Time for a switch: homeland security 2.0
You’ll notice this blog has a new title: Stephenson blogs on homeland security 2.0 et al.
Same basic content, but the name change reflects the fact that my vision of homeland security is largely congruent with the description Tim O’Reilly, generally acknowledged as the “father of Web 2.0,” gives it:
“Web 2.0 is the network as platform, spanning all connected devices; Web 2.0 applications are those that make the most of the intrinsic advantages of that platform: delivering software as a continually-updated service that gets better the more people use it, consuming and remixing data from multiple sources, including individual users, while providing their own data and services in a form that allows remixing by others, creating network effects through an ‘architecture of participation,’and going beyond the page metaphor of Web 1.0 to deliver rich user experiences.
Bear in mind that Web 2.0 is an overused, somewhat vague, and subject to abuse term (check Jim Rapoza’s “Next-gen Jim Rapoza” for a good send-up!). However, I do think it gives a fairly accurate idea of what my networked homeland security vision (hmmm, will I need to change that to homeland security 2.0 as well? Let me know what you think..):
- Web 2.0 is the network as platform, spanning all connected devices
That’s critical for disasters and terrorist attacks, because you can’t tell which devices will still be connected; you need to integrate as much incoming information as possible (and from as many sources as possible, including the public); and because you also need to disseminate information as widely as possible, both because you don’t know which devices will connect on the outbound side either, and because the more confirmation of information a recipient gets from as many diverse sources, the more that will be confirmed and their natural skepticism overcome. - delivering software as a continually-updated service that gets better the more people use it
BTW, it’s time for me to acknowledge the many users who continually upgrade and enrich this particular software, WordPress: it is robust and continually evolving precisely because it gets better the more people use it. The same might be said for the critical lingua franca of emergency communications, XML, and its more focused emergency communications subset, EDXL, which derives its strength by being developed by an open collaborative. Because it is XML, it can transcend the limits of individual data bases and seamlessly meld them. - Consuming and remixing data from multiple sources, including individual users, while providing their own data and services in a form that allows remixing by others, creating network effects through an ‘architecture of participation’
That, IMHO, is as critical as the network as a pattern, because it allows the kind of user-generated content (such as cameraphone videos) that I maintain could be so critical in a crisis, because it can promote mashups such as GarbageScout (someone’s gotta revive that service, BTW — it’s just too important a tool in reducing waste generation) and because the network effects it can promote include the synergies of “swarm intelligence.”
Yes, it’s slightly gimmicky, but for now I think homeland security 2.0 is a pretty apt description of my vision and how to go about achieving it. Please give me your two cents worth!
Technorati tags:
homeland security War on Terror terrorism antiterrorism EDXL government transparency xml homeland security 2.0 smart mobs swarm intelligence emergent behavior networked homeland security government IT government collaboration location-based services geo-spatial web web 2.0 business continuity disaster planning Tim O’Reilly
