Strong Angel
New Tasks from DoDD 3000.05
Special Operations Medical Conference
30 November 2006
Eric Rasmussen, MD, MDM, FACP
Director, Strong Angel Demonstrations
and
Chairman, Department of Medicine
Naval Hospital Bremerton, Seattle, WA
As we all know…
Win the Fight First
We’re enlarging our understanding of what that means.
Stability, Security, Transition, and Reconstruction
( SSTR )
We went where the UN suggested we learn…
We learned the OTHER communications requirements
 Talking with NGOs
 Talking with each other
 Talking with the US military
 Talking with the Host Nation
 Talking with UN relief agencies
 Talking with expatriates in exile
 Talking with the local population
 Talking with subject-matter experts
 Talking with international military partners
 Talking with Contractors while developing reconstruction plans
 Talking with the US government agencies supporting relief efforts
Bring superb and open comms…
…use them daily
across all boundaries…
…teach them
to everyone…
…and leave
them behind.
We need to talk with a LOT of people.
So protect the data. Not the network.
Let partners share our assets.
( more on Hushmail later… )
Banda Aceh
Unlikely
colleagues
responded
with us
in the field…
And did good work.
Katrina
And lessons we recognized…
Comms x 6
Shared Situational Awareness is critical
• Remote bridges were out
• Field meetings were missed
• Coordination failed
• Meth-based assaults went
unreported
• Solutions were tried, and
some succeeded
• More options are required
Position Tracking and GPS-based Navigation
• New Orleans had been
evacuated. No streetlights at
night, and no one to ask for
directions.
• A USB GPS, in combination
with laptop software, worked
well for navigation while
driving.
• Distributed, encrypted, peerto-peer software was used for
sharing position data through
a Verizon Aircard with others
in the field with us, as well as
with headquarters.
Other topics we found important in Katrina…
●
Mobile Worker coordination (FRS-GMRS radios)
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Contact information was as valuable as gasoline
●
The “Persistent Identity” problem
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Spontaneous Virtual Teaming
●
Lighting and Shelter
●
And everyone was paying attention…
And soon new mandates appeared…
3000.05 and SSTR
Civil-military integration must now become routine…
And we were asked to try something…
How could a community, anywhere, respond well in 2007?
Anticipating complexity
Exploring Responses
Cultivating Resilience
Scenario
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An urban community, somewhere in the world, is under pressure
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Comms, lift, and power are compromised
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Some are ill, and many more are at risk
●
No physical help from the outside
Goals
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Create an extreme response laboratory to drive innovation
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Avoid a domestic focus. Propose global solutions
●
Open source, open standard, and free are preferred
●
Produce tools deployable by the end of 2006
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Designed as a demonstration, not an exercise.

Exercise: “Training to Requirements”

Demonstration: “Striving toward Objectives”
● more points if your stuff works with their stuff
Laboratory
for innovation
● All efforts toward optimizing a single goal:
 Effective response to a population in need
● Non-competitive
● Non-hierarchical (anarchy, initially…)
● Self-organizing, to a point
●Cooperative collaboration is mandated
Strong Angel III Tasks…
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Build key local relationships ( how does the neighborhood work? )
●
Create an urgent work environment
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Establish effective multi-modal cross-agency communications
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Provide sustainable and independent power to the SA-III site
●
Synchronize information flows across diverse tools
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Track key disaster response metrics
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Ensure rapid epidemiological assessment, analysis, and reporting.
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Perform comprehensive remote risk analysis.
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Integrate volunteers into the event effectively.
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Develop Harvard Kennedy School crisis leadership metrics
Designed carefully to
reproduce reality…
● 800 participants
● 270 organizations
● 9 nations, 4 militaries
● 11 international NGOs
● One abandoned building
 empty, dark, cold, unsafe
● $180,000 total funding
● ONE full-time staff for 90 days
● All volunteer coordination
Volunteers
John Crowley
Harvard
Robert Kirkpatrick
Groove and MHS
And Suzanne Mikawa – Strong Angel
Dr. Nigel Snoad
UN and MHS
Unusual staff member…an Ethics Advisor, helping the focus
Minimizing Agendas
• Political
• Personal
• Academic
• Religious
• Corporate
John Francis, PhD
• Social
UN Goodwill Ambassador on the Environment
Recommended.
How did it go?
Civil-Military relationships expanded
Stimulus for multiple meetings…
Afghan NGO and Joint Forces Command, planning
Power options proved
flexible and robust
Overlooked assets…
GSM Smartphone
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Voice
SMS Text
Speakerphone
International utility
802.11 WiFi
Web
Email
Powerpoint, Excel, Word…
Camera
Voice recorder
VOIP (Skype)
IR-Bluetooth data exchange
GPS
Library (2 Gig card)
Maps
Power from solar, crank, USB
GATR Inflatable Vsat
• Compact
• 65 pounds
• Highly reliable
T1-speed Internet access
NGO discovery
Now in use in Afghanistan
Amateur (HAM) radio
Voice
SMS
Email
GPS
Power from automobile outlets
Significant success.
• Up in eight minutes
• Constant comms
We’re advocating more.
So, interesting possibilities…
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Power (Skybuilt)
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Lighting (Carmanah)
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Sahana (Sri Lanka, Beirut)
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Contacts (Blueforce DD)
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Second Life (Strong Angel Island)
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PFIF and SSE standards (Yahoo and Microsoft)
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Secure email (Hushmail)
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All-Hazards Analysis (General Atomics)
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Social Fragility Indicators (Susan Cutter and UNC)
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USB drives (Toozl)
Toozl
The One Ounce Laptop
22 applications
All free, open source, and open standards
Browser
Mail
Office Suite
Web design
Skype
Graphics
Media player
Anti-virus
More…
•
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Runs off a USB drive
Never touches the registry
Never touches the hard drive
No trace of its use
Can run using Linux on the USB
Strong encryption
Free
Other areas of interest…
● Translation (GALE)
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Codespear (FDNY)
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Disaster Vehicles (GM)
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FM Comms (SPOT Watch)
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Community Journalism (Internews)
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Collaborative, peer-to-peer software (Groove)
Distributed Resilience example
● International Medical Corps researcher Dr. Lynn Lawry

epidemiologist and Harvard faculty, more than 20 deployments

Darfur Women’s Health Survey
●
Toughbook CF-29
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Checkpoint challenge
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Laptop destroyed
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Groove space
on
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three continents
Still on my laptop
Quick strategic thoughts…
For 3000.05
there is much to learn
Information
flow is almost as vital as water
International expertise can be invaluable
Bring, share, and expand the network
Just to re-state the obvious to this crowd…
Comms, Lift, and Power
fail consistently in the field
and
The disconnected user is the norm
International Field Resources
●
UN Office of the Coordinator for Humanitarian Affairs (UN-OCHA)
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UN Joint Logistics Center (UNJLC)
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International Search and Rescue Advisory Group (INSARAG)
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International Organization for Migration (IOM)
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International Medical Corps (IMC)
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European Masters in Disaster Medicine – Responders (EMDM-R)
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World Association for Disaster and Emergency Medicine (WADEM)
“We need to figure out how to disseminate
unclassified data with the same priority we do
classified data – perhaps more…given our need
to communicate with non-traditional actors.”
GEN Lance Smith, Commander, US Joint Forces Command, May 2006
Simple recommendation…
For information flow,
adopt the effective tools
already in use within the
humanitarian community.
Ask me about anything.
Eric Rasmussen, MD, MDM, FACP
360 - 621 - 3592
RasmussenE@gmail.com
www.strongangel3.org