IT vendors work to meet gov't information sharing needs

NEW ORLEANS - Technology vendors need to do more to support the sharing of information between government agencies as the nation responds to terrorist threats, one U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) official said Tuesday.

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But while Richard Russell, director of information sharing and collaboration at DHS, called for more software programs focusing on domestic security to be interoperable, some IT vendors said they've already focused on interoperability.

"Today collaboration tools and environments are often not interoperable, making it difficult or impossible for users separated geographically or by network typology to effectively reach one another," Russell said at the fourth annual Government Symposium on Information Sharing and Homeland Security in New Orleans, Louisiana. "We see it all the time."

Russell challenged technology vendors to work together to create standards -- what he called "service-oriented architectures" -- to make "software technologies fully and completely interoperable." Domestic security agencies need "full interoperability from the cop on the beat to headquarters, whether that headquarters is in Pocatello, Idaho, or Washington, D.C.," he said.

If information sharing software becomes standard across domestic security and law enforcement agencies, vendors face a new challenge, he said. "Can you fulfill your commitment of patriotism and selflessness to the nation through greater cooperation and risk competing on how rapidly and efficiently you can deliver the required technology, rather than on the uniqueness of your technology?" he said. "That is the major challenge for [the IT] industry today."

It's rare for vendors to tell Russell that their software is based on open standards and is fully interoperable with other major software packages, he said. In some cases, when domestic security officials ask for the cost of software, vendors don't give a straight answer, he added. "They begin to stutter and stammer, which tells me, as someone looking at these things, they're either uncomfortable with the information or they don't know," he said. "Both are bad."

But some IT vendors on the conference show floor said that interoperability is not a new issue for them, while others said that new technologies can make strict software interoperability unneeded.

Michael Helfrich, senior vice president for product strategy and marketing at messaging software vendor Jabber Inc., talked about the Jabber software, which is based on an open source project, and works with several instant messaging (IM) products, including ones from America Online Inc. and Microsoft Corp. At the show, Helfrich was demonstrating a hard-back book-sized router device, with Jabber software built in, that can be quickly configured and allow IM and e-mail functionality for up to 500 computer or wireless device users.

The device, not yet officially announced by Jabber, would allow government agencies to quickly set up messaging networks in remote locations or on site of accidents or disasters, Helfrich said. Called JabberNow, the device will allow emergency responders or law enforcement agencies to communicate with each other, and among its selling points are its plug and play setup and its interoperability, Helfrich said.

"You point your devices at it, and they're connected," he said. "It's infrastructure in 10 minutes."

Instant messaging is quickly becoming a valuable tool in the military, law enforcement agencies and domestic security agencies, Helfrich said. The Jabber tool allows both one-to-one IM conversations and group IM meetings and can be set up within seconds.

After Helfrich had talked about seeing Navy command center staff members carrying on sometimes four or five IM conversations at one time, with one conversation often feeding information into another, Russell of DHS told his audience about the need domestic security workers have for chat programs that allow "synchronous simultaneous conversations" across agency hierarchies.

While Helfrich trumpeted Jabber's interoperability, Randy Ridley, vice president and general manager of federal systems at MetaCarta Inc., talked about developing smart technology that can interact with a range of different databases. MetaCarta's Geographic Text Search (GTS) program can dig through different databases and plot geographic information contained in those databases onto a map.

For example, GTS could dig out information on car bomb attacks in Iraq contained in several different military and intelligence databases and pinpoint those attacks on a map, and let users click on the pinpoints to get back to read the original document. MetaCarta then allows users to look for trends, such as enemy attacks on a battlefield or gang activity in a large city, Ridley said.

The GTS tool has been available for about 18 months, and it has between 50,000 and 100,000 users, many of them in the U.S. military, Ridley said. The company is currently testing its products for state and local government agencies in Arizona. The cost of MetaCarta's product can range from $25,000 up to $1 million, based on its use.

About 80 percent of intelligence reports contain some type of geographic data -- some of it specific information such as a street address or more general information, such as a point 60 miles north of Baghdad, he said. By pulling out that geographic data, GTS gives users a common point of reference -- a map. Interoperability isn't a big concern to MetaCarta because geographic information is already a commonly understood language -- turn left and drive 2.3 miles means the same thing to a terrorist as it does to a police officer, Ridley said. "We don't care about standards that much," Ridley said. "We read documents like human beings do."