Much has been written about how the terrorists used technology during their attack on Mumbai and citizens used twitter to share information and seek help on the net.
Following up on a suggestion by one of our readers, we’re opening up this post as a platform for inputs on how we can use digital technology to help prepare us better in the future, protect us from future attacks and perhaps speed up response systems as well. Any ideas?
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10 Comments until now.
In cases of requirement of blood by hospitals, operators can send SMS to all those with active cell phone within a range of say 2 km of the hospital in question. The information could include Hospital name, address, contact person @ hospital, blood group required. The same kind of sms can be sent in cases of other requirements by hospitals (food, bed linen etc).
This can be taken further by having a short code for such emergency situations which should be operator agnostic.
There is a lot that can be done … if operators had a number list of medical stores/ medical suppliers, they could send medical requirements to them directly on getting request from hospitals.
MCARP – Mobile Crime and Accident Reporting Platform funded by Department of Science and Technology is a small step and attempt in this direction. MMS is a technology that not in common use by the general public but has its own advantages.
MCARP uses this very technology to transfer pictures shot in digital format.Police, equipped with walkie-talkies, struggle to communicate the gravity of the situation to the police station or control room several kilometres away. With MCARP, however, personnel can take pictures of the riot scene and send them to the control room, letting control-room staff visualise and understand the actual scene, and then coordinate the necessary action efficiently.The pre- programmed application will show the time, date and location in the photo. At a later date, the police can analyse the data to gather trends, such as accident-prone areas, or areas prone to traffic congestion, etc.
Project is currently in beta testing at Cochin.
sanjay, can you write to me on gadakranti at rediffmail?
i am interested in this product
In the past attacks in Bangalore and Mumabai we have seen that hospitals where targeted by terrorists to increase the causalities.
So apart from setting up a dedicated force for hospitals ( say like CISF ), there should be a mechnanism to alert hospitals in a particular city to beef up security measures once an attack happens in that city.
Queen Rania of Jordon is using Youtube very effectively to bring people closer together and get them talking. I find that it is a very effective strategy.
http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=TFf897bUW2Y
http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=-Z-aQAEA7U8
More than tackling terror, which ofcourse can be done by the govt., the citizen should use technology to make the authorities accountable. Eg. citizens should log on to the websites of their respective municipal corporation and report/register the unlawful activity happening around them.
Eg. In Mumbai, one can lodge a complaint with mcgm.gov.in to report appearance of any new encroachment in the area around their homes.
One can get to know who’s the Ward officer in charge and follow up on the action.
Link all the security agencies [State Police, RAW, NSG etc] on a private network to access and share intelligence inputs and database of terrorists / TADA / POTA criminals.
Also equip officers [field as well] with tiered access to the system.
Story carried by Indiantelevision.com few days back . This is just copy of that.
“This is just copy of that.”
What is?
Security cameras can be installed at important places in the city. These video feeds can then by beamed via internet for monitoring at a central monitoring base for suspicious activity.
Citizen can contribute towards surveillance by installing digital cameras around their apartments/shops. Other Citizens can contribute by spending time in monitoring the video feeds for suspicious activity.
This might help us avoid terror attacks as well as provide graphic evidence on those involved.