Linton Wells, former acting CIO of the US Department of Defense, and currently Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Networks and Information Integration, will be speaking this weekend at DEFCON 14. You should find him and tell him about MemeStreams.

Experience from domestic and foreign humanitarian assistance and disaster relief (HADR) operations shows that shared situational awareness and the information systems that support it are the critical enablers of all other functions in such situations. They are not merely technical adjuncts to the delivery of food, water and shelter. Federal Agencies can respond better to disasters (both domestic and international) by sharing unclassified information effectively with state, local and tribal governments, non-governmental organizations, and relief entities. DoD often refers to these as "non-traditional partners." Besides sharing situational awareness, decision-makers also must exchange ideas for solving emergent problems and convert decisions into action. These capabilities need to be in place within hours after the beginning of a crisis. Success will require new cultures of unclassified information sharing; not just within DoD, but also with the non-traditional partners that form the backbone of domestic and international disaster response.

Earlier this year he participated in a panel session at the Federal CTO Summit:

WHAT WILL STREAMLINE INFORMATION SHARING AND ENSURE INFORMATION ASSURANCE?

As part of the President's Executive Order to establish an information sharing council there is an imperative to create an environment where information on terrorism is automatically shared among appropriate agencies. What are the current information sharing capabilities? What systemic changes need to be made to streamline this collaborative initiative?

Tom Noonan was a member of the panel that immediately preceded the one described above, in which Wells participated.