Technology Disappoints in Tsunami Relief - ' Discovering That Simple IT '

They talked through the changes on Skype, a service that allows calls to be made around the globe to other Skype users. All he needed was a headset and some voice-over-Internet Protocol software on his laptop.

When Kirkpatrick and Rasmussen were finished with their redesign session, they had stripped away everything that was nonessential, trimming the table of contents that greets users from 28 links to five major categories—Discussion, Contacts, News, Files and Toolbox—with subheadings for the specific tools created for logistics support and field assessments.

By eliminating clutter, they found room for some explanatory text at the top of the page about how to use the member directory and online collaboration features. The basic feature that allowed Rasmussen to wow his WFP friends when he first arrived in Jakarta—the ability to connect people to each other—was the most important of all, they decided.

Before departing for Banda Aceh the next day, Rasmussen took the revision back to the U.N. logistics specialist he had tried to train and asked him to take another look. After that, it did get some operational use. But it was late.

In retrospect, he wishes he could have gone to Indonesia sooner, perhaps allowing him to introduce Strong Angel-style capabilities while the mission was still being organized.

Snoad, the U.N. Joint Logistics Centre CIO, confirms that Rasmussen's Groove tools were used in the tsunami response, "although not to anything like their proper potential."

Engle says he thinks Groove-like sharing makes most sense as a supplemental tool in an emergency, for occasionally connected users, rather than as the main way to maintain "situational awareness" during a massive humanitarian response. His laptop, for instance, kept crashing when he tried to access the tsunami response workspace because Rasmussen had packed too much into it, he says.

Whatever the technology, the right time to introduce such capabilities is during the planning for future emergencies, Snoad says. The point is "getting the international community to be more organized and professional, not just about the tools but the approaches as well—and recognizing that it matters."

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