Bruno Giussani posted an 8 May update on Larry Brilliant’s INSTEDD initiative. Bruno is an excellent source for tracking the progress as Google.org doesn’t give PR much of a priority.
When I first heard of INSTEDD in the light of Brilliant’s Google.org appointment I thought “Google is the best possible backer for this program — the right attitude and the right technologies [language translation, web crawling, databases, …]. This could happen much faster than a typical NGO or government program”.
In other words this is not only a very important but it may actually happen soon. Until I read this latest post from Bruno I didn’t appreciate the pace that INSTEDD may be progressing. Bruno wrote [see original for embedded links]:
I recently met Larry Brilliant in Oxford and asked him why he has abandoned the idea of building INSTEDD on top of the already-existing Canadian system GPHIN, which he pointed out as the model during his original TED2006 speech (see video or read summary). He told me that he had realized he could build something “way more powerful” in a shorter time by relying on the Google resources and on those of many partners, including technology companies and organizations active in disaster prevention and response.
While keen to learn the particulars of aims and capabilities, I applaud what I speculate is the “Google way” of focusing on the goal. If/when concrete results are in the publications should follow. Still speculating that describes the INSTEDD program, consider how extraordinarily different this is from the typical NGO.
In this information void it is hard to appraise the significance of the pilot project — Bruno echos the TED status mentioning the pilot — implying it’s more important than I realized:
According to a status report posted on the TED website after the last TED conference, the new system is currently undergoing its first pilot project. Working with the Rockefeller Foundation and NTI (Nuclear Threat Initiative), six countries along the Mekong River (Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and the Hunan region of China) will do a tabletop exercise about how they would react to a pandemic flu.
Bruno also linked to his interview with GPHIN’s Dr. Ron St. John:
…I guess it was apparent from these posts that I consider GPHIN a formidable instrument, and a possible model for other global advanced alert systems. So I was happy to get a chance to meet with Dr. Ron St. John, the director-general of the Center for emergency preparedness and response at the Public Health Agency of Canada in Ottawa. GPHIN - run by a team of 12 people with a current budget of about 1.5 million dollars - is part of his Center.
Interesting — I missed this 11 January post which came out as we were immersed in the Hobart Summer Festival.
Technorati Tags: INSTEDD, Public Health, GPHIN
Now that’s spin if I ever heard it!