Hexayurt project/Informatics strategy: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 19:40, 18 February 2015

Introduction

This page is about making the hexayurts information rich at several levels.

The basic strategy is to use a variety of media and formats to make information about the hexayurts and about survival and recovery available to affected people.

I. Print useful text on the panels.

II. When possible and desirable, print the panels with 2D bar codes or embedded RFID tags.

III. Arrangement of hexayurts into patterns readable from a distance or from an aerial view.

Issues arising from this strategy

I.

In what language or dialect to you print the panel text?
Should there be standing "books" waiting in warehouses, ready for shipment? If so, what is the most useful text to put on the most generic panel?
First aid. Hygiene.
Use pictographs to illustrate assembly process.

II.

Expense is not major issue for RFIDs compared to other material costs. Under 1 USD per tag for passive tags.
Security is even more important. RFIDs are hackable, and they can be used as a platform for spreading viruses or malware to other systems and databases (citation needed). Could pirates exploit this by using the info on the RFIDs for ill purposes? Yes. Is this worth worrying about, or is it worth preventing RFID use? Probably not. Benefits outweigh risks.
Passive RFID is just relaying an identifier number. This could be used to flag source material.

III.

Think Semacode (link) or Kaywa's QR Code (link). Not human-eye readable, but from a distance ketai cams can discern massive amounts of information by the configuration of black and white pixels. What could physical camp configs tell relief workers?
physical camp configuration would require that the entire camp layout be managed by planners able to arrange the camp in particular order adding needless complication to getting shelter assembled on the ground.
Think "eye in the sky". If other communication channels fail, the arrangement of yurts in the camp could communicate information to aerial cams as 2-D barcodes. This is a built-in level of security. Only 2 guys know that if the water-pump pup hexayurt is moved adjacent to the 6th wall of the med supplies yurt it generates a message to equipped cams that reads: "Taliban is moving poppies thru this camp."
integration of covert communication would only serve to encourage hostile parties to destroy the infrastructure, and again require the movement of individual units in a carefully planed fashion in order to communicate.

Gallery

Aerial view of camp works like QR code.
This is a standard printed panel. It incorporates at least 2 points from the strategy: eye readable; machine readable through barcodes and RFID.
Sketch of kirkyan concept for hexayurt camps. Kirkyan hexayurts are virtual/real and changes in one environment causes the kirkyan to respond by changing itself as needed in the other.
RFIDs can link database information to uniquely identified objects. Efficient way to track medicines and supplies, and to then deliver the medicines to the proper patient.
People and hexayurts (with attached property, infrastructure, medicines, etc.) are linked with RFID and QR tags. This is a real aid in managing thousands of people after a disaster.

Hexayurt Object Database

Hexayurt panels, wherever possible, have a 2D barcode or RFID tag attached to each one. The same thing should be done, wherever possible, with stoves and other items.

The goal is that items can be found in the field, their GUID extracted from the barcode or tag, and then that information checked against the database to show the history of this particular object.

This allows for long term lateral studies of several kinds.

The first is object endurance: which items, from which manufacturers, lasted? Which ones are commonly used, vs. being left in the scrap heap. What *worked.*

It's important that tags are per object, and not per class. While 50 stoves may appear to be identical, and were purchased at the same time, lo! the supplier changed sheet metal suppliers half way through the run, and the ones from Batch B rust to uselessness in 4 years, but the others last for 25.

Henry Ford allegedly had staff crawl around in junk yards to see what pieces of the Ford never failed, and were in good useful condition after the rest of the car had died. Those pieces where then allegedly manufactured to lower specifications to save money without impacting vehicle life.

We need a similar approach: understand exactly what got made where, and how it performed in the field.

Additionally, lateral tracking of object movement becomes very important: the stoves dropped in a camp in the Sudan show up in Tanzania, and the locals love them much more than their regular stoves because the Sudanese stoves handle fuel a little differently, for instance. Well, knowing which items are being traded and how they circulate tells us about local preferences, and also about appropriate technology transfer routes.

For this to work, we need a "Stamper" service like http://thinglink.org/ - a service which issues GUID numbers for arts and crafts projects.

