

PROFAMIL and its partners expressed their immense gratitude to Inveneo. To quote one person:

"You were careful not to over-promise, reflecting the reality of Haiti currently; your engineering expertise was on-point and thorough through installation and support; and the Internet service is rock-solid, especially notable in the fluid context of Port au Prince. Keep up your great work, you are supporting the work of global health NGOs doing critical, life-saving work in Haiti."

Expanding Our Impact

As we complete the initial NetHope network, we'd appreciate your support to help us bring life-saving communications to more organizations in Haiti. We hope you'll join NetHope, the EKTA Foundation, Aruba Networks, the Orr Foundation, Steve Okay and Andrea Longo, and many of your friends and colleagues in supporting Inveneo's Haiti response.

We are appealing for donations to cover the basic costs associated with this expansion of our Haiti relief efforts, including equipment, logistics and on the ground expenses. Please consider donating to Inveneo using PayPal or Google Checkout below.

Inveneo is a US-based 501(c)3 non-profit charitable organization. If you are a US resident, and donate before February 28th, your donation may be tax deductible for the 2009 tax year.

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All donations through February 28, 2010 will be used only for Haiti relief efforts, including the project to get connectivity to the major NGOs in Haiti.

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