idealist.org

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

If you think you have the required skills and enjoy an opportunity to use them in a unique environment, call us at

(917) 414-0565