By: Tim Young
"There's no disaster that can't become a blessing, and no blessing that can't become a disaster." -Richard Bach
2011, thus far, has seen a disturbing array of tumult and despair. As I began to write this letter, I had just finished reading about the tornadoes that ripped through Missouri, adding to the growing slate of deadly storms that have plagued the United States. Worldwide, floods and tsunamis and earthquakes have featured prominently in the headlines, and entire nations have been forced to rebuild.
From a communications standpoint, it is interesting to examine how people communicate during and after these unforeseen disasters, whether natural or manmade. How are service providers preparing for the worst while hoping for the best? How do service providers help to facilitate the rebuilding process? What can we learn from the successes and failures along the way?
We tackle all of that in this issue. We bring you stories on the rebuilding efforts following the earthquakes and tsunamis in Japan. We discuss text-donations, and the role they play in facilitating disaster relief. We take a look at how service providers are preparing for the worst, and where they may need to spend additional time preparing. We look at how a single moment can render the communications network useless, and how consumers find ways around that outage to connect with their loved ones and reassure them that they are okay.
In addition, this issue marks the beginning of our eighth volume. Since 2004, we’ve been covering success and disaster, alike, and have been fortunate to be involved in such an important and dynamic industry as this. As we enter our eighth year, we will continue our efforts to deliver the latest and best in OSS/BSS news and opinion. Through new initiatives like our Research Center, we continue to look for ways to pass along the most compelling media touching the communications IT space to our readers. If there’s anything we can do to make the publication even more relevant, we want to hear about it. You can reach me anytime at editor@pipelinepub.com.
We hope you find the issue timely and valuable, and thank you for turning, once again, to Pipeline.
We wish you all a safe and happy summer.
Best regards,
Tim Young
Editor-in-Chief
