From the Globe:
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W. DAVID STEPHENSON
Bringing '9-1-1' into cyberspace
WEDNESDAY'S MASSIVE ALERT to what first appeared to be possible bombs in Boston (let there be no doubt: a strange package on an Interstate bridge support near a MBTA station demanded the kind of scrutiny police gave it) not only revealed a generational divide in terms of response to advertising, but also a similar split in terms of how technology is used.
It now appears that several young bloggers correctly identified the devices hours before the police did, and blogged them -- but, for whatever misguided reason, didn't take the conventional approach of calling 9-1-1.
It's time the parallel universe of 15 to 25 year olds' cell phones, blogs, and YouTube posts become mainstream parts of terrorism preparation and response.
If this had happened in New York City, people could have attached camera-phone photos or videos to a 9-1-1 report, making the situation clear right away. That's because Mayor Bloomberg is one of the first officials to recognize that handheld devices and applications can empower individuals as much in government -- especially in crises -- as they have in the media.
Referring to YouTube's popularity, a mayoral aide said, "This is the way the world is now working, so it's just time to bring 9-1-1 . . . into cyberspace." The combination can transform our relationship with government from passive recipient of services into invaluable collaborators, particularly in preventing or responding to a terror attack.
Examples of how networked wireless devices and applications already empower individuals illustrate how such a transition might change interactions between government and individuals in crises:
Perhaps most important, as The Globe reported recently, the 15-to-25 year olds so contemptuous of Wednesday's furor use their cell phones in combination with social networking applications such as Dodgeball.com or Boost loopt to plan "smart mob" instant social get-togethers.
In a crisis, the same combination would let them quickly notify family and friends they're OK (eliminating a major bandwidth consumption problem in emergencies) and/or to gather nearby friends and family to plan a common ad hoc response.
Because of growing scientific understanding of the principle of "emergent behavior," which shows groups may be capable of a higher level of collaborative behavior than could be predicted from individual members' abilities, the synergies between networked devices and social networks mean that people could share real-time, location-based information during a terror attack or disaster, then collaboratively plan strategies better suited to fast-changing situations than preplanned responses would be.
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Exhibit A is the actions of the strangers thrown together under horrific conditions on Flight 93 on 9/11 and who used cell phone information to cobble together the only effective action that day.
Of course, features such as GPS and cameras create privacy concerns, but there are feasible ways to deal with them.
Wednesday's events showed a shocking divide between age groups in terms of how seriously they took the threat. However, it would be a real mistake for authorities to write off 15 to 25 year olds. In an emergency, they can play a major role in quick-witted, unscripted response to fast-changing situations. Those aren't just cell phones they're carrying: they could be government in your hand.
W. David Stephenson of Stephenson Strategies in Medfield is a homeland security & e-gov consultant. 
© Copyright 2007 Globe Newspaper Company.
