..:: seize the day ::..

Back in Indonesia, I felt so excited. Only two days after arrived from Toulouse, I met with one of Deputy of Badan Koordinasi Nasional Penanggulangan Bencana (Bakornas PB). We discussed about the readiness of all site. And almost all sites except DKI were not ready yet. I started to worry because my work cannot be started unless the room are ready, and it will cause the delay of the project. Bruno Maestracci, the CIVIPOL person, really pushed hard to the Bakornas about room preparation. Sometimes I felt that the way he did the pressure can cause the friction to the Indonesian site. Anyway, without his pressure contribution, this project will never be finished.

Waiting the readiness of the room for DKI and Bakornas, I finished all necessary preparation including buying all the necessary equipment. Also I should went to Soekarno-Hatta Airport to ask the permit for all the goods coming from France. It was also the frustating task, because Indonesian official asked for import duty, which was I cannot fullfiled because it was a grant. So I ask Bakornas to handle this issues, as they are government bodies.

In the beginning of May 2007 all the goods are ready to distribute to DKI and Bakornas. So I send the goods to this two locations first. I worked on DKI first considering that the room is ready. In Bakornas the room is not ready yet. Below are some of the pictures at DKI office at that period. 

In DKI I felt the excitement of young staff. They were eager to use all the systems. There we are working very fast, me, Surjanto, Karine, Hilarion, Marc, Eric and anybody else worked so quickly to finish this site. By the end of May 2007, almost all the server, pc, peripheral already installed and configured in DKI.

Meanwhile in Bakornas, finishing of the room is running so late. I thought we were behind the schedule. In the end of May the room still not finish yet. Here are some of the pictures back then. These pictures was taken on May 15th and May 30th, 2007. According to Bruno from Civipol who provide the grant, he introduce the project since the end of 2005, so it should be aware by Bakornas staff that the room should be ready by the beginning of May 2007. I can Imagine how complicated the decision has to take on Indonesia Central Government body. I couldn’t imagine if they choose the same way to take the decision if the real disaster is coming, maybe it is too late to save the human life. 

Behind the schedule, we should wait for another one month. In the beginning of June 2007, my colleague from Toulouse, Hilarion would be on Jakarta. Even I already told him that the room is not ready yet, he insisted to go to Jakarta. So in the mid of June 2007, even that the room was not ready in Bakornas we should install everything that we can install, and by doing this we hope the civil contractor will speed up the finishing of the room. Below are some pictures taken between 13 to 25 June 2007.

After discussed with Hilarion Raobadia and Patrice Pessah from EADS Astrium, we finally decided to do installation for the server and routine room, while waiting the civil contractor to finish all the other room. Basically we installed and configured all the necessary item, because in this project Bakornas system will be the heart of the system. From here we managed the voip system using asterisk for all the other sites, make ftp server for the "RiskFrame" application and also setting the vpn to the other 3 sites. We also need the installation of PC in Bakornas routine room so we can simulate some situation better. At that time the DKI site installation almost finished, only radio and satellite TV is not configure. By installing the server in Bakornas we also can check the communication between DKI and Bakornas, by doing this we can also simulate some problem that probably happen before we implement the system to Banda Aceh and Padang which is reside thousands km on the other island. 

Here are some pictures of us at the time we installed the Bakornas system at the end of June 2007.

We needed more time in Bakornas because we need to wait the finishing of the room. Also we should simulate some condition that we found could influence the implementation in other site. After almost 2 months, thank God, finally the implementation in Bakornas is finished at the end of August 2007. The team from EADS Astrium and Infoterra also came from Toulouse to help the implementation ready on time (it is behind the schedule anyway). Here are some pictures of us at that the end of August 2007.

We also set up several training on how to use the system and also the RiskFrame software. Here are some pictures during that activities in Bakornas. Some people are so eager to follow the training and some people are not. Anyway we told them that we try hard to fullfil the requirement of the crisis center, and now it depends on them on how to use and to implement it to help them in their work.

At the end of August 2007, our team consider that all the work in DKI and Bakornas were finished. I should move to Banda Aceh and then Padang to implement the crisis center for that two provinces. It was also very exciting experience. We should worked on unfinished environment, in Banda Aceh I can not patience so I should went there twice. Learn by Aceh experience I only came to Padang after all the civil works is done, which is actually unfinished.

I will write the experienced in the next post, till then keep safe and stop global warming.