Besides my jobs in telecommunication companies, I had some more activities:
Telecare voluntary service in my home town
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From when I was 18, in 1983, and during 13 years, I was volunteer technical coordinator, trainer, installer and special devices builder of a telecare network for elder and disabled people in my home town.
 A typical telecare emergency intervention
The service was promoted by volunteers organizations, partly financed by the town council, and was free of charge for the users. |
Telecare network technical scheme after renovation in 1993
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After ten years of service, in 1993, the network required a technical renovation. I handled it by projecting the new network, making a market survey to choose the newly available devices that best fitted our needs, and helping other volunteers associations to extend the network to nearby towns.
Different peripherals were installed in the user's homes: manually activated transmitters, optional gas leak detectors, optional radio-controlled door locks etc. The automatic home controllers reported diagnostic information and alarms to a maintenance center and an ambulance alarm reception center, which could communicate hands-free with the user in need, unlock, even remotely, his home's door and send the appropriate emergency assistance when necessary.
The service was not limited to emergency interventions. The ambulance volunteers were periodically calling the users to make them send test alarms to familiarize with the system. A doctor and a social worker volunteers were periodically visiting the users to update their health and general situation in the database. Other volunteers were in charge of the home installed devices maintenance. The ambulance volunteers were even bringing some users, by a municipal agreement, daily cooked meals and pharmaceuticals.
Different peripherals were installed in the user's homes: manually activated transmitters, optional gas leak detectors, optional radio-controlled door locks etc. The automatic home controllers reported diagnostic information and alarms to a maintenance center and an ambulance alarm reception center, which could communicate hands-free with the user in need, unlock, even remotely, his home's door and send the appropriate emergency assistance when necessary.
The service was not limited to emergency interventions. The ambulance volunteers were periodically calling the users to make them send test alarms to familiarize with the system. A doctor and a social worker volunteers were periodically visiting the users to update their health and general situation in the database. Other volunteers were in charge of the home installed devices maintenance. The ambulance volunteers were even bringing some users, by a municipal agreement, daily cooked meals and pharmaceuticals.
Go to my blog's entry (in Italian, with pictures) or download the PDF version and related documents:
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Earthquake, telecommunications and persons
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While I was in Chile to prepare putting into service of a new software package for a big mobile telephony operator, on February 27, 2010 an 8.8 magnitude earthquake and a tsunami hit the country during the night.
Many people were injured or killed, and many infrastructures were hardly damaged. Mobile telephony was no more working, just when it could be vital for people to ask for help and to coordinate emergency interventions.  A house and a ship moved on ground by the tsunami.
Left: photo by Caritas Chile, Public Domain. Right: photo by Diego Ibacache, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
When internet connectivity was again available, with my laptop in the hotel room I was able to set up a tunnel to the customer's servers where our software was running, to get a first-hand information about the mobile telephony situation.
By checking server's logfiles and reported errors I was able to gather useful information and send it to my company's management and technical assistance in Germany, Brazil and Spain. They were already thinking to set up a task force and promptly reacted by involving more people and trying to talk to the customer. Then I succeeded in contacting the customer's Operation & Maintenance by terminal messaging, when other communications were not possible. Many engineers, even working from home, were trying to bring their damaged and overloaded network back on its feet. They accepted and appreciated our volunteer help. I wrote three entries in my blog (in Italian, with pictures) where I explain more in detail what happened those days: first (introduction), second (main) and third (conclusion) part. The PDF versions are also available:
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Our customer's headquarters in Santiago de Chile
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