Being a communication technology guy, my first thought is this problem has to have been solved by some slick technologies. Indeed, there are some pretty great solutions, but none so far has put all the necessary pieces together. Why? Let's look at some at some of those necessary pieces.
1. Easy entry
2. Intelligence
3. Flexible distributions
The problem starts in the field. Incidents are of many types, scope and impact. Some needed information is generated automatically by management systems like SCADA systems, outage management systems or incident response tools like IAP or CommandPro. The trick is capturing this data as early as possible, but then processing it into useful information, which is the next step. But much information of importance is not automatically generated by systems. A person has to observe and report. Usually that person is there, not to gather information but to fix the problem that brought them to that location in the first place. And if you have ever been in a real event, or even a big drill, and tried to gather information from responders you know what happens.
"I'm too busy fixing the problem to talk to you or file another damn report!"
or
"I'm not giving you that information, you're from communications and you'll blab it all over to the media."
Sending a member to the JIC or comms team during every little event is not practical. So, what to do?
I'm not sure yet of the solution, but I do know the more you can capture info automatically without requiring one more little thing from the stressed and over-taxed responder the better. For example, is info coming in on radios? That can help, but more often radios have given way to cellphones and one result is less internal info sharing. And the information gatherer has to be issued a radio, which can be a problem. Capturing phone calls, converting to text and having them entered into an information processing center may be a partial solution. Using easy reporting tools like First To See and Earshot from MissionMode look promising, even though they still require the responder to do something, however minimal it might be.
Info gathering has become more complex -- and more important to operations -- as realization grows of the potentially invaluable information shared by citizens using social media and mobile devices. It's become very clear that much information of value to both operational responders and communicators is available through social media. However, my sense is that most organizations that need this information continue to struggle with staffing, tools, training, analysis, verification and operationalizing this valuable info.
Say you solve that puzzle, now you have the intelligence question. Responders, if they do give you the time of day, may not be focused on what's important to senior leaders or public affairs types. They may focus on insignificant details (to you) and miss the fact that Brian Williams is there with a camera crew. Impact on citizens, customers, reputation, potential escalation, categorization according to possible effect on organization, none of this can be expected to be provided by the guy or gal with a shovel in hand.
Wouldn't it be great if there was a tech solution? Something that could tell you what was really important and what you absolutely needed to know despite all the noise and confusion? It would be a pretty great artificial intelligence exercise. I just don't see how a qualified information specialist or communication person can be replaced from doing that job given today's technology. I'd love to hear from you if you know of (or even sell) technology that can help filter the noise to find and clarify the signal.
After analysis you need distribution. One problem here is the level of detail. There are lots of ways today of getting info out quickly, text messages (MMs) seem to be the most robust and preferred at the moment. But they need to be short. How can someone getting a text message quickly drill down and get all the nitty gritty they need to make operational decisions? Having layers of very accessible and secure information seems essential. That likely means secured but easy access to a dashboard or control board that contains complete information on all current incidents and activities. But it has to be organized and presented in a way that conforms to today's standards for information presentation -- and so far the ones I have seen miss that mark by quite a ways.
The likes of Brian Humphrey from Los Angeles Fire and Deputy Commissioner John Daley from the Boston Police, two Twitter and information sharing superstars, have a clear advantage. They operate in environments where internal info sharing is essential to the mission and they use radios. They are completely connected into the well established information control centers required by their mission. For the rest of the world, we have to figure out ways to gather, process and disseminate information quickly. Those superstars with the unfair advantages are setting the bar high.