Vinay

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-This page is about making the hexayurts information rich at several levels.
+{{Hexayurt header}}
+== Introduction ==
+This page is about making the hexayurts [[Information technology|information]] rich at several levels.
 The basic strategy is to use a variety of media and formats to make information about the hexayurts and about survival and recovery available to affected people.
@@ Line 7: / Line 11: @@
 II.
-When possible and desirable, print the panels with embedded RFID tags.
+When possible and desirable, print the panels with 2D bar codes or embedded RFID tags.
 III.
-Arrangement of hexayurts into patterns readable from a distance or from an aeriel view.
+Arrangement of hexayurts into patterns readable from a distance or from an aerial view.
---
-Issues arising from this strategy:
+==Issues arising from this strategy==
 I.
-. In what langauge or dialect to you print the panel text?
-. Should there be standing "books" waiting in warehouses, ready for shipment?  If so, what is the most useful text to put on the most generic panel?
-. First aid.  Hygiene.
+# In what language or dialect to you print the panel text?
+# Should there be standing "books" waiting in warehouses, ready for shipment?  If so, what is the most useful text to put on the most generic panel?
+# First aid.  Hygiene.
+# Use pictographs to illustrate assembly process.
 II.
-Expense is a major issue for RFIDs.  Security is even more important.  RFIDs are hackable, and they can be used as a platform for spreading viruses or malware to other systems and databases (citation needed).
-Could pirates exploit this by using the info on the RFIDs for ill purposes?  Yes.
+# Expense is not major issue for RFIDs compared to other material costs.  Under 1 USD per tag for passive tags.
+# Security is even more important.  RFIDs are hackable, and they can be used as a platform for spreading viruses or malware to other systems and databases (citation needed).  Could pirates exploit this by using the info on the RFIDs for ill purposes?  Yes.  Is this worth worrying about, or is it worth preventing RFID use?  Probably not.  Benefits outweigh risks.
+# Passive RFID is just relaying an identifier number.  This could be used to flag source material.
 III.
-Think Semacode (link) or Kaywa's QR Code (link).  Not human-eye readable, but from a distance ketai cams can discern massive amounts of information by the configuration of black and white pixels.  What could physical camp configs tell relief workers?
----
-===
----
-First Draft of informatics white paper:
----
-INFO-ARCHITECTURE
-{the writing on the wall = first-aid & hygiene}
-{the writing on the wall = curricula & primers}
-{the writing on the wall: wins hearts & minds}
-How {and what} do you write on the walls?
-(1) To Begin:
-Hexayurts (HY) will be information-objects.
-HY will be spimes, trackable in space and time, modifiable in code and on the ground, hackable, moddable, fabbable, recyclable.  It can't help telling you what and where it is.
-HY could become kirkyans: spimes that alter their physical configuration as needed, on the fly, to solve specific problems on the ground.  [HY detect + heat loss; virtual HY changes the color of its panels; this adjustment ripples through the physical HY, and they all change the color of their panels to reflect less light; HY detect - heat loss. Kirkyans are physical/informational, 4-D ‘smart’ spimes.]
-The structure is an object -- and a number of objects. A set of pages/walls and pages/roof-panels is many and one.  Each panel is a spime.  Each HY is a spime and a collection of spimes.
-HY are a platform like <html>.  HY are pliable and hackable and easy to learn.
-HY are durable – built of durable material, durable processes, and durable information.
-HY are fabbable – you can you e-mail the schematic and have a buddy print these out in plastic on her 3-d printer in Mexico City or Djibouti or Shanksville.
-HY are redundant & INFORMATION-RICH on multiple levels.
-(2) Panels and Print
-The panels are pages.
-The pages teach hygiene, first aid, or diesel engine repair.  The pages inform, warn, or teach in appropriate language.  The pages exist in virtual libraries stored Project Gutenberg style on the web.  Some users may wish to create wikis for the purpose.
-The pages teach you how to use the HY.
-Roof says: S.O.S. or "Group 16-A" or whatever you need it to say.
-The panels are printed with human eye readable text.  The panels are printed with QR code.  The panels are printed with barcodes.  The panels are chipped with RFID tags.
-Text must be read from very near.  With radio signal, RFIDs can be read from mid-range.  With QR Code, HY camps can be read from miles above the surface of the Earth.
-. RFIDs and the Net
-Every page/wall has a history. THESE ARE RECYCLED, so you need to know if they've been used for a camp infected with bird flu.  That's why they must be spimes... trackable.  They tell you what they've been up to and where they've been up to it at.
-The structure itself tells you in print and by configuration of camps what it is and who uses it.
+# Think Semacode (link) or Kaywa's QR Code (link).  Not human-eye readable, but from a distance ketai cams can discern massive amounts of information by the configuration of black and white pixels.  What could physical camp configs tell relief workers?
