Gary Wolf wrote in the June issue of Wired about how smart mobs in New York’s World Trade Center outbrained the “authorities” and enjoyed higher survival rates because of it. Wolf is talking about the NIST report on Occupant Behavior, Egress, and Emergency Communications (warning: PDFs). There’s also this executive summary and this looks like a mind numbing PowerPoint presentation (also PDF). So, what about it?

For nearly four years - steadily, seriously, and with the unsentimental rigor for which we love them - civil engineers have been studying the destruction of the World Trade Center towers, sifting the tragedy for its lessons. And it turns out that one of the lessons is: Disobey authority. In a connected world, ordinary people often have access to better information than officials do.

Wolf talks about news coming in via cell phone and Blackberry, people making informed decisions that contradicted the authorities, and doing so calmly and efficiently.

We know that US borders are porous, that major targets are largely undefended, and that the multicolor threat alert scheme known affectionately as “the rainbow of doom” is a national joke. Anybody who has been paying attention probably suspects that if we rely on orders from above to protect us, we’ll be in terrible shape. But in a networked era, we have increasing opportunities to help ourselves. This is the real source of homeland security: not authoritarian schemes of surveillance and punishment, but multichannel networks of advice, information, and mutual aid.

As wolf says, “question authorities.”

Thanks to DefenseTech for the link.

Technorati Tags: authorities, authority, blackberries, civil engineers, communications, defense, disaster, disobey, egress, elevators, emergency, evacuees, question, question authority, report, review, security, smartmob

Posted June 2, 2005 by Casey Bisson
Categories: Politics & Controversy, Technology. Tags: authorities, authority, blackberries, civil engineers, communications, defense, disaster, disobey, egress, elevators, emergency, evacuees, question, question authority, report, review, security, smartmob.

3 Comments

Comments RSS TrackBack Identifier URI

Leave a comment

Name (required)

Mail (will not be published) (required)

Website

 

User contributed tags for this post:

http sex com (268) - sex ocean com (124) - www.sex ocean.com (69) - wtc coordinates (64) - http;//www world sex com (61) - WWW SEX OCEAN COM (58) - sexg rl (52) - sex ocean.com (47) - http:sex com (44) - funny google earth coordinates (42) - sex com (39) - sexgae (29) - world trade center coordinates (29) - http://www.WORLD SEX.com/ (28) - sex world com (25) - about (22) - http://www.world sex.com (20) - google earth coordinates funny (18) - www.sex ocean (17) - http://www sex ocean com/ (16) - www.world ocean sex.com (15) - www.world sex.com (15) - http://www.sex ocean.com/ (14) - http sex (13) - www.sex ocion.com (13) - www.ocean sex.com (13) - google earth coordinates (12) - www.sex ocean .com (12) - http sex ocean (11) - authorities (10) - www.sex.ocean (10) - sex ocion.com (10) - coordinates google earth funny (10) - google earth world (9) - sexocean (9) - http://sex.com (8) - timothy treadwell camp coordinates (8) - World Trade Center coordinates google earth (8) - www.bangladeshi sex.com (8) - world sex ocean.com (7) - google earth wtc coordinates (7) - google earth world trade center (7) - WWW SEX COM (7) - WWW SEX OCEAN (7) - www WORLD SEX OCEAN com (6) - sexy ocean com (6) - coordinates google (6) - www.world sex ocean.com (6) - www.sex world.com (6) - www sex ocean.com (5) - funny coordinates (5) - wtc coordinates google earth (5) - funny google coordinates (5) - http://www.sex world.com/ (5) - www.sex.ocean.com (5) - www.world sex vedio.com (5) - http://www.sex ocean.com (5) - world trade center google earth (5) - 17.SEX.COM (5) - http://www.sex world.com (5) - treadwell tragedy photos (5) - google earth funny coordinates (5) - www world sex com (5) - wtc google earth coordinates (5) - Search sex com (5) - http;//.www.world.sex.com (4) - smartmob (4) - google earth serial (4) - blackberries (4) - googleearth coordinate (4) - HTTP WWW WORLD SEX COM (4) - serial google (4) - sex ocion (4) - www.world.sex.com (4) - world trade centre google earth (4) - treadwell tragedy (4) - ??? (4) - googleearth world trade center (4) - lessons googleearth (4) - world trade centre coordinates (4) - world sex.com (4) - WWW.world sex in (4) - google earth world trade center coordinates (4) - google earth for blackberry (4) - http.www.worldsex.com (4) - coordinates of wtc (4) - www.world.sex.in (4) - http://sex ocean/ (3) - wtc1 google earth (3) - mss (3) - all (3) - http://sex farmer com (3) - http//sex.com (3) - sex.ocean (3) - google earth coordinates sex (3) - summer casual wiki (3) - google earth co ordinates funny (3) - sex.ocean.com (3) - treadwell tragedy pictures (3) - http://www.sex ocean (3) - www.world.sex.ocean (3) - coordinate wtc (3) - sex-ocean.com (3) - HTTP WWW SEX COM (3) - ocean sex.com (3) - www.arab freesex.com (3) - worldoceansex (3) - 17 SEX COM (3) - http://www.sex vedio.com/ (3) - www.sexocean (3) - wwwworldsex;com (3) - http://www.indian anty sex.com/ (3) - www.world.sex (2) - wtc tower coordinates google earth (2) - http//www.world.sex.com (2) - http/www.sex.com (2) - http\\www.world.sex.com (2) - http://sex ocean (2) - www.worldfreesex.com (2) - http;//sex.ocean.com/ (2) - http://www.sex video 89.com (2) - www.sex.video.89 (2) - cache wensGdgQN3AJ maisonbisson com blog post 10607 fun (2) - http sex destruction (2) - disaster (2) - http://www.sex ocean com (2) - http\www\sex\com (2) - www.sex-ocean.com (2) - sexgae video (2) - http://www google com/xhtml/search (2) - funnyvedio (2) - Gary Wolf (2) - WORLD TRADE CENTER GOOGLEEARTH (2) - http://sex ocean com/ (2) - Google Earth com (2) - http://sex / (2) - www.sexyocean.com (2) - http://www.sex.com (2) - emergency (2) - http://www.sex.world (2) - authority (2) - http/www/sex/com (2) - http,www,world,freesex.com (2) - world trade centre google earth coordinates (2) - http://www.sex ocean .com (2) - www.sexy ocion .com (2) - http/www/sexocean/com (2) - www.pink world sex.com (2) - www.89.com pink (2) - www.sexy ocean.com. (2) -