Python and Tsunami Warning Systems

[Tim Churches]

Boc Cringely's column on the need for a grassroots (seaweed roots?) 
tsunami warning system for the Indian Ocean (and elsewhere) makes some 
very good points - see 
http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/pulpit20041230.html

In his following column ( 
http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/pulpit20050107.html ), he notes:

"Now to last week's column about tsunamis and tsunami warning systems. 
While my idea may have set many people to work, only a couple of them 
have been telling me about it. Developer Charles R. Martin and Canadian 
earth scientist Darren Griffith met through this column, and are in the 
initial stages of building an Open Tsunami Alerting System (OTAS). 
Although work has just started, they've established a few basic 
principles: OTAS will be very lightweight; will use openly available 
geophysical or seismic data sources; will be highly distributed and 
decentralized; and will be built to run on very low-powered commodity 
hardware. They currently foresee using Python and Java, but aren't 
religious about it. Anyone who wants to help out is welcome and their 
OTAS blog can be found in this week's links."

See http://otasblog.blogspot.com/

It seems to me that this would be a valuable and feasible type of 
project for the Python community to get involved in (or perhaps take the 
lead on). Something the PSF might even consider resourcing to some degree?

Tim C