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Wednesday, July 5, 2006 |
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... including comment flamers at your blog! [link via Johnnie Moore]  10:49:14 PM  comment [] trackback []
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W. David Stephenson sent me a link to his speech to the International Conference on Complex Systems on how social networking projects such as TsunamiHelp and KatrinaHelp could leverage emergent behaviour that would make the general public effective participants in disaster relief. "In one of his essays describing
the applicability of emergent behavior to the business world, Eric
Bonabeau wrote that the three characteristics that emergent behavior
exhibits are flexibility, robustness, and self-organization.
When we look back at the Katrina experience, I think we'd agree that
all 3 properties were missing from the governmental response. Mr. Stephenson then goes on to ask the question -
does the knowledge that emergent behavior is possible even under the trying
circumstances of a terrorist attack or a natural disaster warrant making encouraging emergent behavior a formal part of
homeland security planning, and, if so, how can it be done?By contrast, think back to 9/11, when the only -- the only -- effective response was a classic example of emergent behavior: the way a group of total strangers on Flight 93 coalesced in circumstances when no one would have blamed them for instead dissolving into hysterics, to thwart the hijackers' plan to crash the plane into the Capital or White House. That was flexibility, robustness, and self-organization! Less well known is the way that other individuals, many of whom have still never met physically, coalesced via the Internet to provide a variety of invaluable and reliable information to victims first of the tsunami, and, more recently, of Katrina. In particular, some of these people took it upon themselves to create, first the tsunamihelp blog and wiki, and, then a core group of those people took the lead in creating the Katrinahelp wiki." "In part, fostering emergence should be part of the plan the technology
has already made the choice for us, whether or not officials recognize
that reality. The advances in networked communications, combined with
human nature, make it almost inevitable that, in a disaster,
individuals will automatically turn to the increasing array of
electronics they use every day to reach out to others for comfort and
mutual assistance. And ends with a powerful message:Equally important but less understood by decision makers, unlike landline phones or the broadcast media, these devices are themselves increasing networked, self-organizing, and self-healing. In many cases, such as mesh networks that were originally developed for the military in battlefield conditions and now are being used by civilians, the networks don't require any kind of external networking: simply turn them on and the network self organizes." "However, my closing message is to homeland security executives: you really don't have a choice whether to embrace this kind of networked homeland security system.
Given the power of networked communications and the science of emergent
behavior, government has already effectively lost control of the flow
of information during emergencies. We, the people, have the power at
our fingertips to network -- and human nature dictates that we'll use
it in an emergency."
Great speech - read it in full here.
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Copyright 2009 Dina Mehta
