Thanks to everyone who replied. I received a lot of email about this project.
Unlike many other "people finder" projects this is unique in that it's not
confined.
I know there were many different "people finder" type databases. The problem
with that is that the people who needed to manage the database didn't own it.
Also you must understand the boundaries, which confine this type of
good-natured gesture.
Although it is goodwill and sincere it is not without it's drawbacks, which
stem from conflict of interest, to politics and everything else stirred in.
The D.A.M.N. project is about the community providing an open application that
can be modified and used by anyone and everyone, with a common database for use
in an emergency. I realize this poses it's own "WEBSECURITY" problems but whom
else better than an open source community D.A.M.N. Project.
The problems faced during Katrina were that there were so much assistance and
no coordination. The main problem was that there were so many different
"people finders" and no one common area for people to locate what they needed
to do. That is only one small area within this application.
The other problem we ran into was trying to determine where the local resources
were. In the event of a disaster the size of Katrina it not only affected New
Orleans but also other cities in other states as well.
As you may know from the news since FEMA has no idea how many or even where
most of the evacuees currently are within the city of San Antonio, they are
holding back or refusing to pay the local government for their costs. Also
there is the issue of trying to determine if any of the people relocated from
New Orleans were "Sex Offenders". This creates another problem that I feel the
common database will prevent. "Privacy Act Disclaimer".
The "people finder" was useful to a handful but is now useless to everyone else.
I hope to get this thing up and running as soon as possible and hope we can
start working on something.
Thank you SecurityFocus and everyone else who emailed and wants to get
involved. I'll keep in touch.
