The question from the 1984 Ghostbusters film — “Who ya gonna call?” — is a loaded one around here. One of my jobs as the director of the Command, Control and Interoperability Division at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Directorate for Science and Technology is to ensure that our heroes — emergency responders — can talk to one another. The buzzword is interoperability. I hear it daily, and there’s no question it’s critically important.
There’s also no doubt in my mind that interoperable technologies already exist. Of course, we can spend years making them better, faster and more powerful than ever before, but here’s the reality: We can buy technology that meets most of our needs now, while we continue to work on making the better stuff available. However, before we can begin implementing the technology, we must face a bigger issue: cultural differences. (GovTech)
The interoperability and continuity of communications issues are certainly part of ‘who ya gonna call’. Between the FCC’s rebanding of the 800 MHz spectrum, the D-block auction in the 700 MHz frequencies, and Sprint / Nextel’s attempt to get a grant from the Obama administration to dedicate the IDEN network for Public Safety, and hardware issues, not to mention (I just did) data integration and standardization are all huge. Regardless of ‘who ya gonna call’, once they get there, sharing information is a rough set of issues. Oddly enough, there are solutions that’ll address these and other NECP related directives. None of us can fix the cultural issues that exist. It has been attempted, numerous time, and the question becomes ‘how’s that working for ya’…
These issues will be solved one at a time. Anyone who thinks they’ve got all the pieces (cultural, software, hardware, political, and many others not mentioned) doesn’t. Governance and transformation are key to any forward movement towards these goals. Issues? There are issues. Politics? Yup, that too. Money? Believe it or not, that’s available too.