Evert Bopp and Haiti
By Bock Feb 11th, 2010 | | Category: Technology
A character called Evert Bopp left a comment on a post here recently, but the spam filter stopped it. The comment had to do with bringing communications to Haiti using WIFI.
This is the site he was pushing: Haiti Connnect
It surprised me at the time that Evert Bopp was so quick to latch on to my post, promoting his own business, but I let it go. I’m not an expert on these things, so I passed it to our resident expert, and asked him to analyse Evert’s proposal.
Here’s what he said.
__________________________
Evert Bopp: The idiot.
WIFI is not a carrier grade product. Haiti is a rough country.
This proposal has serious potential for interference with the emergency services’ own networks. This proposal could prevent people from saving lives.
If you want to provide a service it has to be dependable. WIFI is not. The 2.4ghz spectrum is already overcrowded. There are only 13 channels available and there are only 3 non-overlapping channels: 1,7,and 13.
This idea is nuts.
Imagine going to Haiti with a container of cheap breakable gear, no backhaul provider to the internet and no way of finding one. Bad and all as Denis O’Brien is, he has the facilities to deploy a carrier-grade network.
Evert wants people to donate this list of equipment without displaying a practical plan on how to use any of it. If he thinks his knowledge of radio-Lite is going to help he really needs to get out the books and start with junior-cert science (pass).
I have worked for many years in the Radio field and can tell you that there is no earthly way that this harebrained scheme can have any benefits for the people of Haiti. He says he contacted Télécoms Sans Frontières but gives no details of what they have said. This is probably because they have enough real work to be doing without dealing with these kind of crazy ideas.
Do not give this man anything. Has he ever even heard of Haiti? All this kit will have to have armed guards and even then it will be stolen and any metals will be melted down and sold.
It won’t work. It can’t work.
Anyone donating to this apppeal needs their head examined.
___________
So there you have it.
One the one hand, we have sober, well-thought-out appeals to help a disaster zone, and against that, we have this sort of nonsense sucking funds away from genuine, experienced charities like Concern, Médecins Sans Frontières and the Red Cross, depriving Haiti of the sort of help it really needs.
___________
UPDATE 13th May 2010.
It now appears that Evert achieved nothing in Haiti, but had a fun time anyway, unlike the Haitians he was claiming to help.
Tell John I said hello.
Good forensics Bock
Bock, thank you for putting this post up, it gives me an excellent public platform to prove all of these type of statements wrong.
1) “WIFI is not a carrier grade product. Haiti is a rough country”: Did I ever state it *is* a carrier grade product?
I don’t think so. As for Haiti being a rough country, I know that and so do all of my volunteers. Most of the
volunteers have experience in working in disaster areas and quite a few have worked in Haiti before and
have a good local knowledge and contacts
2) “This proposal has serious potential for interference with the emergency services’ own networks. This
proposal could prevent people from saving lives.”: How so? I have been in almost daily contact with
more than a dozen NGO’s & relief organisations on the ground in Haiti to coordinate such things as
spectrum allocation & channel management. This to avoid interference with other networks or to avoid
duplicating someone else’s work. Stating that this proposal could prevent people from saving lives is
just plain unfounded and as stupid as saying that “a car has the potential to kill someone”. Put it in the
hands from an unskilled person who has no idea what they are doing and it can. Put trained
experienced people in charge (as I have done) and it can be of great benefit. No need for gutter level
hysteria.
3) “If you want to provide a service it has to be dependable. WIFI is not.”: Dependable is a subjective term
and has all to do with the expectation that is created. WiFi is not as dependable as a cabled infra-
structure. But then again these people had very little in telecoms infra-structure before the earthquake
and have even less infra-structure now. A properly built and managed wifi network is a huge
improvement. It might not give the level of performance of a fibre-optic network but WiFi is still used in
large parts of Ireland (for instance) to provide Internet access to people who would otherwise have no
access. It’s a widely used technology that has been around for a long time
4) “The 2.4ghz spectrum is already overcrowded. There are only 13 channels available and there are only 3
non-overlapping channels: 1,7,and 13.”: This is factually untrue, the 2.4 GHz spectrum might be
overcrowded in Ireland but we’re discussing Haiti here, a country with almost no 2.4ghz networks. If
you’re “expert” had done his research he would have known this. His statement about non-overlapping
channels is also wrong. The non-overlapping channels are actually 1,6 & 11. Only a small error but
something that a real expert would know.
