Pacific Disaster Net

PDN Overview

The Pacific Disaster Net (http://www.pacificdisaster.net/) is the - Virtual Centre of Excellence - for Disaster Risk Management in the Pacific Region. The Web Portal and Database System is designed to be the largest and most comprehensive information resource for Disaster Risk Management for the Pacific Island Countries.

It is a living collection and growing DRM information resource for actors and stakeholders to research and collaborate and improve Information and Knowledge Management. It also supports National Action Planning, Decision Making and provides in-country information for distribution within the region.

It is available online and will be available offline as frequently updated DVD distribution. The Pacific Disaster Net hosts material relating from various sources like Countries, Bodies, Organizations and Agencies at regional, national and international level, relating to:

Rationale

The portal will provide a valuable resource to all Disaster Risk Management partners working in the Pacific region including government agencies, regional bodies, non-government organisations and international agencies. A crucial challenge during its development was multiple access entries with a range of retrieval and display options. Inexperienced and expert users will access their information and documents without difficulty and within a range of formats.

Information from the portal can be viewed, downloaded, sent by email and even exported into other formats. For interactive use there are different levels of access to a variety of issues. A Country page provides filtered, dynamic and fixed data and information with Events, Contacts, Links and Basic facts - available per country, organization etc.

Editions

PDN online portal - www.pacificdisaster.net with Forum and Wiki.

Local Edition

PDN - Local is the local version of the Pacific Disaster Management Portal which can be run off a DVD media and without internet connectivity. No complex installations are required. Updated versions of this portal should be always downloaded from this page. Should a more recent and up-to-date edition is required than what is provided here, contact the administrator and the version would be updated to the latest data available in the main web portal.

Custom Versions

Provisions to custom-select the category of data to be present in local editions would be catered for soon.

Formats

PDN - Local (FULL) is available in the following formats:

• ZIP format for Windows 2000/XP/Vista
• ISO format for Windows 2000/XP/Vista         
• ZIP format for Linux (Gnome 2.2+, Kernel 2.6+)
• ISO format for Linux (Gnome 2.2+, Kernel 2.6+)
  

Prerequisites

• Adobe Flash Player 8+, 2MB (click here)

Mobile Edition

Mobile Edition contains self-hosting essential sub-sets of data from the Pacific Disaster Net system. This edition runs on modern Java-enabled handsets. There are 1.2 billion Java-enabled handsets deployed world-wide, and nearly all handsets available for sale in the region from 2005 onwards is capable of running this edition.

Prerequisites

The application will run on a mobile handset which has the Java Mobile MIDP 2.0 platform. This comprises of nearly all handsets released in Fiji from l2005 onwards (such as Nokia, Motorola, Sony Ericssion, LG and including Blackberry, PalmOS etc).

See here for a listing of compatible phones which are MIDP 2.0, and hence this application.

Installation

Mobile handsets with data plans can install this application by pointing their WAP browser to http://www.pacificdisaster.net/mobile/PDN_Mobile.jad.

For handsets without data connectivity plans, download the two files to a PC, and transfer the application using the software provided with your phone either using USB cable, Infra-red or Bluetooth.

Files :
PDN_Mobile.jad (Application Descriptor)
PDN_Mobile.jar (Application Data)

Visuals

Current Status

Mobile Edition is currently in Beta status. While the application works flawlessly in various official vendor-specific emulators, it has not been tested on all physical devices. The application, has been though, tested on as many common handsets as possible.

Information

• Summary / handout (please click here for download)
• Poster (please click here for download)
• Presentation (please click here for download)

Contact

To find out more about, provide ideas for improvement or suggest information for inclusion you may contact:

Jutta May
Information and Database Management Adviser
SOPAC - Pacific Islands Applied Geoscience Commission
Ph: +679 338 1377 (ext 248), Fax: +679 337 0040
E-mail: jutta@sopac.org

PDN Team

Sachindra Singh System Developer (ACME) (E-mail: sachindra@sopac.org)

Fane Ravula Junior Researcher (E-mail: faner@sopac.org)

Sereima Kalouniviti Researcher (E-mail: sereima@sopac.org)

Shainaz Ali Junior Researcher (E-mail: shabnam@sopac.org)