https://urgentcomm.com/wp-content/themes/ucm_child/assets/images/logo/footer-new-logo.png
  • Home
  • News
  • Multimedia
    • Back
    • Multimedia
    • Video
    • Podcasts
    • Galleries
    • IWCE’s Video Showcase
    • IWCE 2022 Winter Showcase
    • IWCE 2023 Pre-event Guide
  • Commentary
    • Back
    • Commentary
    • Urgent Matters
    • View From The Top
    • All Things IWCE
    • Legal Matters
  • Resources
    • Back
    • Resources
    • Webinars
    • White Papers
    • Reprints & Reuse
  • IWCE
    • Back
    • IWCE
    • Conference
    • Special Events
    • Exhibitor Listings
    • Premier Partners
    • Floor Plan
    • Exhibiting Information
    • Register for IWCE
  • About Us
    • Back
    • About Us
    • Contact Us
    • Advertise
    • Terms of Service
    • Privacy Statement
    • Cookie Policy
  • Related Sites
    • Back
    • American City & County
    • IWCE
    • Light Reading
    • IOT World Today
    • Mission Critical Technologies
    • TU-Auto
  • In the field
    • Back
    • In the field
    • Broadband Push-to-X
    • Internet of Things
    • Project 25
    • Public-Safety Broadband/FirstNet
    • Virtual/Augmented Reality
    • Land Mobile Radio
    • Long Term Evolution (LTE)
    • Applications
    • Drones/Robots
    • IoT/Smart X
    • Software
    • Subscriber Devices
    • Video
  • Call Center/Command
    • Back
    • Call Center/Command
    • Artificial Intelligence
    • NG911
    • Alerting Systems
    • Analytics
    • Dispatch/Call-taking
    • Incident Command/Situational Awareness
    • Tracking, Monitoring & Control
  • Network Tech
    • Back
    • Network Tech
    • Interoperability
    • LMR 100
    • LMR 200
    • Backhaul
    • Deployables
    • Power
    • Tower & Site
    • Wireless Networks
    • Coverage/Interference
    • Security
    • System Design
    • System Installation
    • System Operation
    • Test & Measurement
  • Operations
    • Back
    • Operations
    • Critical Infrastructure
    • Enterprise
    • Federal Government/Military
    • Public Safety
    • State & Local Government
    • Training
  • Regulations
    • Back
    • Regulations
    • Narrowbanding
    • T-Band
    • Rebanding
    • TV White Spaces
    • None
    • Funding
    • Policy
    • Regional Coordination
    • Standards
  • Organizations
    • Back
    • Organizations
    • AASHTO
    • APCO
    • DHS
    • DMR Association
    • ETA
    • EWA
    • FCC
    • IWCE
    • NASEMSO
    • NATE
    • NXDN Forum
    • NENA
    • NIST/PSCR
    • NPSTC
    • NTIA/FirstNet
    • P25 TIG
    • TETRA + CCA
    • UTC
Urgent Communications
  • NEWSLETTER
  • Home
  • News
  • Multimedia
    • Back
    • Video
    • Podcasts
    • Omdia Crit Comms Circle Podcast
    • Galleries
    • IWCE’s Video Showcase
    • IWCE 2023 Pre-event Guide
    • IWCE 2022 Winter Showcase
  • Commentary
    • Back
    • All Things IWCE
    • Urgent Matters
    • View From The Top
    • Legal Matters
  • Resources
    • Back
    • Webinars
    • White Papers
    • Reprints & Reuse
    • UC eZines
    • Sponsored content
  • IWCE
    • Back
    • Conference
    • Why Attend
    • Exhibitor Listing
    • Floor Plan
    • Exhibiting Information
    • Join the Event Mailing List
  • About Us
    • Back
    • About Us
    • Contact Us
    • Advertise
    • Cookie Policy
    • Terms of Service
    • Privacy Statement
  • Related Sites
    • Back
    • American City & County
    • IWCE
    • Light Reading
    • IOT World Today
    • TU-Auto
  • newsletter
  • In the field
    • Back
    • Internet of Things
    • Broadband Push-to-X
    • Project 25
    • Public-Safety Broadband/FirstNet
    • Virtual/Augmented Reality
    • Land Mobile Radio
    • Long Term Evolution (LTE)
    • Applications
    • Drones/Robots
    • IoT/Smart X
    • Software
    • Subscriber Devices
    • Video
  • Call Center/Command
    • Back
    • Artificial Intelligence
    • NG911
    • Alerting Systems
    • Analytics
    • Dispatch/Call-taking
    • Incident Command/Situational Awareness
    • Tracking, Monitoring & Control
  • Network Tech
    • Back
    • Cybersecurity
    • Interoperability
    • LMR 100
    • LMR 200
    • Backhaul
    • Deployables
    • Power
    • Tower & Site
    • Wireless Networks
    • Coverage/Interference
    • Security
    • System Design
    • System Installation
    • System Operation
    • Test & Measurement
  • Operations
    • Back
    • Critical Infrastructure
    • Enterprise
    • Federal Government/Military
    • Public Safety
    • State & Local Government
    • Training
  • Regulations
    • Back
    • Narrowbanding
    • T-Band
    • Rebanding
    • TV White Spaces
    • None
    • Funding
    • Policy
    • Regional Coordination
    • Standards
  • Organizations
    • Back
    • AASHTO
    • APCO
    • DHS
    • DMR Association
    • ETA
    • EWA
    • FCC
    • IWCE
    • NASEMSO
    • NATE
    • NXDN Forum
    • NENA
    • NIST/PSCR
    • NPSTC
    • NTIA/FirstNet
    • P25 TIG
    • TETRA + CCA
    • UTC
acc.com

Urgent Matters


Commentary

How should DHS spend its R&D dollars? Take this opportunity to let them know

How should DHS spend its R&D dollars? Take this opportunity to let them know

As part of its Visionary Goals initiative, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has established an online collaboration community at http://scitech.ideascale.com, where anyone can submit ideas about a variety of things—from big-picture notions about what should be done to criteria that must be met to technical/political/legal challenges that need to be considered.
  • Written by Donny Jackson
  • 28th August 2014

“This is a really cool technology, but I can’t use it because …”

It has to be one of the most disheartening phrases to hear for innovators, developers, manufacturers and vendor representatives that put tremendous amounts of time and effort—as well as their livelihoods—into creating a product.