5) “This idea is nuts”: This is a value statement and your “expert” is allowed to say this. Others would
disagree. The fact that organisations such as the UN, NetHope, Inveneo and others are doing the
same thing would prove that this idea is less “nuts” than your expert seems to think.
6) “Imagine going to Haiti with a container of cheap breakable gear, no backhaul provider to the internet
and no way of finding one”: Again I strongly suggest that you or your expert read our website, blog &
twitter-stream. We are not bringing cheap breakable gear. Most of our equipment has been donated by
manufacturers of the most high quality wifi hardware which has been deployed worldwide for years and
has proven it’s excellent performance time and time again. As for no backhaul provider? Let me point out
that we have been in working with MultiLink, Tropical Telecom, Teleco and a raft of other Telcos and ISP’s
in Haiti to arrange backhaul. The choice on which one will be used will depend on each individual
location. But we have addresses this issue, something that again illustrates that your “expert” is just full
of hot air rather than actual knowledge.
7) “I have worked for many years in the Radio field and can tell you that there is no earthly way that this
harebrained scheme can have any benefits for the people of Haiti. He says he contacted Télécoms
Sans Frontières but gives no details of what they have said. This is probably because they have enough
real work to be doing without dealing with these kind of crazy ideas”: Does your expert mind if I pass this
“information” on to the UN, Red Cross, Inveneo, NetHope and Multilink? I have been in contact with all
these organisations about our initiative and while most of them are already deploying or using wifi
networks in Haiti (and have done so in other disaster areas such as after hurricane Katrina & Ike) they
have clearly indicated that they welcome the knowledge, expertise, manpower & equipment that Haiti
Connect will bring. I don’t see however why I should make the content of every discussion (like the one
referred to) public. It would not serve any purpose and would only bore people to death.
8) “Do not give this man anything”: Hey, this is a free world. As much as your “expert” can say this I am sure
that people are mature enough to make up their own mind.
9) “Has he ever even heard of Haiti?”: I have actually and the collective knowledge of myself and my teams
of volunteers obviously far exceeds your “experts” knowledge which seems to be limited to his own little
world.
10) “All this kit will have to have armed guards and even then it will be stolen and any metals will be melted
down and sold”: True and that’s why we have already made arrangements for personal & equipment
security. For your information the price of a armed guard in Haiti lies between $150 – $200 per day. We
will also be staying in a walled and secure compound. Your “expert” is again pointing out the obvious
and seems to assumes that he is the only one with that knowledge. Laughable really…
11) “It won’t work. It can’t work”: We’ll just see about that won’t we? It’s easy to be a backseat driver and
shoot things down. It requires very little effort or intelligence and will make a person feel safe in their
own little world.
12) “Anyone donating to this appeal needs their head examined”: Another great example of tolerance and
open-mindedness of your “expert”. I will pass this statement on to everyone who has donated.
13) “One the one hand, we have sober, well-thought-out appeals to help a disaster zone, and against that,
we have this sort of nonsense sucking funds away from genuine, experienced charities like Concern,
Médecins Sans Frontières and the Red Cross, depriving Haiti of the sort of help it really needs”: I see
that you & your “expert” are of the same ilk and do not see the need to inform yourself about anything
before making untrue, biased and sweeping statements. It obviously makes you feel better and
confirms your warped world view. I find it disappointing as I have stood up for you and your blog in the
past but you have sunk to a new low. Riding roughshod over the backs of people in need (like the
Haitians) to satisfy your own personal grievances is just despicable.
