First Wildfire tools workshop with Brigada Chiviquin

I am really grateful to have had the chance to do this first workshop with the Brigada Chiviquin. They are a self organized volunteer wildfire fighting group from Unquillo, Córdoba.

Our first contact was in a workshop they were facilitating for neighbors of my village. After their workshop (where they shared about how they organized, the main tools for the job, and encouraged the audience to get organized) I asked the group to stay a little longer so I could show them about Meshtastic and ATAK. The following 20 minutes where like an elevator pitch for me, and their response was clear: let's continue this conversation. We exchanged contact details, everyone went on their way.

The next week was a back and forth over chat with a few of them, particularly with Alex, who seemed to be the most invested in tooling for situational awareness.

He shared with me that they have been using Orux Maps, a proprietary software with a freemium model that is vastly used in Europe, and it is well suited for hilly regions like ours. I understood that it was going to be a challenging first step, as they seemed they had invested a good time into this software.

In order for them to get to know ATAK, I've prepared a few materials:

And a documentation to support the first steps into ATAK:

Comenzando con ATAK: Android Team Awareness Kit - HackMD

Puedes instalarla a través del playstore con este link: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.atakmap.app.civ

HackMD

Through chat, Alex showed that he was seriously interested in digging more about the tool, so I proposed to do a visit to the Brigade and facilitate an in-person workshop so they can get familiarized with the tools.

We settled on Today, this morning to be exact.

The workshop went amazingly! Everyone that participated engaged actively and shared their experience and their curiosity. In the 2.5 hours that we had, we talked:

1. What was their job about,
2. Their current communications strategy,
3. What Meshtastic has to offer,
4. What ATAK has to offer.

At the end of the meeting, everyone was really excited, and asked about next steps. After laying down a next steps plan, we departed.

I have the feeling that this is the first step of a long journey! Thanks Chiviquin for walking together!

To know more about them you can visit their Instagram profile.