Admin
Border authorities should have access to a portal similar to iGoogle that would provide officials with real-time imagery and intelligence, retired Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen told NextGov.
The Coast Guard’s 23rd commandant said an iGoogle-like page would offer authorities intelligence on drug cartels, potential terrorists and additional figures attempting to cross the U.S.-Mexico border.
Part of the 2012 defense authorization bill requires the Pentagon’s chief information officer to make coding available to programmers for recreating the National Security Agency‘s ozone widget framework, the report said.
The framework creates a Web portal, aggregating analytical tools useful to officials’ missions.
Allen suggested the U.S. should take advantage of this strategic use of computing and spectrum bandwidth.
Currently, border agents use multiple interfaces in order to gain insight and track assailants.
Some use license plate data, which is not always checked against every possible database at border checkpoints, the report said.
Allen noted that some organizations practice collaborative methods but said the trust evident in today’s e-democracy practices should be extended.
This process needs to be made like liquid, which will require breaking down proprietary operating systems in order to share more information, he said.
Public participation will be a part of any government issue today, said Allen, who himself has an iGoogle page.