+# physical camp configuration would require that the entire camp layout be managed by planners able to arrange the camp in particular order adding needless complication to getting shelter assembled on the ground.
+# Think "eye in the sky".  If other communication channels fail, the arrangement of yurts in the camp could communicate information to aerial cams as 2-D barcodes.  This is a built-in level of security.  Only 2 guys know that if the water-pump pup hexayurt is moved adjacent to the 6th wall of the med supplies yurt it generates a message to equipped cams that reads: "Taliban is moving poppies thru this camp."
+# integration of covert communication would only serve to encourage hostile parties to destroy the infrastructure, and again require the movement of individual units in a carefully planed fashion in order to communicate.
-RFIDs and QR are efficient ways to move info into, organize it on, and pull it from the net to the ground.
+== Gallery ==
-Groups of HYs are set up in configurations to be camera/machine readable from the air as Quick Response Code.
+<gallery>
-QR codes link to pages on the Net, wikis, message boards, lists of USEFUL THINGS TO KNOW like -- 'what happened to this community', demographic information, fatality rates from the disaster, how family members can find each other, when and from where more help is coming, how to re-use water, how to prepare food, how to use medical supplies, etc.  This is a cheap way to info-enrich a camp.
+Image:Hy-camp.PNG|Aerial view of camp works like QR code.
+Image:HYPanel2pic.PNG|This is a standard printed panel. It incorporates at least 2 points from the strategy: eye readable; machine readable through barcodes and RFID.
+Image:Kirkyanyurts.PNG|Sketch of kirkyan concept for hexayurt camps.  Kirkyan hexayurts are virtual/real and changes in one environment causes the kirkyan to respond by changing itself as needed in the other.
+Image:Rfidhy1.png|RFIDs can link database information to uniquely identified objects.  Efficient way to track medicines and supplies, and to then deliver the medicines to the proper patient.
+Image:Rfidyurtspeople.PNG|People and hexayurts (with attached property, infrastructure, medicines, etc.) are linked with RFID and QR tags. This is a real aid in managing thousands of people after a disaster.
+</gallery>
-QR code (2-d barcodes) can be printed on panels, or printed on stickers and stuck to panels when the information changes.  The HY camps themselves can be READ as QR.
+[[Category:Hexayurt project]]
-   =
+== Hexayurt Object Database ==
-Machine-readable, camera-ready, the configurations of HY appear to aerial eyes as code.
+Hexayurt panels, wherever possible, have a 2D barcode or RFID tag attached to each one. The same thing should be done, wherever possible, with stoves and other items.
-[Taleban operatives in HY 3, 42, and 98] [HY 11 speaks Hindi and Farsi.  HY 9 speaks English.] [Indications of Malaria in 19, 2, and 10.]
+The goal is that items can be found in the field, their GUID extracted from the barcode or tag, and then that information checked against the database to show the history of this particular object.
+This allows for long term lateral studies of several kinds.
-. Where this leaves us is:
-INFO-ENRICHMENT greatly increases the camp’s chances of survival.
+The first is object endurance: which items, from which manufacturers, lasted? Which ones are commonly used, vs. being left in the scrap heap. What *worked.*
-The HY structure, then, IS on the net, IS exactly half-physical and half-informational.  The information helps to save lives just as much as the physical roof does.  The information works to quell epidemics before they start.
+It's important that tags are per object, and not per class. While 50 stoves may appear to be identical, and were purchased at the same time, lo! the supplier changed sheet metal suppliers half way through the run, and the ones from Batch B rust to uselessness in 4 years, but the others last for 25.
-HY is/are many/one.
+Henry Ford allegedly had staff crawl around in junk yards to see what pieces of the Ford never failed, and were in good useful condition after the rest of the car had died. Those pieces where then allegedly manufactured to lower specifications to save money without impacting vehicle life.
-HY is informational/physical.
+We need a similar approach: understand exactly what got made where, and how it performed in the field.
-HY is static/dynamic.
+Additionally, lateral tracking of object movement becomes very important: the stoves dropped in a camp in the Sudan show up in Tanzania, and the locals love them much more than their regular stoves because the Sudanese stoves handle fuel a little differently, for instance. Well, knowing which items are being traded and how they circulate tells us about local preferences, and also about [[appropriate technology]] transfer routes.
-This enables physical shelters to get smart.
+For this to work, we need a "Stamper" service like http://thinglink.org/ - a service which issues GUID numbers for arts and crafts projects.
-This enables stricken communities to survive and heal.
-This enables mobile teams to strike harder, faster, and more precisely.
-This is for triage.
+Vinay
-This is for warfare.
-This is for teaching.