For those of you who read this and who are interested in the facts I would like to point out that “Haiti Connect” is not just Evert Bopp. “Haiti Connect” has over 30 very skilled volunteers with a wide range of skills ranging from telecoms, wifi, networking to logistic & medical. A majority of the volunteers has previously worked in disaster areas or built networks in less hospitable parts of the globe. We are being supported by some of the leading manufacturers of wifi & networking hardware as well as a wide range of individual donors. To validate our mission and to coordinate our work we have been in almost daily contact with some of the following organisations: Nethope, Inveneo, International Red Cross, TSFI, SOS Journalistes, Digicel, MultiLink, UN, CDAC, World Food Program, Greater Washington Haiti Relief Committee, Help Haiti Heal, Tropical telecom, Haven Partnership, Teleco, Irish Minster of Defence & Foreign Affairs, IrishAid and more.
If people have any further question I am happy to answer these in person. Email me (support@haiti-connect.org) or call me on 086/8645099. You can also check our twitter-stream for updates: http://www.twitter.com/haiti_connect
[...] morning someone on twitter pointed me to a ill-informed and accusatory blog-post on "Haiti Connect". I’ve read the blog-post and am sorry to say that is is [...]
“Has he ever even heard of Haiti?”
In fairness there’s alot of truth in that Onion headline, “Earthquake reveals existance of small island nation”.
And as history teaches us over and over, there are some people who do not have the word “tragedy” in their vocabulary, it having been replaced by the word “opportunity”.
I doubt he’s the first (the people who tried to smuggle Haitian children over the border probably won that dubious honour) and he most certainly will not be the last.
Be careful who you donate to and try and make sure that your donation is as direct as possible and not through the people who stop you in the street and try to make you get a direct debit set up. Unless the person is volunteering directly for the charity it’s more than likely it’s someone working for a third party fund-raising company who have to be payed first (and are not at all a charity). When you sign up for small amounts like say €10/month, it can take anything from 8-10 months before the charity gets a penny, and that’s before they deduct administration costs.
Before anyone should donate anything to any sort of relief effort, do your homework and talk to other people.
Excellent analysis.
Please beware of this guy & his hair brained schemes.
Shame on him for attempting to divert resources from serious relief efforts.
support@haiti-connect.org……..more like one man with a laptop at a hotspot!
I’ve been following this on Twitter for some time. What a ridiculous idea. Worse still is the ferocity that Evert and his cronies attack anybody who questions this ‘plan’.
The only talent Mr. bopp possesses is an ability to type insults at a rate of knots.
Excellent post. Spread the word.
Very interesting and I completely agree. Its a really bad idea sending an isolated group of individuals to a rough spot like this. Chances are they’ll end up being in need of care of themselves. Laughable that someone can just setup a charity with no previous experience – and no transparency. What if this project doesn’t take off – where does all the stuff that was donated? Just because someone sets up a charity – doesn’t really mean its a good idea. Its all very naive.
http://haiti-connect.org/2010/02/reply-to-ill-informed-comments-on-haiti-connect/
http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/2009/en/act/pub/0031/index.html
The comments on his repsonse post are funny. Somebody called raran posed some polite and relevent questions to which he/she got the following answers.
“@raran My original blogpost contains more than sufficient information. If that is not clear enough to you I fear nothing will.
Evert.”
“@raran
I will talk to people who are serious about getting involved or support about the details. I fear you are neither.
Our blog, website & twitter-stream give enough of an insight in what is going on and what our plans are.
You don’t need to support us there are lots of other ways to “do your bit”. You can donate to the charity of your choice without even getting up from your chair.
We have decided to get up of our chair and to get actively involved. Feel free to critisize us for that but please provide valid arguments and/or reasoning.”
Baring in mind the polite tone of the very valid questions being asked, that’s basicaly saying “I don’t have to explain myself to you or anybody else, fuck off!”, which would be fine for a blog but not for a group looking for financial and logistical support for free in the name of a relief effort. Then there’s the pompous “We have decided to get up of our chair and to get actively involved.” line. Yes Evert, you have, but the question is the merit and validity of your involvement, not the fact that you are involved. The peple who tried to smuggle children out of Haiti were “involved” too.
