One of the problems of, ah, maturing, is that you recognize your own contradictions. I’m good at the “vision thing” but not as good with building and maintaining. That’s not to say that I haven’t planned, implemented and maintained complex technology systems but I’m satisfied with the big picture and leaving the other stuff in more capable hands.

This is where my conflict about the digital future of Haiti surfaces again. I see clearly that the immediate need of feeding, sheltering, providing medical attention and protecting the people of Haiti is paramount and needs to be done now. But I can’t help looking down the road and around the bend to what’s there or, at least, what should be there. The question I raised in Haiti’s Digital Future was who makes the decisions?

At the recent Greener Gadgets conference, I distilled the question a little further to the members of the Green Living Begins at Home panel. How would you rebuild Haiti? Jay McLellan, President and CEO of Home Automation, Inc (HAI), took a deep breath and asked, “Do we have all day?” He then went on to say that the key is the infrastructure. “Make sure you have electrical, water and communications,” he continued. He felt that designing the infrastructure for renewal and sustainability was an obvious necessity. He also told me in an interview later that the system has to be modular so that it could scale up to make neighborhoods, villages and regions self sustaining if knocked off the main grid.

“It’s an obvious place for solar,” added Kimberly Lancaster, of Green Life Smart Life. “That energy alone can power everything from refrigeration to cooling” she said. Lancaster said she would also be looking for the basic resources of water and energy and the durability of materials used in the rebuilding.

”Sarah Krasley, Manager of Sustainability at Autodesk, spotlighted missing link we, in the developed nations, continue to make when offering aid and comfort. “I think that a key is to invite the people of Haiti into the conversation around design. Find out what they need and what wasn’t working before. It’s very simple, but I think that would make a huge impact.”

Everyone on the panel nodded in agreement.

One of the first lessons I learned about planning or upgrading a system was to do a needs assessment. Why do we often forget, when doing long term good works, to follow that simple rule?

Just a remainder of how it still looks as of March 4, 2010.

Credit: Reuters/Matthew Bigg

One of the reasons, I spend most of my time walking the back walls of major trade shows like CES is the hidden gems found there. Startups or international suppliers can’t afford the mega-booths of the major players. My favorite find this year was U Power generators.

poto by Robert S. Anthony

I’m strolling along and see a large replica of “Hello Kitty” with a guy pumping away on a dual hand crank. It’s Danny Hu of Porng da – Enterprise Co., Ltd., In Taiwan. The hand generator can store enough battery power to charge most small electronic devices such as cell phones, game consoles and laptops. Next to the kitty were several  exercise bikes. But what looked like high-tech gym equipment was, in fact, a device to power up a much larger generator.

Hunman powered Generator

These batteries could run power tools and electricity in a small house. I do a lot of technology consulting in developing nations and a major problem is infrastructure. It’s no good to donate a tractor to a rural community if there are no spare parts to repair it when it breaks down. I pointed this out to Mr. Huhe who said that any old bicycle could run the generator. The models on display had readouts to indicate how much power was in the generator and how much more pedaling it would take to bring the unit to full power. Since the batteries can snap in and out, the purchase of additional batteries could guarantee power as long as someone was around to keep pedaling. Infrastructure simplified. Unfortunately, as of CES, there were no US distributors for U Power. Just a reminder, there are rural communities in the US which are just as disconnected from the grid as communities in  rural Tanzania.