Heather Blanchard, Co Founder of CrisisCommons, presents the need for Connecting Data to Operations - The Importance of Data Preparedness, Alternative Resource Support and Surge Capacity. This presentation is based on her testimony to Congress which can be found here: http://crisiscommons.org/2011/07/07/congress_qfr/

1. Connecting Data to Operations: The Importance of Data Preparedness,
Alternative Resource Support and Surge Capacity
presentation for the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response at the 2011 Fusion Forum
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Washington DC
July 20, 2011
Heather Blanchard
Co Founder, CrisisCommons
www.crisiscommons.org
heather@crisiscommons.org
Twitter/Skype: @poplifegirl

2. Rapid Landscape
• Social Media is a term of today,
open data is central; filtering and
analytics is a necessity
• It takes planning and resources to
benefit from public data
• We can learn from every crisis, The Economist, February 2010
http://www.economist.com/node/15557443
need to be watching for new
trends and insights from the
public

3. What We Learned from Japan
Official/Affiliated Response Sources Public Sources
Existing Data
Population - Boundaries - Hydrology - Hypsography - Transportation/Roads - Social Capital
Before Crisis Community Indicators Before Crisis
After Crisis Power - Telecommunications - Weather - Alternative Access to Internet - After Crisis
Food - Fuel - Shelter - Transportation - Health Care
Crisis Specific
Self-Directed Public Safety Reporting - Hazard Identification -
Service Disruption Identifier - Public Sentiment - Status Sharing - Resource Management
Need for Operational Data Prep

4. Need for Steady State
Office of Technology
Innovation, Operations FEMA Administrator
and Adoption
Liaison Innovation Lab Operations Plans & Policy Training and Education
DHS/FEMA Practice Areas Quick Response Support Data Standards Practitioner Professional Training
DHS/FEMA Region Tech Liaisons (10) Independent Tool Evaluation Information/Data Requirements
Liaison and Support to EMI
Practitioner Communities Open Source Software Collaboration Technology Cluster Coordination International Standards Collaboration
Open Source Licensing Liaison to HS/EM/PH Education Programs
Federal Interagency Data Interchange Protocol
Visualization Product Development Liaison to FEMA CIO Public Digital Preparedness
Private Sector Critical Information Requirements
Cybersecurity Revision of Doctrine, Policy based
Volunteer Technology Communities Imagery & GIS Utility
After Action Prototyping on Emerging Technologies
Liaison to Cybersecurity
Liaison with Federal, Legal and Ethics Advisement
Exercises
Academic and
Private Sector R&D
Research Agenda Tech Cluster Lead
(NRCC) - Direct
Report to the NRCC
Lead

5. Evolution of Operations
Potential Operational Framework
Operations Center Lead
(NRCC)
Technology Cluster Lead (RRCC)
(JFO)
(State EOC)
(Local EOC)
Liaison Innovation Lab Operations Plans & Policy
Pre-scripted Mission Assignment for Coordination of Technology-based Liaison to Plans - Incident Action Planning
Internal - Representation from across
Visualization & Imagery Support Mission Assignments Privacy, Legal and Ethics
Interagency, ESF Functions, Support for
Imagery Processing Information/Data Requirements
Ops, Planning, JIC
Mobile Processing Technology Cluster Coordination
External: Private Sector and Volunteer
Temporary Data Storage Data Interchange Protocol
Technology Communities
Data Collection Critical Information Requirements
Technology Incident Communications and
Resource Coordination Imagery & GIS Utility
Coordination LIne (TICCL)
Liaison to Cybersecurity
Provision of requirements from
Open Data (Social Media) Coordination
Operations to External
Staff Support for Tech
Desk in Operations
Center
Source: CrisisCommons http://www.scribd.com/doc/59556461/Crisis-Commons-QFR-Combined

6. Alternative Resource Support
Scalable - Leverages Existing Resources
Compasses Virtual and Volunteer Communities to Productive Use
Technology resources are
coordinated together. External communities able to
create productive and useful
Technology cluster lead reports products based on response
directly to Operations Center agency requirements.
leadership.
Pre-identification of coordination
Cluster ability to provide resources such as a local
requirements and problem University or co-working space
definitions to external where communities can gather to
communities for data curation work on common projects and
and visualization. response agency requirements.
First proposed at the American Red Cross Crisis Data Summit on August 10, 2011
http://www.slideshare.net/poplifegirl/arc-08-12-10-final-short

7. Resources for the Field
Tech Cluster Support
Tech Cluster Lead Tech Cluster
Liaison
(JFO) - Direct Report
to the FCO
Tech Cluster Support Tech Cluster Support Tech Cluster Support
Source: Based on the Critical Infrastructure and Key Resources Annex Guide:
http://www.fema.gov/pdf/emergency/nrf/nrf-support-cikr.pdf

8. Tomorrow is Here
TechCrunch
TechCrunch

9. Playing Catch Up
The word “data” is referred to once in the entire core document.
However, the word “information” is referred to more than 100 times.
National Response Framework

10. Heather Blanchard
Co Founder
CrisisCommons
heather@crisiscommons.org
703.593.3823
twitter/skype: poplifegirl
www.facebook.com/heather.blanchard
www.linkedin.com/in/hblancha
Thanks!