America to Sleep Safer because of XML

The Salon article (see URL above, but you may need to subscribe or suffer an ad for something first) also has some nice links on shiny defense technology.

But it reminds me of that old joke: the speaker at a software engineering conference asks the 600 developers there who would feel safe in an aircraft which was flown by software they themselves had written. Only one hand was raised. The other 599 developers quickly rushed to find out what this developer's secret was: "Nothing" he replied "I would be safe because I know it wouldn't even leave the parking bay!"

Regretfully, one Web Service that might be a good place to start, would be a Web Service for Whistle Blowers and the Red Cross. Perhaps this is next technology needed for US military tactical support: tools to reduce the opportunity for counter-propaganda by the enemy, not by hiding the problem but by dealing with it fast. I also suspect there will be a bigger role after recent events for online updates and access to procedures: soldiers need to know that if the book says "thou shalt not torture" they should not torture. The message needs to be available enough that soldiers will know that "I was just following orders" or "I was not properly trained" will not protect them.

People at the top should have less likelihood/excuse/escape-clause that information had not percolated up to them, and people on the bottom should have less liklihood/excuse/escape-clause that information had not percolated down to them.

Back to the issue of military information systems. For soldiers, I reckon a combination of e Ink with eBook DTD and RSS-based updating when recharging would be agile and workable, both for human and technical procedures. It needs to be light, simple, complete and current: it needs graphics, have no moving parts, but not interactivity or response.

Class 5 IETMs* (PDF) are a great idea, but the addition of interactivity and connectivity is a real killer, because you then need active programs (not just passive browser) with input devices, web connectivity (nowadays) and so on. Pile on batteries, screens, CD-ROMs, etc. and the weight and support complexity shoots up. At the moment, it looks to me that interactivity is better handled by mobile phones; tablets or notebooks are just too bulky, at least with modern battery technology. I suggest that Class 5 IETMs should be considered a long-term or niche goal: in many militaries (I am thinking of two that I know about first-hand) there are severe problems just getting static reference material formatted, collated and distributed for major weapons systems, given that often each system has unique mods. (Loose-leaf updates, for example, are just plain dangerous, but some militaries are justifiably cautious about adopting alternative PC hardware with the unneccessary cost and risk of operating systems.) Get this Class 4-ish browser cheap and deployed to, say, every sergeant and above (as the baby step to Class 5), make the data also available over HTML to notebooks, and use mobile phones where possible.

(This problem of how to get complex, but relatively slow-changing data (manuals, rules-of-engagement, procedures) deployed is different from the problem of how to cope with the flood of fragmentary, fast-moving information from the battle-field and intelligence, of course.)

* IETM: Interactive Electronic Technical Manual, pronounced I Eat 'Em