Innovate out of a crisis….

I listened to President Obama’s remarks during the press conference and his pledge to fix the situation in the Gulf and hold those that made this mess accountable.  I won’t comment on the administration efforts to this point; however, I will say that I did not hear what I was hoping to which was how are we going to deliver immediate and effective remediation should this happen again (lets hope it never does) and what the government and private industry will do to prevent catastrophic situations in the future.  I’m not talking about suspending permits and drilling but rather how the Government will learn from this situation and address these situations in the future.   Right now, all sorts of companies and organizations are effectively using crowd wisdom to address gluts in innovation, unlock knowledge and expertise that never had a voice and assess best technologies to address areas of need given specific sets of circumstances.  With all the noise around open government, shouldn’t these practices and ideas be on the front of the agenda?  All anyone has to do is take a look at P&G’s Connect and Develop to see that there is significant benefit to collaboration around everything from packaging to design to technologies.  It is a brilliant strategy to reduce R&D costs and partner with some of their most important constituents. Here is my idea – an innovation crisis control community that can be immediately be mobilized to address a potentially catastrophic disaster no matter what the circumstances.  Any company that is engaging in activity that can cause potentially widespread damage needs to register with the community, submit their business and operations and any assessment on potential dangers including environmental impact, harm to employees and citizens as well as costs for containment and remediation (Granted this is not for all operations just those where widespread catastrophic situation might ensue).  The community could vet these plans, make suggestions, rank and comment on recommendations and based on the outcome, the Government might then ask the company to bolster or improve its plan.  Another outcome would be the development of a 24x7 community of experts who could become engaged should a situation develop.  An immediate report of the damage, where it occurred and conditions affecting the situation, would then match up with community members that have the right set of expertise to address all the specifics related to the situation at hand.

On the flip side, this community would also be tasked with innovations around preventative measures.  Once again, all operations with potentially catastrophic outcomes should be reviewed for effective mechanisms and technologies to provide proactive monitoring ensuring a fail safe procedure if needed.  We have some of the best and brightest minds in our universities and national labs.  By providing a mechanism allowing them to collaborate along with business and Government, I am pretty positive that we can address most catastrophic situations and potentially avoid them in the future.  Government should then have the ability to delegate that these procedures and technologies be in place prior to continued operation.

For example, lets say BP was required to register the well in question and all operations associated with the flow of oil in the gulf to the community.  Some of the smart folks at CMU’s Center for Sensed Critical infrastructure Research of working on sensing for critical infrastructure got together with the equally smart folks at Wood’s Hole Oceanographic Institute to use their deep sea submersibles to lay a network of sensors that could feed infrastructure data to a system for analysis.  Through assessing vibration signatures and comparing benchmarks a group could ascertain potential for collapse and by throttling flow they might be able to contain the damage and even allow access to shut down any further damage that might ensue.  Now, please don’t critique the scientific merit of this idea. It just serves as an example of what might come out of an aggregation of ideas from our top innovators and allowing them to address concerns, offer recommendations much like a scientific review process.  These situations, like the one we are currently dealing with now in the Gulf, require a broad range of experts on remediation, oceanography, ecologists, engineering (multiple disciplines), environmentalists, etc.  We have seen examples in the online community space where different disciplines have been brought together, vetted for contribution and deliver innovation.  I think the same can be done to prevent and control crisis in the future…..