[tdwg-tapir] combine TAPIR provider with cell phone networks?

trobertson at gbif.org trobertson at gbif.org
Fri May 16 17:20:10 CEST 2008


Hi Frank,

Would you not just use HTTP over the network?
WAP became obsolete because technology (mainly screen and battery
advancement in the last 10 years) allowed the devices to be capable of
having an embedded browser - that and bandwidth went up massively.  WAP
was a very simple compressed text format that takes me back and makes me
shudder at the early Nokia applications I used to put out in 1999...

> Do you know if we could use any protocol which could be installed on top
> of a Web-Service to use a GSM network as carrier for Internet information?

So basically the traditions "comms stack" looks like, TAPIR as XML over
HTTP over the cell network (GSM, CDMA etc)

I would assume that the network would be both costly and low bandwidth
though.  Given that a lot of this data does not change on a very rapid
basis, have you considered snapshot dumps (as we have been discussing) and
then regular postal service?  Even google ships hard drives around the
world - stick a few 10 terrabyte drives in a fireproof jiffy bag and do a
DHL overnight shipping, and work out the bandwidth of DHL ;o)

Thanks

Tim


>
>
> Hello everybody,
>
>
>
> I recently subscribed to the mailing list and read the last messages about
> the possibility to dump data from GBIF by using csv format.
>
>
>
> This type of questions interests me a lot because I'm currently
> contributing to a new project called "SABIN" (Sub-Saharan African
> Biodiversity Information Network) , which could lead (in the medium-term)
> to the installation of a "cache" copy of the GBIF main database hosted by
> the Kinshasa University. This copy could act as a relay-server for GBIF
> data in Central Africa.
>
> We would also like to encourage institutions from Central Africa to
> install TAPIR providers if they have they have the technical capacity to
> do so, and then provide data to GBIF.
>
>
>
> I contacted people working in Congo, who told me that the Internet
> facilities are good in Kinshasa but rather poor in the Eastern part of the
> country (in the Great Lakes Region).
>
> For that reason, nine Congolese universities are currently studying the
> possibility to use the cellular-phone  network to exchange electronic
> information, within the framework of a project which is called Eb at lé.
>
>
>
> Do you know if we could use any protocol which could be installed on top
> of a Web-Service to use a GSM network as carrier for Internet information?
>
>
>
> -I would like to know if it's possible to use a protocol and/or a tool
> that  could be installed on top  on a web service to connect to a cellular
> network.  I've heard about WAP 5/6 years ago but it seems now an obsolete
> technology.
>
> -Have you hear about this kind of infrastructure (cell phone network)
> involving a TAPIR provider?
>
>
>
> Thanks in advance
>
>
>
> Franck
>
> Franck Theeten
> Database Manager
> Royal Museum for Central Africa <http://www.africamuseum.be/>
> Department of African Zoology
> Leuvensesteenweg, 13
> 3080 Tervuren, Belgium
> Tel.: +32 2 769 56 24
>
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