When the grid goes dark, the porch lights stay on.

Ottawa, a normal night

Every light in this city depends on the grid.

So does every phone, every router, and every outage map people would use to ask for help.

May 21, 2022

A derecho crosses the city at 120 km/h.

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Hydro Ottawa customers without power at the peak, more than half of the city. The utility even took its own outage map offline. Source

What is left

Three homes still glow.

They run Porchlight nodes on laptops and batteries. No internet, no cell service, and they can still hear each other.

12 Maple Crescent

One button. No app, no account, no signal.

Her beacon signs the call with its own key and sends 18 bytes over Bluetooth.

version and kindsession and press counterauthentication tag

Neighbours pass it on

The call hops from home to home.

• Signature checked
• Stored
• Passed on
• Gaps repaired next round

The link returns

When any node reaches the city, everything it held arrives.

• Verified again at City Hall
• Written to Tiger Data first
• Counted exactly once

Who first

Gemini helps decide who to reach first.

It sees anonymous references and needs, never names or addresses. It suggests. A coordinator decides.

1. 112 Maple CrescentOxygen concentrator (needs power), Lives alone, Over 90
2. 22 Pine WalkHome dialysis (needs power)
3. 39 Willow BendInsulin needs refrigeration

An example ranking for this story.

In her own language

An ElevenLabs agent calls her, in French.

“Bonjour, ici Porchlight pour la Ville. Nous avons reçu votre appel à l'aide. Êtes-vous en sécurité en ce moment?”

“Hello, this is Porchlight calling for the city. We received your call for help. Are you safe right now?”