Volunteer Opportunity Details:

Come be our IT/Comms Advisor, on a historic ship in a container port in exciting Red Hook, Brooklyn!

The young, innovative, waterfront-themed non-profit PortSide NewYork needs help with the IT challenges created by having offices on a 170’ ship on the end of a long pier. PortSide currently relies on laptop broadband card for internet access and seeks a high speed connection to support several workstations and internet phone. We need help creating an internal network, website maintenance and data storage and backup in a physical structure that makes the usual WiFi environment challenging (the ship has steel walls and steel+cement floors).

Primary Needs

• Assessing and improving cellphone access in a steel ship on a pier that is not well covered by cellphone antennae.
• Assessing the best method for establishing internet access in a location that is not fixed (ships move up and down and back and forth with tides and waves) and is several hundred feet away from the nearest phone line
• Assessing methods for internet access that can move when the ship moves to other piers
• Recommending and taking steps to address internal networking needs, both for internet and for file sharing.
• Recommending and taking steps to address internal data management needs, including redundant backup.
• Recommending and performing software upgrades and addressing spyware/adware/malware problems
• Provide advice on how to improve website maintenance so that we can have multiple users and have off-site users maintain the site. (Site is currently built and managed with FrontPage).
• Liaising with outside IT vendors and identifying sources of inexpensive/donated equipment

Due to security issues, possession of a TWIC card would be helpful, but not necessary.

This opportunity is sponsored by: PortSide NewYork This volunteer opportunity is available to the following types of volunteers Senior Citizens Welcome We need volunteers who are free at these times Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa Su Morning X X X X X X X Afternoon X X X X X X X Evening Occasional Contact Person: Carolina Salguero, Executive Director, (917) 414-0565, (email) View all organization contacts Address: PO Box 195 Brooklyn, NY 11231 Directions: Directions to the tanker Mary A Whalen. The Whalen is in the “Port Authority Brooklyn Marine Terminal” operated by American Stevedoring. Use entrance at the corner of Hamilton Avenue and Van Brunt Street: 70 Hamilton Avenue Brooklyn, NY 11231 ô€,f You need a photo ID to enter the port. ô€,f it can be 10 degrees cooler than inland, especially if the wind comes up. Sweaters, hoodies, etc. recommended. Web Site: http://www.portsidenewyork.org Miscellaneous Information Borough Brooklyn Volunteer Shifts Days and times can be adjusted to accommodate the volunteer.