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Fed. Computer Week Homeland Security 2.0 op-ed
By WDavidStephenson | September 4, 2007
On the heels of 
my Federal News Radio appearance last week with Federal Computer Week Editor Chris Dorobek talking about disruptive technologies’ impact on government, here’s the magazine’s special issue on that same topic.
It includes an op-ed by yours truly on how both Web 2.0 technologies and mentality (i.e., an emphasis on collaboration and empowering individuals) is particularly appropriate for homeland security.
No great surprises for regular readers of this space, but I emphasized that Homeland Security 2.0 approaches are invaluable for these needs both because:
- applications and documents that are web-centric will still be available even if your computer isn’t, a vital consideration in a situation when you may be displaced.
- when you must alter strategy and tactics on the fly because of rapidly-changing (and perhaps unprecedented) circumstances, you need as many sources of information and insight as possible, plus a wide range of ways to collect and spread information instantly. That is facilitated by Web 2.0 apps, especially wikis and RSS feeds, plus mobile personal communication devices such as cameraphones.
- As an added bonus, when you facilitate collaboration, you also increase the chance of emergent behavior that will yield valuable insights because the whole of the group’s thinking is greater than the sum of its parts.
In his editorial, Chris Dorobek makes the same points that I do about how technologies are ahead of institutions’ ways of capitalizing on them, that authorities have lost control of the flow of information (and the power that entails), and that kids are way ahead of officials in their understanding of these powers (yes, that’s Stephenson’s Law #3 rearing its snot-nosed, multi-pierced, tatooed, iPod-ed head again….)
“‘The traditional government model has been based on the idea that information is power and, if you keep information to yourself, you can be powerful. Today, that model seems outdated. We are discovering a new model that is based on the idea that as individuals, we can be smarter — and more powerful — by sharing information. And increasingly, technological tools allow organizations to take advantage of that intelligence network.
“‘Want proof? Just talk to college kids today — the generation of young people who are born digital. They naturally share information, and often they do it so freely that it sometimes makes the rest of us uncomfortable. But the tragic shootings at Virginia Tech earlier this year illustrated how young people use information and tap into networks. Students didn’t wait for the authorities to tell them about the shootings, and they didn’t wait for reports from the traditional news media. They used Web sites to inform one another.
“‘It was a powerful response but also disruptive to the traditional way of doing business.’”
That it was, Chris!
The sooner officials realize that things have changed, are out of control (for the better!), and start to capitalize on that , the better off we’ll all be.
Technorati tags:
homeland security War on Terror antiterrorism technology e-democracy crowd-sourcing crowdsourcing smart mobs swarm intelligence emergent behavior networked homeland security government government IT collaboration Tim O’Reilly web 2.0 homeland security 2.0 disaster management 2.0 disaster management disaster planning disaster planning 2.0 Federal Computer Week
Topics: empowering public, technology, policy and politics, collaboration, e-gov transformation, networked security | |