At last someone with balls to take this on. I’m a spineless coward myself on this. It’s shocking that this guy is using Haiti to get attention. But none of this is new.
Sure you know of his “Greenhouse Limerick” incubation centre. There seemed to be a large fuss after a Bizcamp event in Limerick.
Also, this chap has been banned more than once from Boards.ie. Once i think he got into an argument about his area of expertise and unfortunately for him the guy who was a genuine wireless expert pointed out that Evert didn’t know the basics of wireless and the laws of physics somehow got broken with Evert’s expertise.
Go to Google Groups and do a search for his name.
Watch your back Bock!
For some reason, Akismet identifies Evert’s comments as spam, and they have to be manually retrieved which accounts for the delay in publishing them. Obviously somebody somewhere has marked him as a spammer in the past.
I’m not surprised. Evert seems to think that disagreeing with his technical analysis is defamation. We’re not impressed by this sort of bluster.
He could make a good start by quoting his charity number as registered with the Revenue Commissioners.
Reading up on some of Evert’s e-bay activities he might be aswell off reading the Sale of Goods Act.
Some people wouldn’t say in two sentences what they could in 50.
I can’t say that I am surprised at Mr Bopp’s comical attempt at intimidation by referencing the defamation act.
His other half is an undergraduate law student at UL.
Be careful out there guys.
Tom – “Be careful out there guys.”
What do you mean Tom?
C’est la truth — this post is about a misguided proposal to set up WiFi in Haiti. If you have some other issue to discuss, I’d be obliged if you’d do it elsewhere.
Maybe he should just rename it Evert Boppycock.
Bock – “C’est la truth (?) — this post is about a misguided proposal to set up WiFi in Haiti. If you have some other issue to discuss, I’d be obliged if you’d do it elsewhere.”
I was asking because it sounded a little dramatic. At best Bopp is just a well meaning but misguided person, at worst someone trying to turn a profit off the back of a tragedy. Tom’s comment (along with some apparant personal knowledge of the man in question) coupled with Samuel’s comment, “Watch your back Bock!” seems either a little over board or suggest that there would be something more sinister. I don’t see how a link to the defamation act posted by a man with a bigger internet trail than most porn sites could be sinister. I’m sure if you were willing to spend the time looking you’d find something defamatory he wrote somewhere, on some forum or something, or one of his mutliple blogs (at the very least there’d be a bit of blasphemy I’m sure)
The HAITI CONNECT » Reply to ill-informed comments on Haiti Connect. post is gone from Haiti Connect’s site. I guess it was generating a few to many questions. The plot thickens.
I think what has most people concerned is a lack of roadmap of what actually intends to be done? What happens to all the donated gear if things don’t take off?
Also Evert seems to have his own wireless company – http://www.airappz.com/ yet has not donated any equipment himself?
I found some of the requirements very funny
15 sleeping bags (lightweight)
Sunscreen
10-15 Mosquito nets
15 light-weight rainsuit (size XL)
Duct-Tape
10 boxes of latex gloves.
Like c’mon seriously can the volunteers not put their hands in their own pockets for these very basic / cheap requirements?
10 laptops (ruggedized preferred)
Same here – how about bringing your own laptops? what happens the donated laptops and iphones when work has been finished? What if the money for security runs out,as this will be an ongoing payment for maybe years to come,what then happens the equipment? does it just get left to be torn down meaning everything has been for nothing?
There are just far too many questions with regards this venture that have not been answered to give people confidence in terms of donating – this coupled with Evert’s professional history – http://evertbopp.com/?page_id=2 seriously how many self-appointed titles can one man have? the first ten titles contain the date to “present” , hhaiti-connect is just another title for Evert to indulgence is some more self delusion.
I was approached by Mr. Bopp when he first conceived this hair brained scheme, I posted the following on his blog
“Good idea, but, I feel, misguided, the scale of the disaster in Haiti has not yet been determined, the urgent need in Haiti at the moment is for water, food, medical supplies, shelter and the need to bury the dead.
