Honiara here I come.
Our organization has a branch in the Solomon Islands. Currently they have no I.T. guy and are in need of a network across their center to improve communication. Good communication furthers the work of Bible Translation in many ways.
at the business level:
-internet access speeds access to information and resources
-communication to remote areas can put people together who to get the job done quicker
-backing up of data avoids having to re-do work when laptops are damaged by weather, or lost to theft or accident.
on a personal level:
-you feel less remote when you know you can email or call a loved one, a prayer partner, a financial partner.
-overall sense of connection with the different worlds we move between helps decrease the sense of isolation, which in turn, increases the ability to stay in a remote place longer and get more work done (good communication helps to DECREASE the 'island fever' feeling of being all alone and wanting to go home)
Those are simply some highlights of why communication is so important. Some people use it rather creatively and can do multiple translation projects from anywhere in the world!
I'm pretty sure since you're a blog reader, I don't have to fully sell the idea of a reliable connection to the world. Even if it is only 256k download speeds.
Well, as a favor to this sister branch, our directors have lent me to them to go and:
-install wireless networking
-install network printing
-install file server/backup solution
-install internet routing/firewall/billing system (this is my own custom home grown solution that we're using, and so far, it's been very useful. My manager was asked to give a presentation at a local tech conference on it. Fully opensource, best-of-brand (so to speak) but also customized so that administrators can easily create accounts for people to use their internet with billing. (think of it as a low cost Metered Hotspot).
It's rather complex actually, but cool.
I run VMware ESXi on top of a small PC. That serves 3 virtual machines. Two of which are PFSENSE (opensource firewall, opensource captive portal) and 1 is Ubuntu 10.04 running FreeRadius and a customized version of Daloradius). It can plug into an LDAP domain or Active Directory domain, or, simply use it's own local Mysql database of users.
It's really something I'm proud of having been able to piece together and document. To get the effectiveness of this 1 box, you'd have to pay at least $2000 USD for something akin to what Starbucks uses to provide you with wireless. My cost, between $400 and $630 USD!!
Anyway, geek moment aside...
I'm heading to the Solomon Islands on Monday!!! How cool is that! The sister branch is paying for me to come out there, work my tail off for 1 week, and then come back.
They have no I.T. person, and could really use one, but my hopes are that when I'm done, I'll be able to remotely support them.
I'm telling you, it'll be an adventure for sure. Flying internationally always is. I'll be leaving behind my family for about 10 days. Please pray for them.
Please pray that the trip goes well and things don't break, and that when I'm gone it keeps working well for them. That's the trick. Designing and implementing something that will work for a very long time when I'm away.
Well, time to go pack.
Can you imagine... it's like I'm becoming a world traveler or something! ME!?
I'll definitely take pictures!
I think it's too much to hope for any actual site seeing time, there is too much work to do in too short of a time. But maybe I'll get some good pictures of me setting up the network! That's what you want to see isn't it? No one really wants to see tropical landscapes, and such. You want to see a sweaty guy sitting in a dark room, splicing cables!
