For over twenty years, the subject of interoperability in
emergency communications has consumed much in the way of public discourse and
other resources. To what end, may we ask
here at the dawn of a new decade?
Fundamentally a problem of culture rather than technology, emergency
communications capabilities are again and again bludgeoned by emerging “solutions”
to ill-defined problems of interoperability - the “I-word”, itself, having
become vulgar. “Solutions”, by
definition, have price tags and marketers and booths at conferences and
lifespans measured in a few multiples of that of mayflies. Gadflies tasked with solving the intractable problems
of communications interoperability speed to the latest bright, shiny object purported
to solve all problems: Truly mesmerized.
“This is a time of unprecedented change in emergency communications!”
How profound!
Yesterday was such a time, as well, before you arrived and tomorrow will
be even more so after you’re long gone!
How are we better prepared for that change than we were yesterday? Or is breathlessness an adequate measure of
success?
What hasn’t changed?
The complex, federated world of emergency response and, thusly,
communications of, for, and between its components. What else?
Our lack of understanding or, better yet, lack of ability to analyze the
crucial elements of information interchange between otherwise autonomous public
entities tasked by their taxpayers with precise missions far removed from the rarefied air of capitols. What
else? Our ability to develop and evolve
systems to meet those information sharing needs over time without becoming mere
technological cheerleaders simply starry-eyed and convinced of our own prepubescent
prescience. What else? Convolution of operability with interoperability
to the effect that an agency’s own emergency communications needs (read:
funding) become a demand on denizens of every other jurisdiction despite, oddly
enough, those jurisdictions’ own
funding challenges.
No more mature since the turn of the century is the public
sector’s ability to manage life cycle costs of technology, training, and sustainment
of interagency communications capabilities.
The search for Silver Bullets continues.
Interoperability remains moot if only we would all use the same system –
ignore those ugly dimensions of governance, policy/procedures, training,
exercise, and familiarity through usage that nag regardless of the technological means by which we communicate.
The way forward from here is made more difficult by decades
spent neglecting the fundamentals that would prepare the public sector: Systems designed, deployed, and measured by
contextual yardsticks for which they were intended. Today, we’re left with immensely more complex
challenges with no better understanding of underlying interagency business
requirements in a world more and more awash in data.
The way forward remains illumined by an understanding of
business (emergency response) requirements and the rigorous application of
systems design principles to meet requirements, mold technological
opportunities, and measure success in preparing for subsequent generations. As long as interagency communications
requirements are articulated in technological terms, rather than those of the
business of emergency response, the specter of colossal interoperability
failures grows directly in proportion to society’s dependence upon information
and expectations that public safety services follow accordingly.
