10-point “smart mobs for homeland security” strategy

9/29/04

W. David Stephenson is outlining a new approach
to national security that is closer to a ‘new politics’ way
of organizing a government service than anything I’ve seen.
His basic premise is that the government should treat
the population as an asset whose intelligence should be
harvested. Rather than supplying tools and directions,
the government should be honest and upfront with its
goals, and let citizens take it from there.”
Matt Stoller, Blogging of the President 2004

 

10-point “smart mobs for homeland security” strategy

Not only have valuable resources (including a heck of a lot of first responders who are responding to raids in Faludja with the National Guard rather than patroling Main St., USA) been diverted to Iraq, but also there’s been a deplorable lack of effective programs to inform and empower the general public. As a result, not only have people’s fear of a terrorist attack receded to pre-9/11 levels according to one poll (bear in mind it was done in mid-summer), but also polls show the Ready.gov program has been so ineffective (except for duct tape sales) that few of us have done anything — or know anything — to prepare for an attack.

Risk communications experts will tell you, that the chance of panic after an attack increases when people don’t feel they personally can do anything to cope with it. People literally may be scared to death if there’s an attack — and the ones who survive will vote against those who they feel left them vulnerable.

Given this assessment, I offer this 10 point plan to transform the public from skeptical bystanders into informed, empowered partners in homeland security:

  1. Most important, treat us as adults.This is both the simplest, and hardest step to take. None of the other points can be achieved if government does not treat the general public as intelligent people, motivated to protect ourselves, our families, and our communities against terrorism. Ernie Allen, president and CEO of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children put it best when speaking at the only event I know of to really address this issue of empowering the public, Johns Hopkins’ The Public as an Asset, Not a Problem conference, “My premise today is that if we tell people the truth, if we identify roles and are specific about what they could do, and if we mobilize them to work with existing public agencies and private efforts, we magnify the value and the impact of the whole.”
  2. Inform us, don’t pacify us. Unfortunately, every time the alert level changes, government officials issue vague warnings about being “alert.” Alert to what? Contrast that to what the Israeli government, with much more experience in fighting terror than we’ve had does: publishing and distributing nationwide booklets telling people specifics such as types of clothing bombers might wear or how to recognize a car altered for terrorists’ use.
  3. Call me on my cell. I don’t begrudge the money being spent on overcoming the woeful lack of interoperability between police units, but I have yet to hear of how the government would capitalize on the billions of dollars worth of advanced, mobile communications devices that individuals carry with them daily, including cell phones, PDAs and Wi-Fi laptops. Consider this: 1/4 of all cell phones to be sold this year will be camera phones. A TV station in rural PA tells viewers how to take pictures of breaking news with your cameraphone that might be used on-air — have you heard of any advice from the FBI on what kind of cameraphone image would help them?
    Equally important, as more types of personal communication become wireless and packet-based, they increase the chances that vital messages could get through if conventional circuitry is disrupted.
  4. Capitalize on familiar private-sector solutions. The last thing that you need in a crisis is to have to learn some sort of emergency communication system that you’ve never encountered before — not only is there a learning curve, but there’s the chance that it simply won’t work. Fortunately, private-sector entrepreneurs are coming up with a wide range of applications that have day-in-day-out use, so people will be familiar with them, and could be switched in a nanosecond to providing emergency information. For example, one of my clients, YellowPepper, uses its Dartz systems to send SMS text ads to Gen Y teens — the same system could blast simultaneous emergency warning info. Dodgeball.com, which let’s you send SMS messages to those on your contact list who are within a 10-block radius of a bar or restaurant is popular among 20-somethings — but it could also be used to send location-specific evacuation plans. Many of these services are willing to cooperate: they just need to be asked and coordinated.
  5. Work with existing groups, but also facilitate ad-hoc ones. Much of the government’s strategy for community homeland security response relies on existing local organizations such as Citizen Corps Councils. However, as Robert Putnam documented in Bowling Alone, membership in civic organizations is declining in general, and many political liberals would never join an organization under this administration’s aegis after Poindexter’s Stazi-like “TIPS” program. Fortunately, due to personal technology and community-building applications, it is also possible — if the groundwork is set in advance, to create the kind of effective ad hoc groups on a real-time basis that I’ve described as “smart mobs for homeland security.”
  6. Be realistic about advance planning. Whether it’s denial, inertia, or whatever, a sizeable percentage of the population probably won’t do any preparation in advance of an attack. That’s why I created my Terrorism Survival package for handheld devices — if you’ve at least loaded it on your PDA in advance, you can instantly access the relevant information when you need it. More applications of this sort need to be developed and widely deployed.
  7. Capitalize on new location-based communications. With the slow introduction of e911, inclusion of GPS chips in cell phones and independent services such as the Dodgeball application I mentioned previously, it’s now possible to create customized, localized response instructions and distribute them on a real-time basis. This means that you no longer need to have one-size-fits-all evacuation plans for major metropolitan areas, but can instead offer a variety of options depending on where a person actually is at the moment a situation arises. Think of the potential this would offer for evacuations from Florida and other states as hurricanes loom!
  8. Make it interactive. One of the great powers of the Internet is that it allows us to replay formerly one-way means of communications with interactive ones which actively solicit feedback and modify processes based on it. This is sadly lacking in the DHS web sites.
  9. Use this situation as an opportunity to educate us. A store near me emptied in seconds two years ago when several devout Muslim men dropped to their knees at sundown to pray. As the US becomes increasingly non-white, we are either going to learn to understand and honor our differences, or we won’t need terrorists: we’ll destroy our own society. Thus, any kind of program to directly involve the public must include components to help the general public recognize what are the routine practices of those who differ from us. As the motto of the C.A.T. Eyes program says, “Watch America with Pride, not Prejudice.
  10. If you make us partners, also hold us accountable. Fighting terrorism can’t be an excuse for harrassing neighbors, persecuting minorities, etc. If we are given power, we must also be given responsibility. There must be stiff penalties for any activities of this sort, and anyone making an accusation must do so under the possibility of prosecution.

One more thing. As the overthrow of the president of the Philipines by cell phone text messaging and the last-minute ouster of the Spanish government show, government has effectively lost control of communications content and flow. Either the government can begin to use these new technologies to work with the general public for anti-terror preparation and response, or it risks the danger that the people will simply circumvent government and take matters into our own hands as a matter of self-preservation.

The choice is theirs

more that I and others have written about “smart mobs for homeland security”