ICT for Disaster Recovery: Post Tsunami Tech Talk
Phuket, Thailand -
I was thinking of locating a local community of techies to spread the content management gospel to, when I came across the schedule of a meeting that looked interesting: “Phuket International ICT Conference for Disaster Recovery Management and Global Warning: Learning from Tsunami" last week.
I lived in first person the tsunami crisis finding myself in an affected area during the disaster with only an internet connection. while most networks were down, and for a few weeks worked solely at coordinating information.
Only the net and its most popular, free, applications like emails, newsgroup, weblogs and my CMS connected me to the rest of the world, at a time where communication was vital.
There were over 1000 delegates from a number of international companies attending the event.
Behind us, the aftermath of the largest human tragedy ever recorded, the immense sense of loss and lack of words.
Despite the gravity of the occasion though, a casual buzz so typical of the creative industry was in the air.
I wouldn't say there was hype as such, as participants were ever so conscious of the tragedy that brought them together, but people seemed hopeful.
Nothing could have prepared the world for what happened, and no policies, protocols, technologies, networks nor systems were in place to support such an eventuality. Not in the East, nor in the West.
Who could have imagined?
Nobody could be blamed for the inadequacy of the system, but everybody felt that something should be done.
Competition pressures are now mounting for the large players to get a slice of the big disaster pie, but more than anything the post tsunami era presents an opportunity to reflect on how effectively – or ineffectively – is the technology already in place being used.
If anything, let's make a lesson of it, was the spirit of the Phuket event.
Tech Heads Get Together
Thailand, for those who don't know it, is a wonderful, sweet and warm country.
Of all the affected nations in South East Asia, probably the wealthiest and the most technologically up to scratch, at least in urban and semi urban areas
The Thai ICT Ministry Dr Surapong Suebwonglee opened the works with a plan that includes developing a dedicated radio spectrum for emergency communications services from the National Telecommunications Commission.
Bill Gates gave a recorded speech focused on the adaptability of Internet technologies - open architectures and web services - and their suitability to respond to emergency calls.
One of the recurring topics throughout the day was database: a comprehensive data repository for all emergency data is now an accepted requirement to face such an event.
A heck of a data modeling exercise though.
A standard data model is necessary to make information systems interoperable. Clever, well thought out data structures are key.
But how far can 'data' be stretched to match emergency situation, both in terms of prevention and relief?
That depends on how good is the model.
Mr. Pascal Sero, Oracle Disaster and Recovery Solution showed how XML is an ideal data exchange format
Best Practice, What Best Practice
Very hard to determine what is best practice in such circumstances.
Best Practice, very likely, is whatever best you can do to survive and help others survive.
The fact is, that the scale of the case was unprecedented, and it is going to take unprecedented technical creativity to develop a suitable framework to deal with such instances.
A
new chapter in the history of cooperation
The need has become evident for procedures, emergency communication protocols, secure networks, pervasive real time communication systems to work to the same agenda.
Dr Kongkiat Kespechara of Bangkok Hospital in Phuket account of his experience was clinical and lucid, packed with statistical facts and figures.
He candidly and emotionally admitted that the situation, at the time, was beyond anyone's management ability and almost hysterical, even if the guys at the hospital are all level headed.
“Nobody knew what to do. Everybody was coming to the hospital, not only the injured. There were no procedures in place to handle situations like evacuations for example, despite extreme staff efficiency and extended infrastructural capacity, there was great confusion. It's amazing how we coped”
Hundreds of ways
There are hundreds of ways that current technology already in place can help minimize the losses in times of a crisis.
It's going to be a question of ensuring collaboration and setting aside individual interests to make it work
All resources must be available and ready to tune in to a) avert the crisis b) reduce the impact, if and when that becomes necessary.
Networks, devices, infrastructures, radio, mobile, fixed, short and long, narrow and broad bands should be configured and available to get whatever emergency message to and from the population.
Instead of just being vehicles for commercial channels as they are now.
Japan's National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT), for example, has developed a sophisticated system for disaster warning, prevention and rescue, explained Dr. Tadashi Shiomi Vice President, NICT (National Institute of Information and Communications Technology).
The Japanese disaster central system is managed by the Cabinet and related agencies, and uses a wireless networks through satellite communications, wired networks, broadcasting and the Internet to deliver messages.
Sensors detect environmental changes, like water levels or an earthquake, and send information to a central system to make a prediction before sending out any warning message to digital televisions. The system can even automatically turn on a digital television, and it will be expanded to alert mobile phone users.
Mobile phones with Global Positioning System (GPS) could help locate people even though they were in a building, according to Qualcomm
Phones could also have buttons for emergency calls for public security while push-to-talk technology could provide real-time communication.
Current technology enables the unthinkable. Too bad it is not used for the common good, and surely it is not designed to integrate in real time
Another example of on site collaboration came from
Brent Woodworth, Chief, Worldwide Response Team, IBM, who detailed their action and showed slides of the camp site installation of the dish they used to set up a network.
Dr. Robert Sewell, Sun Microsystems made, among others, a couple of important points: a) each situation is different and unique and cannot be 'predicted', thus an emergency system should be modelled to respond to the 'unpredictable' b) dense complexity deriving from large scale emergency calls for h
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