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May 06, 2003
Web Services
I gave my talk this afternoon on Web services. My slides are available online. This was a nice group to give this talk to: a bunch of Federal CIOs with a few people from state and local government thrown in. I shared the podium with Martin Smith, who is the Web Services Program manager at the Dept. of Homeland Security. I spoke first and that was good because mine was the more general, this is what Web services is all about talk and then Martin spoke about some specifics regarding DHS.
02:11 PM | Recommend This | Print This
Homeland Security is Local, Local, Local
Hap Cluff is the CIO for the City of Norfolk. Norfolk has established a local disaster preparedness and emergency response plan. Their model for collaboration has gotten some publicity. Hap's primary point: local government and local CIOs are on the front lines in Homeland Security. The problem is bridging data silos, not only inside local government, but with other government agencies at the county, state, and federal level, as well as volunteer organizations like the Red Cross and Salvation Army. Unless you bridge these silos, first responders won't have the resources that they need to do their job.
First responders, data, volunteers, victims, care facilities and infrastructure are all local. The challenge is to develop interconnected and complementary systems. The problem is that all of the data that needs to be shared cannot be shared with the right person at the right time and in the right format.
To be viable, the system needs to be cost-justified on the basis of day-to-day local operations. Further, the infrastructure should be able to handle peaks in demand when a crisis hits. For example, when a crisis hits, how long does it take to create web resources for data dissemination and are those resources up to the task? Do IT workers have the training and knowledge to do it, but more importantly have they drilled with first responders and practiced doing what they will need to do in an actual emergency?
Gartner says that data degrades at the rate of 2% per month. The data needs to be easy to maintain. A process needs to be in place for continually improving the data and maintaining it. The process must instill confidence that the data is up-to-date and correct or it will not be used.
Norfolk is deploying a Ricochet system for mobile data connectivity. They are also using a Utah-based solution for interactive HDTV; USD TV. Norfolk views their citizens as a critical component in homeland security and want them all connected. They want to roll these out to every household. This provides a convenient method for notifying people of emergency information, Amber alerts, and so on as well. You can click-out to related Web information right on the TV.
09:44 AM | Recommend This | Print This
Information Dragnets
This morning's opening session is a panel on the DC sniper case. The moderator is Alisoun Moore, the CIO of Montgomery County, MD. The panelists are Michael Bouchard, SAIC of the Baltimore Field Division of ATF, Thomas Didone, Capt. Montgomery County Police, and Judy Wood, CIO for Maryland's Dept. of Public Safety and Corrections. The level of collaboration that happened in this case would have been unthinkable before 9/11. Collaboration is now seen as necessary. The theme that keep coming up over and over is "whatever it takes" to solve this case.
Technology included call centers, GIS, databases, queries of other data sources, setting up over 200 PCs with high speed network links for the task force (in 24 hours), connecting people to a brand-new 800 MHz radio network (the interoperable public safety band). Importantly, these tools were ready to be deployed. There's no time to prepare once the crisis has started. What's more, you need space to deploy them in. This is something governments have to be very disciplined about since its all too easy, for politicians especially, to put off spending to prepare for a crisis that might it come.
Tom Didone makes the point that cooperation was enhanced by a joint operations center. A JOC shifts focus from territory to operations and roles. This was true at the Olympics as well. The Olympic Public Safety Command ran a huge JOC with seats and well-defined roles for everyone.
The task force collected a lot of data on credit card and cell phone usage, all honorable discharges from the military with certain training, all .223 round purchases in Maryland, all hunting license holders, all male drivers in certain age ranges, etc. This data was put into an application called CaseExplorer that served as both a data warehouse and an analysis tool. This data, combined with tips, produced over 700 leads a day that had to be investigated by officers on the street.
Judy Wood says that her organization is not part of Maryland's Homeland Security task force. When people think of first responders, they don't think of the data and IT resources that these first responders use to get the job done. This isn't surprising. In Utah we had to constantly fight to get the cops to think about the technology aspects of Homeland Security. They think of it from an intelligence standpoint, but don't foresee the use in the crisis. This is a challenge for IT providers in government because when the crisis hits, they will be called on and they may not be ready.