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A consolidated approach to connecting systems might help, but the track record of centralized-planning for distributed, fast-evolving environments is poor. From the Soviet’s efforts at centralized management of an economy, to Robert McNamara’s PPBS-driven, spreadsheet-fueled, body counting micromanagement of the Vietnam era military, through the difficulty recently experienced by the Israeli army fighting Palestinian irregulars in Gaza, there is little to cause optimism in central planning for dealing a dynamic, distributed need.

DHS would probably be better served studying the lessons of non-scalar network organization, emergence, and self-organization. I believe the most significant lesson the could draw initially is to become more astute listeners, rather than speakers, directors & coordinators. Even complex, nearly chaotic systems have rhythms and patterns that can be discerned by patient observation & experimentation. From learning how first responders across the US actually operate, maintain & evolve their communications networks, opportunities may be found for improvement and collaboration.

One aspect of complex systems is that you cannot predict the output from a given input. You can only destabilize the system and watch as it settles into a new pattern. Done frequently, patterns emerge that may guide efforts to predict system behavior. Emergency response, and emergency communications evolution and use, are non-linear. Their patterns are regularly ‘disturbed’ be everything from disasters to grant programs – too bad there’s no DHS office of Listening, Watching, & Learning.