There's a demand (e.g. from staff at UNFAO and users in Rwanda) for a related service, tuned for low bandwidth environments, that lets users easily collaborate over a text file. I like to think of this as the first addition to the lo* (pronounced lo-star) family of products: lopad. Think of it as a super-lightweight Google Docs with no registration, instant visibilty of other user's changes and fast performane on all internet connections....

We're getting ready for the second Crisis Camp London day, this Saturday, at the London Knowledge Lab. Considering how quickly last Saturday was put together we had a great turn out. We're hoping for, and expecting, an even larger turn out this time. If you are technical (eg. an IT project manager, a coder, a user experience person) or have relief experience and want to help Crisis Camp London support Haiti, then please come along. More details and a link to the registration inside...

On Saturday 23rd of January, Aptivate were out in force at Crisis Camp London which was kindly hosted by the London Knowledge Lab. Björn had a chance to grab some footage on the day and put together a short video explaining what Crisis Camp is all about, what it's like in London and what you might expect if you come along. Crisis Camp London will be a regular event for the next few weeks, one which is going to grow in size and impact.

I'm going to write about four ways to simulate a slow internet connection and a bit of background about why you'd want to do it. Simulation is great but I'll say this now: there's no substitute for testing stuff in the field. However, before you release to the team on the ground or grab your bag and hop on a plane, read this.

Following in the example in the US, Crisis Camp has come to London!

The first "work day" will be Saturday 23rd January... that's tomorrow.

10am at the London Knowledge ...

Ken Banks often writes about Social Mobile's Long tail - it's a really helpful concept; one that I find myself frequently using when explaining our work to others. Personally, I'm really interested in working with medium-sized organisations trying to make better use of technology. I probably have similar conversations 2-3 times a month. I think there are some common characteristics and challenges for these organisations...

I saw an interesting request on the AfNOG mailing list:

How does one determine the number of users,  a wireless network can support. I need to buy a wireless router ...