The Australian Prime Minister used Serval this morning

Today we had a surprise visit from our Prime Minister to the University to make some announcements of local importance in the lead up to the election.  He also made a brief tour of a couple of research labs, including ours, at the suggestion of the University.  The end result: The Prime Minister and I had a short exchange using MeshMS on the Serval app:

And the result:

Not how I was expecting this morning to be, but very nice all the same.

Pacific Pilot is Go!

[Deutsch unten]

The announcement was made today by the Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, that together with our long-time partners in New Zealand Red Cross, and our collaborators in Germany at TU-Darmstadt and Philips University in Marburg, our submission was one of the five grand winners of the challenge, and we now have funding and mandate to undertake a pilot in one or more pacific nations over the coming year:

http://foreignminister.gov.au/releases/Pages/2016/jb_mr_160506d.aspx?w=tb1CaGpkPX%2FlS0K%2Bg9ZKEg%3D%3D

Together with our existing grants from Radio Free Asia, and the NLnet Foundation, this means we have a busy few months ahead as we implement a number of technical and user-interface improvements, so that we are ready for the pilot, beginning most probably in the new year.

This is needless to say a very existing development, and it would not have been possible for us to reach this point without the continuing and generous support of so many people and organisations.

Und auf Deutsch...

Endlich war es angekündigt bei unsere Ministerin des Außenpolitik und Handel, dass zusammen mit NZ Rote Kreuz und TU-Darmstadt und Philips Universität Marburg, wir sind einer der fünf Gewinner des „Pacific Humanitarian Challenge.“ Das heißt, dass wir haben Geld für eine Pilotstudie in ein Pazifik Land.  Wahrscheinlich wird das früh 2017 sein.  Die Pressemitteilung ist hier:

http://foreignminister.gov.au/releases/Pages/2016/jb_mr_160506d.aspx?w=tb1CaGpkPX%2FlS0K%2Bg9ZKEg%3D%3D

Wir haben schon Zuschüsse von NLnet Foundation und Radio Free Asia.  Ingesamt heißt das, dass wir haben dieses Jahr viel zu machen! Wir werden beide Technische und UI Verbesserungen und auch mehr Arbeit auf unsere iOS Fassung.

Natürlich haben wir hier nicht allein bekommen. Sondern sind wir hier nur durch die Hilfe von viele Leute und Organisationen.