The NYT expresses surprise that Homeland Security's $56 million dollar command center broke so completely, in the end relying on TV reports that convinced them the New Orleans situation was no big deal.
Find out why this is no surprise after the jump.
First, understand that this Ops center is swank. I mean, it's like they took the blueprints from every blockbuster mad scientist's lair and pasted them together into one, big mad scientist's lair. It probably takes Industrial Light and Magic to run the thing, and there's enough visual information cranking through it to singe your eyeballs.
And there's the rub.
In Blink!, Malcolm Gladwell tells the story of a regime change exercise carried out by the U.S. Military. A retired General led the Red Team, playing as a feisty Middle Eastern dictatorship. The Army led the Blue Team, playing itself.
Now, the Blue Team had a huge total information system to govern its movements--very similar to the HS Ops Center. They consulted nearly instantaneous field data for every command decision, and were able to manage precise troop movements in the field. Or, you know, they could have if they didn't have to be in meetings every five minutes evaluating new data.
The Red Team depended on a distributed network structure, which gave great autonomy to individual commanders. High level staff thought high level, and had to rely on limited information. And when I say limited, I mean trusted hand couriers with paper communiques. Remember paper?
Now who has a faster trigger finger in that scenario? When half the U.S. fleet sank in a rapid assault, we got a pretty good answer to that question.
You can see the parallels, I'm sure. The main issue with the Katrina response was the lack of experience and accountability of responders on the ground. They depended on a hierarchy that was so overwhelmed with information that it couldn't turn that information into knowledge. And the regional guys didn't have enough authority to make decisions themselves.
What happened in the war game? Well, the Blue Team eventually won--after they called foul and started the exercise over, with a different general in charge of the Red Team. Thus, the apocalypse comes one click closer.
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