Salvation through Harmony in Montreal

“Salvation through Harmony” is Montreal’s motto and appears on the city’s coat of arms intended to illus­trate that differ­ent commu­ni­ties have co-existed in harmony for nearly 400 years: a fleur de lis for the French, a rose for the English, a thistle for the Scots, a shamrock for the Irish, and a beaver for the Canadians.

First, the Amerindians and the French coexisted — then the British, the Scottish, the Irish, the East Europeans, Italians, Greeks and now people from every conti­nent … and today the Montreal School Board welcomes children born in 188 differ­ent countries. Talk about interoperability!

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Operable or Interoperable Communications? The Chicken or the Egg?

Operable or inter­op­er­a­ble — which came first? A few defin­i­tions to get you thinkin’:

• Communications = a process of trans­fer­ring infor­ma­tion from one entity to another
• Operable = able to operate/perform your duties
• Interoperable = able to exchange and use information
• Interoperability = ability to work with each other

With all the talk of commu­ni­ca­tions inter­op­er­abil­ity and all the money we’ve spent since 9/11, you’d think this problem has been solved. Perhaps it has in some specific cases, but for the major­ity of U.S. commu­ni­ties — despite the best of inten­tions — inter­op­er­abil­ity as well as basic commu­ni­ca­tions operabil­ity is still lacking as a funda­men­tal corner­stone of our local, regional, and national preparedness.

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