INTRODUCTION
The modern technology/business concepts of open source, crowd sourcing and information clouds would not have been entirely foreign to the national defense environment of World War II.
The terminology would not have been understood, of course, and the communications infrastructure would not exist for decades. What did exist, however, were complex organizational structures of citizens’ groups, such as the Civil Air Patrol, WAVES, Coast Guard Auxiliary and others that shared expertise, provided information and augmented the national defense efforts of the Federal Government.
Today, the resiliency of the U.S information infrastructure lies in the de-centralized structure of the Internet itself. The ability to provide emergency information, such as warnings about terrorist attacks or natural disasters, evacuation route information, etc. – quickly and without interruption – should progress beyond the broadcast phase. The web, and in particular Web 2.0, or “Cloud Computing,” with its read/write capabilities, can be an incredible tool for developing first aid and emergency skills; and for recruiting volunteers to support local emergency responders, disaster relief and community safety.
Aggregation or Mashup of Data
The use of “mashups,” typically defined as a web pages or applications that combine data or functionality from two or more external sources to create a new system, is not exactly a new concept. Federal, state and local governments have, for decades, formed consortiums between data producers which aggregated layers of information from each community for use by all. Now, however, information can be shared much more quickly, and there is a much wider audience who can both contribute and apply data.
Here is one example of the practical use of aggregate data by a government office. While working for the Louisville Metro Parks and Recreation Dept. in 1995 I was asked to find addresses of all residents who would be affected by development of a new road just outside the park system. The traditional method was to manually search the phone book find this information.
Using the agency’s Geographic Information System (GIS), which was new at the time, we were able to select all park boundaries on a map, create a buffer of 1 mile of all boundaries, then use the buffer zone to query another database of addresses which fell within the area. Once these addresses were retrieved from the system, we were able to print address labels so we could send notifications to the affected residents.
Emergency Notification and Response
The same GIS system used by the parks department also provided the base data for the county’s Enhanced or E-911 system. E-911 is a system that automatically associates a physical address with the calling party’s telephone number, then routes the call to the appropriate safety agency (Fire, Police etc.) that serves that address.
Immediately upon call arrival, the caller’s address and information is displayed to the dispatcher. Therefore the person calling for help does not have to provide this information, which can be difficult or impossible during emergency situations.
History of Citizen Action during War
The Office of Civilian Defense (OCD) was established by President Franklin Roosevelt by Executive Order in May, 1941. This office had a mandate to meet a wide array of needs, including protecting the civilian population, maintaining morale, and promoting volunteer involvement in defense. The office was also charged with ensuring that federal agencies responded to community needs resulting from the war.
Although The OCD failed, probably due to too much centralized control, other community-based, civilian-founded organizations that came into being during this time were more successful at mobilizing civilians to assist with the government’s efforts. Many of those organizations are still in operation today.
For example, The Civil Air Patrol and Coast Guard Auxiliary mobilized civilian volunteers to defend the nation. Amateur radio operators, or “hams,” were vital to the allies’ war effort. In 1939, many hams were called up into the RAF Civilian Wireless Reserve (later the RAF Volunteer Reserve), the Territorial Army Signals Unit, and the Royal Navy Volunteer (Wireless) Reserve. Radio “hams” were also recruited to perform the extremely valuable work of direction finding – or “DF-ing” which finds the direction of signals to the point or origination. This cadre of amateurs found the location of submarines, surface warfare ships and even spy networks located in the UK.
The lessons of the past applied to today’s technology
Information technologies must work together without interfering with one another when multiple jurisdictions, organizations and functions come together to respond to an incident. The successes and failures of the past illustrate that a loosely structured or “coupled” software development parlance approach, which agrees on a common language, can provide valuable intelligence information cheaply and quickly.
Efforts are already underway in information sharing and community-based analysis that combine the knowledge base of a wide range of disciplines. For example, the InfraGard is a partnership between the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the private sector, whose mission is to use volunteers’ collaborative efforts to protect the U.S. IT infrastructure.
Homeland Security Public Information Dashboards using Really Simple Syndication (RSS)
The most substantial difference between the emergency broadcasts of the Cold War era and today is the technology of two-way rich content. Web 2.0 aka “The Cloud” provides the unique capability of being both an information publisher and a resource in that collection and dissemination of information can occur within the same interface. RSS feeds have been in use for years as a means for end users to tailor information to their own interests. Data feeds which use Extensible Markup Language (XML) can be subscribed to as static web pages or used as mash-ups in new aggregated feeds displayed in maps or other display types. The value to the average citizen end-user can be as simple as having emergency cell-phone text of an active shooter at a child’s school. To the intelligence analyst, having access to many layers of data from many sources can assist the analyst in discovering patterns by aggregating data. The average citizen and the analyst can develop their own data dashboard from the same fountain of RSS data feeds.
The Requirement for Discovery Metadata
However in order for RSS and data dashboards to have any value, they have to be discovered. Information about the product must be available to enable the discovery process. In search terminology, this data is referred to as discovery metadata. Additionally the value of a product and it applicability to a requirement will not be understood if the metadata does not accurately describe the product. There’s already been groundwork for standard data discovery formats with the following examples:
Homeland Emergency Response Exchange (HERE) to provide available environmental, health, and natural resource information to state agencies involved in homeland security / emergency response planning and implementation.
Homeland Security Data Exchange
This data exchange allows partners to make available their environmental, health, and safety information to the national security, law enforcement, and intelligence communities.
CONCLUSION
Building information portals using cloud technology will require motivated citizens de-centrally organized around agreed upon data exchanges. Once the groundwork of standards, XML schemas, and publicity of available information portals are laid, the cloud can be used to augment and improve current emergency and disaster response. The information infrastructure and will exists to enable visibility and access for the public to find the services available. The cloud paradigm of publish allows the information to flow in the other direction, providing valuable non-intelligence, non-defense information to be used in new and effective ways.
NOTES
Source: The Secret Wireless War: The Story of MI6 Communications, 1939-1945, by
Geoffrey Pidgeon, Published by UPSO, 2003. ISBN 1-84375-252-2.]
