strong angel ii: designing the edge design and implement a far-forward capacity for rapid and...

Strong Angel II: Designing the Edge

Design and implement a far-forward capacity for rapid and appropriate humanitarian information management from global resources within and across civil-military boundaries.

Kailua-Kona, Hawaii17 - 22 July 2004

Complete a set of tasks demonstrating techniques and capabilities

designed to achieve secure, edge-based information flow

across the civil-military boundary during complex humanitarian emergencies

in austere environments.

Mission:

Participation:• OSD (Office of the Secretary of Defence)

• DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency)

• DHS (Department of Homeland Security)

• ARC (American Red Cross)

• BBN (Bolt, Baranec, and Newman)

• Buckminster Fuller Institute

• CENTCOM (US Central Command)

• Coalition Provisional Authority (Baghdad)

• George Mason University

• Groove Networks

• Harvard Brigham and Women’s Hospital

• International Medical Corps

• Mindtel (Syracuse University)

• MITRE Corporation (Mass Inst Tech Res & Eng)

• National Virtual Translation Center

• NATO

• Rocky Mountain Institute (Aspen)

• San Diego State University

• SPAWAR Systems Center - Europe

• TIDES World Press Reports (DARPA)

• UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office

• UK Royal Navy

• United Nations Joint Logistics Center

• United Nations World Food Programme

• US Army (352nd Civil Affairs)

• US Marine Corps (3rd Civil Affairs Group)

• US Navy (Third Fleet and others)

• US State Department

National Representatives

• Canada

• Egypt

• France

• Jordan

1. Disconnected operations are the rule, rather than the exception.

2. Agility is more valuable than planning.

3. Effectiveness depends on inclusiveness.

4. Trust only grows on neutral ground.

5. Open pipes and open eyes: protect your data--not the network.

6. Expect to wage war and peace simultaneously.

A few guiding principles…

Kosovo (S-M), 1999- US Army soldiers- German food- Russian helicopter- NATO leadership- Civilian support- United Nations mission

Cultural insight

Koranpublished in Zulu

funded with $1 million

through a personal donation from

Osama bin Laden

through the

Islamic Propagation Center

in

Durban, South Africa

Regional perspectives…Osama viewed by others

And languages…

(always languages…)

Consequences when misunderstood…

A complex refugee management problem…

Strong Angel 2000

From Strong Angel 2000 to Iraq…UN staff who were present for both

“The area of interest was perhaps more complicated than we first thought.”

-- COL John Graham, RAMC

MERPIMedicalEvacuation and RepatriationProgram for Iraq

Strong Angel II

Kailua-Kona, Hawai’i

17-22 July 2004

OSD-NII sponsorship

DARPA funding

Strong Angel Topic Areas

• Translation

• Collaboration

• Communication

• Cultural awareness

• Information management

Near-real-time broadcast translationsHuman and machine-based

Babylon:Simultaneous multi-lingual chat( English-Arabic-English )

Be prepared to communicate with those who do not speak your language.

Visitor translations


• Translation

• Collaboration

• Communication



Distributed collaboration…

• Secure file encryption at 192-bit threshold

• Voice-Over-Internet (encrypted)

• Bandwidth optimized

• Alerting cues

• Import-Export as XML with any database

• Web download for free if needed

• Transparent – all organizations

• Adaptive architecture (instantly flexible)

• Distance learning (and teaching)

• Remote presentations

“Distributed collaboration inside CENTCOM won the war”Statement from CENTCOM and the Army Lessons Learned

LabQuoted by an OSD official, 11 July 03

• Reference library of pubs and docs

• Logistics delivery calendar

• Instant Messaging (encrypted)

• Secure chat (encrypted)

• Annotated maps

• Annotated satellite photos

• Who’s available, instantly

• Immediate feedback on comms

• Sends only binary changes

• Peer-to-peer, so no ownership

Emergency Communications

Pony ExpressMobile 802.11b cloud giving the disconnected synchrony through commercial tools

TESTED• Discussion, Calendar, Instant Messages, Files• Video files from VSee (.wmv)• Arabic and English translations (.mp3)• Babylon Chat• Toucan Navigate locations• Forms: submissions, templates, and updates• Assessment Forms, Request Forms, etc.

• Rumor reporting

• Incident reporting

• Medical Status Reports

• Medical Joining Reports

• Logistics delivery schedules

• Maps and annotated images

• Casualty evacuation requests

• Briefing documents and presentations

• Refugee tracking on UNHCR standards

• Field requests for humanitarian assistance

• Contact rolodex with GIS location mapping

• Library of important publications and agreements

ToucanNavigate interactive Groove GIS tool.• Brings collaborative GIS to the edge of the network

• Provides coordination and decision support

• Contains geospatial layers in standard GIS file formats

• May add objects, layers and metadata directly to maps

• May also track movements using standard GPS

Library

Information feeds:Automated push from a request (pull)

KGVAD-1

ToucanNavigate

Lightweight and collaborative GISUsing standard file formatsWith GPS integration, co-navigation, and movement tracking

Browser-based Groove collaboration tool

Police Blotter

• No military in the design

• No staff

• No training logistics

• No authority

• No funding

• No communications

• No civ-mil network

• And yet no other option.

Distributed peer-to-peer collaboration

Open-source collaborative website

Plone to Zope to Groove to Zope to Plone

Contacts with GIS mapping…


• Translation

• Collaboration

• Communication



CommsinIraq2

13

4

1. UHF2. VHF3. HF4. SATPHONE

X. PA system

X

Bring superb and open comms…

…teach them to everyone…

…and leave them behind.

…use them daily across all boundaries…

Do daily work over those shared comms so you ensure they work properly

Establishing community usefulness quickly

Panasonic Toughbook CF-73

Hardware resilience

Bring hardware suited to both the environment and the tasks.

Remote surveillance…

FotoNotesAnnotation on-screen

Interactive tele-journalism in the field


• Translation

• Collaboration

• Communication



Post-Conflict Reconstruction Indicators

Strong Angel II: The Onsite Team

The task solutions were designed along lines that reached…

…across competing organizations…

…and across civil-military boundaries

Across cultures…

…and into the community.

Donations to the local community

MEGABEAM Rogue WiFi disturbance

PACOMJointFrequencyManagementOffice

And Melanie

Local community trustsolved the problem…not technology.

Flexible solar array

Ethical consultation

NATO contingent

1. Disconnected operations are the rule, rather than the exception.

2. Agility is more valuable than planning.

3. Effectiveness depends on inclusiveness.

4. Trust only grows on neutral ground.

5. Open pipes and open eyes: protect your data--not the network.

6. Expect to wage war and peace simultaneously.

Re-stating the guiding principles…

Questions?

strong angel ii: designing the edge design and implement a far-forward capacity for rapid and...

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