In some cases, it’s a matter of technology evolving, so the product is unnecessary.

In the early days of the Internet, when really slow dial-up modems were the norm, my newspaper had eight-step processes to reduce the size of pictures to less than 30 KBs, so they would load on our website pages in a timely manner. After almost a year of this tedium, my managing editor and I—neither being software developers—used our spare time to try to create automated scripts that would execute as many of the eight steps as possible.

A few months later, I proudly showed my boss the progress we had made, automating five of the eight steps. My boss applauded our effort, but he almost apologetically informed me that we didn’t need to go through the eight-step process anymore, because modem speeds had improved to the point where photo sizes didn’t need to be reduced.

In a matter of moments, our little project had transformed from a “solution” to a “solution in search of a problem.”

While some such developments may be difficult to predict, they can be foreseen, if you ask the right person with expertise in the area. Even more important, asking the right people for input can provide insights into the manner in which something would be used—or not.

With this in mind, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has embarked on a Visionary Goals initiative that is designed to get input from anyone—first responders, critical-infrastructure personnel, technologists, citizens, etc.—to provide insights about what issues the department should try to address with future research-and-development (R&D) projects, according to Bob Griffin, acting deputy undersecretary for the DHS science & technology (S&T) directorate.

To get this input, DHS has established an online collaboration community at http://scitech.ideascale.com, where anyone can submit ideas about a variety of things—from big-picture notions about what should be done to criteria that must be met to technical/political/legal challenges that need to be considered.

DHS has proposed four broad goals (listen to Griffin’s description of them in this podcast), but Griffin insists that they should not be considered limiting factors; in fact, one of the purposes of the collaboration community is “to find out what we may have missed” when creating the four proposed goals.

In recent years, DHS S&T has developed numerous technologies designed for first responders, including technology to help locate firefighters inside of buildings, clothing material that can provide battery power, and software applications like FiRST. With the right input from the Visionary Goals initiative, DHS officials hope to build on these successes with new developments that are most relevant to public safety andhomeland security.

On numerous occasions, I’ve spoken with sources about a product or policy and heard them say, “I wish someone had asked me about this while they were developing it, because I would have told them to include (fill in the blank), which would have made it a lot better.” In this case, DHS is asking, so please take a moment and provide some constructive input into the process. But don’t take too long, because the DHS collaboration community is scheduled to be active only through Sept. 7.

Tags: Commentary Critical Infrastructure DHS Public Safety System Design Urgent Matters Commentary

Most Recent


  • FCC approves new processes, spectrum to support space-based communications
    FCC commissioners today passed new rules that are designed to enable more satellite and other space-based endeavors by streamlining the application processes associated with such initiatives and by establishing a more predictable spectrum regime for launches. Commissioners indicated that these two items were passed in an effort to ensure that FCC rules and processes do […]
  • FBI, CISA issue joint warning on 'Snatch' ransomware-as-a-service
    Cybersecurity advisories from the FBI and the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) are usually a good indication that a particular threat merits priority attention from organizations in the crosshairs. That would appear to be the case with “Snatch,” a ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) operation that has been active since at least 2018 and is the […]
  • Huawei hacked by U.S., according to China spy agency
    It’s back to 2019 on Huawei, with the US and China exchanging barbs and the Chinese firm accused of skirting US export rules. China foreign affairs spokesperson Mao Ning Wednesday assailed the US for “overstretching” the concept of national security in order to discriminate against Chinese companies. She rejected a complaint by Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo over […]
  • Driverless-car crashes less frequent, cause less damage, according to insurance research
    Waymo is using insurance data to demonstrate that its self-driving taxis are safer than human-driven vehicles. The company, owned by Google parent Alphabet, has published research led by insurer Swiss Re that it says shows how driverless vehicles crash less frequently and do less damage than those piloted by humans. The study comes at a pivotal moment […]

Related Content

Commentary


Better technology can help solve the public-safety staffing crisis

26th June 2023

Updated: How ‘sidelink’ peer-to-peer communications can enhance public-safety operations

  • 1
27th February 2023

NG911 needed to secure our communities and nation

24th February 2023
view all

Events


UC Ezines


IWCE 2019 Wrap Up

13th May 2019
view all

Twitter


Newsletter

Sign up for UrgentComm’s newsletters to receive regular news and information updates about Communications and Technology.

Expert Commentary

Learn from experts about the latest technology in automation, machine-learning, big data and cybersecurity.

Business Media

Find the latest videos and media from the market leaders.

Media Kit and Advertising

Want to reach our digital and print audiences? Learn more here.

DISCOVER MORE FROM INFORMA TECH

  • American City & County
  • IWCE
  • Light Reading
  • IOT World Today
  • Mission Critical Technologies
  • TU-Auto

WORKING WITH US

  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Events
  • Careers

FOLLOW Urgent Comms ON SOCIAL

  • Privacy
  • CCPA: “Do Not Sell My Data”
  • Cookie Policy
  • Terms
Copyright © 2023 Informa PLC. Informa PLC is registered in England and Wales with company number 8860726 whose registered and Head office is 5 Howick Place, London, SW1P 1WG.