Stories - Indonesian techie group seeks aid

Indonesia. A group of IT techies are setting up wireless Internet kiosks across the Aceh city for aid groups and journalists. The group named The Aceh Media Center (acehmedia center.or.id/eng/) boasted more than 100,000 hits in less than a month of operations. The site includes frequent news updates and has a database of missing persons. Relief groups say that the service has been invaluable in helping them do their work as Banda Aceh slowly rebounds. Distribution and coordination were the biggest hurdles as some people gets rice and needed water; and others got water and needed rice.



The Aceh Media Center is still recruiting help to drive its expansion across the province, asking donors for 40 to 80 laptops, five global-positioning systems, five satellite phones, six pairs of wireless communications, and 20 walkie-talkies, among other things. They also want a solar panel and electrical generators to power the venture.