The Weakest Link
(Taken from http://www.knowledgearchitect.org/weaklink.html)


1. Context

1.1. Productivity
Collaboration is the greatest productivity tool available. No other tool or activity can provide productivity like collaboration. This is true not only for humans, but for all species, in all forms of life, as well as for all groups and organizations.

1.2. Complexity
Collaboration is a complex activity requiring coordination and orchestration of all contributors and contributions, typically to achieve common and complementary objectives.

1.3. Communication
The coordination of contributions depends on various factors but a single one is more important and critical than all others, and that is communication, which applies at all levels of collaboration and is the main key to coordination and effective collaboration.

1.4. Applications
While this is true and applies to all forms and applications of collaboration, it is especially true in emergency and crisis response and preparedness, where it is simply crucial.

1.5. Process
To begin, communication, in every form, is the most sophisticated activity that beings are capable of. It is especially sophisticated as it requires each and every communicating being to use its experience, knowledge, and motivation to imagine, articulate, formulate, encode, transmit, perceive, receive, decode, understand, consider, evaluate, and assimilate knowledge.

1.6. Fragility
Communication is also our most fragile activity as issues happen at every step and because no two beings are the same, each having its own experience, knowledge, motivation, imagination, as well as articulation, formulation, transmission, perception, reception, decoding, understanding, consideration, and assimilation processes.

1.7. Organizations
More so, in most collaboration environments and especially in emergency preparedness and response, beings are also typically organized into multi-level groupings, and each of these groups is also a communicating being, with its own complexities, experience, knowledge, motivation, imagination, and communication processes.

1.8. Differences
Communication and collaboration are no small feat, and we have not yet considered the physical aspects, constraints, limitations, and failures that are so common and natural, especially in crisis and emergency conditions, and especially if the collaborating beings have not been trained together, come from very different backgrounds and environments, and more so, if they do not even know each other.

1.9. Value
Collaboration success is indeed something to be proud of, and worth every bit of productivity that it provides.


2. Issue

2.1. Weakest
Communication is the most crucial link or element, but it is also the weakest.

2.2. Sharing
The prime objective of communication is sharing knowledge, which, as introduced above brings up questions about how knowledge is to be shared, but also other fundamental questions including questions around what knowledge is to be shared, when should what be shared, and which beings should share which knowledge with which other beings, when, and how.

2.3. Giving
These questions outline the important main difference between Sharing and Giving: Entitlement (further introduced in : http://www.KnowledgeArchitect.org/). 

2.4. Coordination
Trying to answer and manage all of these questions, for a great number of beings, a great variety and volume of knowledge, information, information levels, and classifications, in the middle of an emergency and crisis, especially if physical communication resources are failing, can be a frustrating, expensive, inefficient, disastrous, and even a deadly nightmare.

2.5. Solution
The good thing is, that much can be done to maximize communication, collaboration, productivity, and efficiency, even in crisis and emergency situations.

2.6. Domain
Obviously, communication and knowledge sharing are not the only aspects of emergency and crisis response and preparedness, but they are pervasive and crucial in every aspect. As the weakest link, they are our focus here.

2.7. Priority
Proceeding by priority, the first obvious consideration is that adequate preparedness mitigates crisis and emergency. In fact, full preparedness means that there is no crisis. Consequently, while we will consider response aspects, we will try to first ensure preparedness.


3. Preparedness
The five main dimensions of collaboration, communication, and knowledge sharing preparedness include:

3.1. Infrastructure
Infrastructure integration, agility, and scalability, as well as availability, redundancy, and reliability, for communications as well as for knowledge management and sharing. While at first, this may seem like a lot, it is really quite feasible as today's technology can do a lot for the required infrastructure. In fact, the infrastructure requirements can be split in two main logical considerations:

3.1.1. Integration
Ensure a single integrated and extensible operational network environment providing infrastructure integration, agility, and scalability, as well as integrating everyone and every collaborator, on permanent basis.

3.1.2. Availability
Ensure network availability, redundancy, and reliability, using the existing and expanding Internet base, with the existing cable, wireless, microwave, cellular, and satellite infrastructures, backing it up with with flexible, easily deployable wireless broadcast (e.g. WiMax, 3G) antennas with power backups, so that where a communication infrastructure becomes inoperative, another one can quickly replace it. In summary, one network and protocol with multiple redundant channels and technology, with easily re-deployable units.

3.2. Collaboration
Integrating Main collaborating beings operations, including public services, media, contractors, health care, government, military, and coordination, in the middle of a crisis and emergency, is a problem that is seriously constrained and limited by integrating their collaborative operations on a permanent basis.  With a common and integrated redundant network environment, integrating collaborator contribution and operations is a functional and strategic issue but not a resource or an infrastructure one.

3.3. Knowledge
A knowledge and information classification and sharing network requires a technical management operation, that is a working group with appropriate infrastructure support, managing the knowledge sharing environment and coordinating operations with/between collaborators and participants. This operation could be, but does not have to be centralized. Manned and operated by knowledge management, sharing, and communication professionals, this operation is key. One of the justification that many have today, still, for setting up their own network (e.g. health, military, etc) is knowledge and information security, confidentiality, and privacy. Their concerns are real and need to be addressed adequately. For example, in addition to normal network, system, and application security, all shared information should be encrypted at all times, only to be selectively decrypted, according to resource entitlement, as well as detailed classification, and contexts. As well, all information access should be logged and traced with related entitlement, classification, and context information. All shared information is considered private, valuable, sensitive, strategic, and proprietary unless otherwise specified by the respective owners. As well, knowledge and information are only shared according to owner classification, which can change at any time. All shared information can be accessed, modeled, managed, processed, transformed, shared, and published according to specified entitlement, classification, and context. This is crucial as collaborator respect is a prerequisite to collaboration. The information owners decide what, how, when, why they wish share and providing them with the greatest protection is key to their willingness to share and contribute. Confidentiality and trust are key communication factors, especially for collaboration. The knowledge sharing and communication platform has to support collaborator respect by all possible means.  Such a platform is feasible today, but it is not something that can be just quickly thrown together, in the middle of an emergency, not any more than an integrated reliable network. In other words, a permanent solution is required to ensure preparedness and minimize crisis and emergency.

3.4. Training
With a permanent operating platform, network, and infrastructure, training and exercise is on-going, both in dedicated specialized exercises and in normal everyday operations. The world is not a quiet place, events, crisis, emergencies happen every day, every hour, and every minute. An adequate integrated, efficient, reliable, and resilient collaboration, communication, and knowledge sharing infrastructure, is a priceless tool, at any time.

3.5. Propagation
While ideally, an integrated entitlement secure universal knowledge sharing and communication platform should be available to serve everyone on the planet, reality imposes a much more progressive and pragmatic path. In fact, the proposed solution should first be implemented in a single location, first as a pilot project, and then progressively, as a city wide project, before being propagated to other cities and areas.  A lot of the required infrastructure is already existent, even the proposed redundancy is being developed already in many areas. The integration of the different collaborators is somewhat of a political and strategic issue but offers advantages that far outweigh the costs, it is very reasonably resolvable. The main effort required is setting up and integrating the knowledge sharing platform.  There again, the solutions already exist and are simply waiting for application and integration.


4. Response
With everyone prepared, trained, and supported with an adequate and resilient infrastructure, crisis and emergency response is simply a question of every collaborator doing its best and humans have been known to respond to the call of duty with remarkable strength, creativity, feeling, and honor, when given a chance.