The International Aid and Governmental agencies are mobilising to meet these needs, with regard to telecomms, I am sure Digicell are working to restore their network at the moment, and, given Denis O’Briens previous involvement in Charity, I don’t think he will be found wanting. the last thing the people of Haiti need at the moment is a group of well intentioned amateurs flapping around trying to implement a first world solution in a broken third world environment, and, using valuable resources that could be better deployed elsewhere.
If people really want to support the people of Haiti at this time, I suggest a donation to the Red Cross or any NGO like Telecoms Sans Frontiers who already have a presence on the ground.
His response
” @jbkenn “well intentioned amateurs flapping around “? how can you make a statement like that without knowing the people who are getting involved?
You might be “sure” of a lot of things but I (and those helping me) are actually communicating with different organisations to see how we can best apply or offer our skills & assistance.
As for using “valuable resources that could be better deployed elsewhere” I am actually arranging our own resources so anything we do will be in addition to the ongoing relief effort and we will certainly not detract from it.
It would be great if someone like you who runs a WISP would actually offer some support.”
As someone who has a modicum of experience in this field, and, with a range of real expertise in this field available to me, I would not dare to presume I was qualified to attempt such a project.
His hardware wish list consists of nothing more than “Toys for the Boys” on a field trip, and would not be considered or used by anybody with experience in this field. He will not get any support from anybody involved in Wireless Broadband deployment in Ireland.
His “Team” , I only know of 2 members of his team neither of whom has any network/wireless technical skills to bring to this project, one I believe is a paramedic, but in 8 years of involvement in this field, I have only once needed a band-aid.
The bits of Mr. Bopp’s bio I would be aware of
Organiser – Bizcamp Limerick (March 2009): Bizcamp Limerick was a one day event aimed at entrepreneurs and innovators to come together, share experiences & opportunities. The event was full off talks by experienced business people and leaders and served as a guide for anyone considering or taking their fist steps as an entrepreneur.
The less said about Mr. Bopp’s involvement in Bizcamp the better, let’s just say, he won’t be involved in the next Bizcamp
Founder – The Greenhouse Incubator (January 2009 – present): The Greenhouse is an (early stage) start-up incubator providing new ventures with the facilities, services and knowledge to successfully start their venture and develop their product/service.
One year on, The Greenhouse Incubator is nothing more than an empty shell top floor office in O’Connell Street and another figment of his over active imagination
co-organiser – Open Coffee Club Limerick ( January 2008 – present): The Limerick Open Coffee Club is one of the hundreds of Open Coffee Clubs worldwide. It’s a monthly, informal get-together of entrepreneurs, geeks, investors and anyone with an interest in technology and/or business.
Co-organiser?? as there are no organisers per se of Open Coffee Limerick and speaking as one who has been involved in Open Coffee Limerick since day one, we would love to know what exactly he was co-organising, thankfully he has not darkened our door in the last number of months.
CEO – AirAppz (October 2006 – present): Airappz provides wifi internet access at public locations, festivals, conferences, events & public transport systems. Airappz has also developed their own captive portal application including location based advertising & services.
As someone operating a Wireless ISP I would be aware of what is going on nationwide in our business, I cannot find anybody in Ireland who has seen or heard of an AirAppz deployment anywhere.
Freelance wifi consultant (April 2000 – September 2003): Worked on a wide range of national & international wifi related projects.
As Above, I first met Mr. Bopp in 2002, this is news to me.
Managing director – Bite Ltd (February 1998 – March 2000): Bite Ltd was a IT systems integrator, support provider and hardware/software supplier.
Bite Ltd. was still operating in Ennis in 2002, see here
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=39426&highlight=evert+bopp
Draw your conclusions.
[...] has been a huge furore most of it in private regarding Haiti Connect. This is a post regarding Haiti Connect and any [...]
[...] attacks on him personally and his efforts seem strange as they come from what might be termed [...]