Government social innovation to manage information supply

Jane Dawkins    October 29, 2014

Organization name: State of Hawaii

Industry: Government

Company Contact:
Adjutant General Darryll Wong, Hawaii National Guard and Civil Defense
Kevin Montgomery, founder of Intelesense Technologies and Senior Researcher, Center for Innovation in Global Health at Stanford University School of Medicine

Web references: Collaborate

Description of how social media is used for business performance:

Exemplary State Initiative is the vision of Adjutant General Darryll Wong of the Hawaii National Guard and Civil Defense. The goal of the initiative is to enhance awareness in communities across Hawaii and provide real-time information to first responders, the National Guard, Civil Defense, and the general public.

Data is collect with sensors and housed on collaborate, a central geospatial platform. Information can be shared around the world and the platform includes over 2.2 million layers of information such as critical environmental and weather conditions.  This data is shared in real-time to help inform disaster management plans, and protect public health.

Collaborate developer, Intelesense Technologies, a company created by Stanford and NASA engineers and Pacific Biosciences Research Center at the University of Hawaii are a key partners in the project to manage real-time information.

“From environment conservation, education, research and civil defense, water supply, power, all that different infrastructure — what if we could get those groups working together accessing and sharing each other’s data, leveraging each other’s resources and really harnessing their shared knowledge and enthusiasm to make a system that then benefits everyone? That is the Exemplary State idea.”

explains Kevin Montgomery, founder of Intelesense Technologies and Senior Researcher, Center for Innovation in Global Health, Stanford University School of Medicine, in an interview with Government Technology.

“It is really about government, academia, industry and the public coming together to for greater good and prosperity of the state of Hawaii.”

The initiative aims to coordinate and information share with organizations across the state  for awareness, real-time warning, life-saving, analyses,historical data collection and to enable local communities to respond and manage environmental risks appropriately.. The technology is also used for educational public school programs and for economic development purposes.

Radio Interview on ‘The Exemplary State’:

Capture

Lessons for others:

  • Expanded innovation networks allow companies to benefit from partnering organizations expertise and information sharing.
  • By coordinating resources into a shared data based siloed organizations or competitors become partners.
  • Like the supply chain management of hard goods. Richer collaboration networks enable organizations of all levels to be engaged in community problems solving.
  • Knowledge-based sourcing allows suppliers and customers or in this case government, industry and the public to share much more information up-front to jointly identify opportunities.

Other resources:

Hawaii Uses Collaborate.org as its Data Sharing Backbone
Business Networks: The Platforms for future Innovation

Submitted by:
Jane Dawkins, Marketing Communications Officer, University of Guelph

To contact the author of this entry please email at: jdawkins@uoguelph.ca

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