“But when you have an operation like this, you have to be coordinated, you have to know where you’re going. And one of the big issues at the beginning was just communication. Think of it—the State Department couldn’t even talk to the officials in the Haitian government initially.”

Can We Communicate Better Today?

What if a Haiti-like event—or any disruption that knocks out communications and power—happened in your community today? Could your government officials call anyone outside the area to coordinate critical resources?  Could your county emergency managers reach the governor to identify needs and request support? Could the governor and his or her staff email or call FEMA? Would anyone be able to tweet or update the community on Facebook or other social networks? Would they be in the same boat as Haitian officials were a year ago today?

If Haiti’s leaders had portable satellite communications kits with solar power, Washington could have known what they needed within minutes—instead of hours, even days—of the 7.0 quake.

To honor the memory of those lost a year ago and to respect the lives of people everywhere, let’s resolve to be resilient. Let’ accept the fact that communications networks can and do fail—more often than we like to admit. Without adequate communications for sharing situational awareness, people unnecessarily suffer—even die. Let’s commit to having a Plan B so lack of communications is never a question for rapid response when lives are at stake.

TED conferences

“Something interesting is happening in the global story of women … across cultures, generations and many different sectors of life, women and girls are emerging as important architects of change, as innovators offering new approaches to everything from financial systems to food security, and as leaders forging new directions for their communities and countries…

On December 7 and 8, 2010, TEDWomen will gather 500 global thought leaders, innovators and storytellers in Washington, DC, to watch enlightening speakers and connect with a global community of women and men. The cross-disciplinary, cross-generational program will focus on how women think and work, communicate and collaborate, learn and lead. The program will explore what this means and why it matters to all of us….”

Here’s the whole schedule.

Inmarsat has been at the forefront of mobile satellite services for over 31 years and is a recognized leader in mobile satellite communications. The first Inmarsat-4 was launched in November 2005. Three years later, all three Inmarsat-4s were in orbit, creating the full global network which supports mobile satellite broadband services on land, at sea, and in the air.

Today, there are almost 50,000 land mobile terminals activated, 13,000 FleetBroadband (maritime) and more than 1,100 SwiftBroadband (aeronautical).

Congratulations Inmarsat … and Happy Birthday BGAN!!

Thanksgiving 2010:

“The earth has one and only one Origin, the universe has one and only one Origin, all humankind has one and only one Origin, and all religions also have one and only one Origin.”

- Kotama Okada (Seio)



In May 2009, Randel Zeller, Director of Interagency and First Responder Programs at DHS Science & Technology and his colleagues published the “First Responder Capstone IPT.”  In it, they site a critical capability gap that still lingers for first responders: communicating when regular infrastructure is unavailable.

On page 74, you’ll find the following real-world example of an operational requirement describing a solution to fill this critical gap:

“The second primary requirement that must be in place to meet the mission of this ORD is human portable resilient communication systems that can provide connectivity to the interoperability framework. These systems will be in a kit form that has everything a FERP needs, to be hand-carried to the incident site, transported by car, helicopter or small watercraft. The kit must be able to provide voice, video and data communication peer-to-peer among FERPs at the incident site as well as capability across any available network. If normal network infrastructure is unavailable, the kit will contain a broadband satellite system to insure connectivity beyond the incident site. The Resilient Portable Communications Kit (RPCK) will be easy to setup and in operation in 10 to 20 minutes by any FERP. The kit will require zero technical support to setup. The RPCK must seamlessly participate in an expanding system of systems. The kit will be available in multiple form factors providing EROs the flexibility to have kits carried by hand in cases, mounted in vehicles, installed in mobile EOCs or any other type of response apparatus. If an ERO needs to support large-scale recovery operations, the RPCK will be modifiable to meet the requirement of the ERO.”

Yep – that’s an OODAkit. Except it only takes 5 to 10 minutes to get it up and running.

OODAkits have been successfully deployed by the U.S. Forest Service for wildfire response and were field proven as instrumental in disaster response earlier this year in Port-au-Prince.

Abbreviations Used in the Quote
ERO: Emergency Response Organization
FERP: First Emergency Response Provider
IPT: Integrated Product Team
ORD: Operational Requirements Document

What is the DHS First Responder IPT?

The First Responder IPT was established in early 2009. This Capstone IPT coordinates the identification and prioritization of the capability gaps, and the creation of detailed operational requirements of the federal, state, local, tribal and territorial first responders.