In the military, things are usually done on a "need to know" basis. Sharing information is never easy, even between military agencies and combatant commands.
In Haiti, however, the military is overcoming its traditional mistrust of what some in uniform refer to as the "unicorns and rainbows" crowd: International relief agencies, nongovernmental organizations and other groups involved in bringing Haiti back online.
*Join Reddit’s Haiti relief fundraising drive with Direct Relief International.*As we've reported here before, the military geeks at DISA (Defense Information Systems Agency) pressed a new communications and collaboration tool into service to respond to the crisis. The system, called TISC ("the Transnational Information Sharing Cooperation") is the latest version of APAN, the All Partners Access Network, a system developed by the Pentagon to facilitate file-sharing over the internet, particularly with less-developed nations. In Haiti, U.S. Southern Command is using APAN as a way to share information -- situation reports, imagery and other crucial stats -- with the humanitarian aid and disaster relief community.
Ricardo Arias, of the Science, Technology & Experimentation division at SOUTHCOM's Stability Directorate, said APAN's Haiti community currently has over 1,400 users. Many are from the Department of Defense and other government agencies, but the community also includes the Red Cross and smaller relief organizations.
"It provides at least a forum where you can have two way communication," Arias said.
SOUTHCOM is also looking at new kinds of tools for integration into APAN. Arias said the military now has "terabytes of data" that would allow them to create immersive video: a sort of Google Street View of Port-au-Prince. In theory, users would be able to got to a MapQuest or Google Maps-style program and scroll through a ground-level map to figure out how to get to a certain destination.
They are also contemplating how to integrate crowdsourcing capability into APAN. The system can receive e-mails from mobile platforms; it can subscribe to RSS feeds and ingest simple text messages. The next step would be to convert this data into meaningful information that APAN users could leverage.
Take, for instance, the medical situation and public health. Arias said they are poised to integrate some crowdsourcing to see what the situation is on the ground with respect to medical information. Eventually, that kind of tool could be used for biosurveillance –- monitoring and mapping the outbreak of infectious diseases. It could be used to track water shortages, or even public sentiment, in certain areas.
It's not guaranteed to work. Arias said they might have to set up that outside APAN's password-protected community. It may have to be done through a public or open site run by Haiti's non-governmental relief community.
Arias, a former Navy helicopter pilot, told Danger Room he had "become a believer" in this kind of collaboration. He took part in U.S. military earthquake relief to Pakistan, and said the military had worked this kind of arrangement before, but it was always "bilateral and ad hoc," rather than a standing capability that could be used in future crises.
"It’s going really well," he said. "I think we’ve stepped throught the door, I don’t know if we’ve fully gone inside the room yet."
[PHOTO: U.S. Department of Defense]
See Also:
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