10 homeland security technologies to watch in 2007 at Stephenson blogs on homeland security 2.0 et al.

10 homeland security technologies to watch in 2007

12/29/06

Last year, I was traveling at the end of the year, so a “10 Homeland Security Technologies to Watch in 2006″ feature went by the boards. It’s back for 2007, using the same criteria that I used for the list two years ago, because the networked homeland security approach primarily relies on commercial communication technologies that can adapt instantly to provide emergency information in a terrorist attack, pandemic, natural disaster, etc., and that foster collaboration (because that’s critical in an emergency and because collaboration in turn is a precondition for emergent behavior/swarm intelligence, in which a higher level of collaborative action results than could be predicted from the abilities of individual members of the group):

also having day-in-day-out applications so that they will both be familiar in an emergency (i.e., not requiring users to have to learn something new when they’re already stressed) and will have economic and/or social benefits so their purchase and deployment are more easily justified. Those that use commercial applications and devices benefit from a virtuous circle, in which new features and capacity in the devices sparks new applications to exploit those improvements — far more rapidly than would be the case in government-only communication systems and devices.
decentralized, so they are less likely to be rendered inoperative by attacks on a centralized switching facility, etc.
in the hands of the general public, so they leverage technology that is already in use (and, given the inevitable cost and procurement limits of government technology, more current) and that people are likely to have with them when disaster strikes, so they can get up-to-the minute information.
location-based, so that we can get away from lowest-common denominator evacuation and response plans that are likely to cause their own problems such as traffic jams.
empower the public, because authorities may themselves be incapacitated and our fate will be in our own hands, and because we may be more likely to listen to trusted friends and/or neighbors than distant authorities.
two-way, so that the general public and/or responders who may be the first to come upon an emerging problem can feed information back to authorities.
redundant, because various technologies have distinctive strengths and liabilities that may render them unusable, or, make them crucial fall-back options.
allow dissemination of information in advance so they can be quickly activated and/or customized in an emergency (instead of requiring massive data-dumps in the midst of a crisis).
IP based, because packet-based information will require less bandwidth in a situation where conserving it is crucial.
foster collaboration, because multiple agencies and jurisdictions may be involved and will need to share information from a wide range of sources on a real-time basis.

And now, the envelope please:

new uses, such as storing encrypted medical and family financial records, plus detailed emergency response information, for USB thumb drives, which now cost next to nothing. My current favs: either one of the sushi drives or the stuffed croc (although, if someone’s smart, they’ll create one in the shape of a locket [complete with picture of the grandkids], which your tech-phobic granny can wear around her neck, never realizing she’s also got her vital records with her.
an increasing number of cell-phone-based social networking apps, such as Boost loopt, Buddy Beacon, and Mologogo joining my old fav, Dodgeball.com, capitalizing on the trend of cell-phones that feature built-in GPS and cameras, to provide location-based, real-time info. While even ad-hoc groups are capable of emergent behavior (the Flight 93 passengers being exhibit A), it’s more likely to occur among those who already know each other, so apps that people routinely use to link their virtual and physical social networks will be that much more valuable in a crisis.
Similarly, more neighborhood-based blogs and web sites such as Neighbors for Neighbors, JP in Boston’s Jamaica Plain neighborhood or the NorthWest Carrolton one in New Orleans, which use online virtual neighborhoods to strengthen bricks-and-mortar ones, again building a sense of community that can be invaluable in a crisis.
Sorry I have to be coy about this one, but it involves a product that won’t be formally rolled out for several weeks, so I had to promise to not identify it at this time: a system built around “presence” applications that instantly polls all of a person’s communication devices until it is able to connect (critical in a crisis, when you may not be at your desk and some infrastructure may be compromised): a secure messaging system that would allow sharing of real-time, location-based info, polling of users through simple response options that are inside the message, such as yes/no, selection lists, or fill-in text boxes (in an emergency, that could answer vital questions about whether, for example, various neighborhoods have water supplies, electricity, or fuel), and, where the recipient has broadband access, receiving real-time video, etc.
More use of YouTube for things other than demonstrations of explosion technologies such as combining Mentos and Coke, or racial outbursts by soon-to-be-ex-senators, such as the educational videos from the UK Home Office or whistle-blowing such as Michael DeKort’s.
Disruption-tolerant networks (DTN), mobile nets that continue to work even if there are “… broken links and long delays.” They aren’t quite as efficient as fixed networks, but, in a crisis, some network is better than none.
More mashups similar to Garbage Scout, that can provide helpful information both in normal times and a disaster. One candidate (hear about this on All Things Considered yesterday, in its end-of-the-year predictions for the Web), is Wikimapia, which uses a wiki combined with Google Earth to allow people to describe local landmarks, natural attractions, etc.Of course, that location-specific information can also be helpful to terrorists looking for targets, but the cat’s out of the information bag, isn’t it? — so we’d better be exploiting the tools available to the Bad Guys, shouldn’t we?
More use of wikis, similar to fluwiki, to share group wisdom before, during and after a pandemic, terror attack, or natural disaster.
Do-it-yourself tech-based activism for disaster preparation similar to the Preemptive Media Project to survey pollution levels in Manhattan, perhaps using technology hacks such as Eyebeam’s, and/or Moport, an “online tool for generating and sharing mobile phone reports. The site enables people to collectively report in real-time using mobile phones or digital cameras and computers.”
More states to follow South Dakota’s lead with its statewide radio system, the first statewide trunked communication system to utilize digital VHF. Because it’s IP-based, it can route around obstacles and uses less bandwidth. It can also carry information as well as voice, allowing all public safety officials able to talk to one another.