When my good friend Jeremy Geelan invited me to speak at CloudExpo Europe in Prague, Czech Republic my imagination went into overdrive. Being a child of the 60's and a retired US military officer, my memories of a dark time flooded my mind. I imagined a throwback world, full of retired spies in old trench coats, trying to catch up to the 21st century. I am now, quite frankly, embarrassed by those prejudiced and dated thoughts. Prague is not only a wonderful and beautiful city, but served as an outstanding host for CloudExpo Europe 2010. Jeremy, please invite me again!!
On a more capitalist note, Prague also proved to be an excellent place for business. Europe seems to be serious about understanding cloud computing and the attendees proved to be a skeptical bunch. In my session, International Collaboration on Cloud Computing, the questions centered on why the United States government was being so aggressive in its adoption of cloud computing. After doing a short demo of Data.gov and Flyontime.com, however, skepticism quickly gave way to excitement about the possibilities.
Two thumbs up for Prague and CloudExpo Europe 2010 !!
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
CloudExpo Europe 2010: Not Your Father's Prague
( Thank you. If you enjoyed this article, get free updates by email or RSS - KLJ )
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Tuesday, June 29, 2010
NCOIC Plenary Highlights Collaboration and Interoperability
Last week in Brussels, Belgium, the Network Centric Operations Industry Consortium highlighted it's support of collaboration and interoperability through an information exchange session with the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) and an impressive lab interoperability demonstration .
As published in Defense News, the "lab interoperability framework" demonstration was designed to show how different players could share an operational picture of an area. The NCOIC pointed to the recent Haiti operation or the Gulf of Mexico oil spill as examples where different networks or countries could communicate using these standards. Customers could be NATO, the European Union, civilians, governments or industry. The standards will be published free of charge for public use later this year after the NCOIC gives final approval. The NCOIC says that using its lab interoperability framework can save companies approximately $200,000 per event in labor costs, shorten execution timelines by 66 percent and reduce the risk of event failure.
In an effort to engage and collaborate with industry, the NGA briefed attendees on the Geospatial Community Cloud Project. While this effort is not an acquisition, it is intended to be an opportunity to discuss the status of geospatial intelligence (GEOINT) sharing across the community and to explore the application of cloud computing to this important requirement. For next steps, the agency charged NCOIC members to provide a plan of actions and milestones for possible inclusion of NGA systems on the NCOIC lab interoperability test bed. Recommendation are scheduled to be presented at the next NCOIC plenary, September 10, 2010 in Falls Church, Virginia. The entire NGA brief is provided below.
( Thank you. If you enjoyed this article, get free updates by email or RSS - KLJ )
As published in Defense News, the "lab interoperability framework" demonstration was designed to show how different players could share an operational picture of an area. The NCOIC pointed to the recent Haiti operation or the Gulf of Mexico oil spill as examples where different networks or countries could communicate using these standards. Customers could be NATO, the European Union, civilians, governments or industry. The standards will be published free of charge for public use later this year after the NCOIC gives final approval. The NCOIC says that using its lab interoperability framework can save companies approximately $200,000 per event in labor costs, shorten execution timelines by 66 percent and reduce the risk of event failure.
In an effort to engage and collaborate with industry, the NGA briefed attendees on the Geospatial Community Cloud Project. While this effort is not an acquisition, it is intended to be an opportunity to discuss the status of geospatial intelligence (GEOINT) sharing across the community and to explore the application of cloud computing to this important requirement. For next steps, the agency charged NCOIC members to provide a plan of actions and milestones for possible inclusion of NGA systems on the NCOIC lab interoperability test bed. Recommendation are scheduled to be presented at the next NCOIC plenary, September 10, 2010 in Falls Church, Virginia. The entire NGA brief is provided below.
( Thank you. If you enjoyed this article, get free updates by email or RSS - KLJ )
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
GovLoop "Member of the Week"
Thank you to Radiah Givens-Nunez and GovLoop for the honor of being their Member of the Week for June 21-25, 2010.
Created in 2008, GovLoop is an online social network for government community around the world. Founded by Steve Ressler the "Facebook for Government" currently has over 30,000 members. Radiah is a social media consultant who helps organizations create successful social media strategies that extends their brand beyond traditional media platforms.
Other GovLoop members that also received this honor include:
( Thank you. If you enjoyed this article, get free updates by email or RSS - KLJ )
Created in 2008, GovLoop is an online social network for government community around the world. Founded by Steve Ressler the "Facebook for Government" currently has over 30,000 members. Radiah is a social media consultant who helps organizations create successful social media strategies that extends their brand beyond traditional media platforms.
Other GovLoop members that also received this honor include:
( Thank you. If you enjoyed this article, get free updates by email or RSS - KLJ )
Friday, June 11, 2010
One AWESOME Week of Cloud Computing
We just finished up five AWESOME days of cloud computing training with USAREUR in Schwetzingen, Germany ! CHECK IT OUT !!
Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.
Sure we had fun, but we worked hard and learned a lot. Check out these final presentations.
I would like to publicly thank the entire class for their hard work and valuable contribution to this mutually enriching experience. On to Stuttgart !!
( Thank you. If you enjoyed this article, get free updates by email or RSS - KLJ )
Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.
Sure we had fun, but we worked hard and learned a lot. Check out these final presentations.
USAREUR Cloud Computing Training Class Presentation Heidelberg 1
View more presentations from Kevin Jackson.
USAREUR Cloud Computing Training Class Presentation Heidelberg 2
View more presentations from Kevin Jackson.
I would like to publicly thank the entire class for their hard work and valuable contribution to this mutually enriching experience. On to Stuttgart !!
( Thank you. If you enjoyed this article, get free updates by email or RSS - KLJ )
Monday, June 7, 2010
NGA Exploring "Community Cloud" With NCOIC
The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) is looking to leverage industry expertise through collaboration with the Network Centic Operations Industry Consortium (NCOIC). NGA provides timely, relevant and accurate geospatial intelligence in support of national security objectives. NCOIC's mission is to facilitate global realization of the benefit inherent in Network Centric Operations. To that end, they seek to enable continuously increasing levels of interoperability across the spectrum of joint, interagency, intergovernmental, and multinational industrial and commercial operations. Both organizations are looking to this collaborative effort to help enhance worldwide sharing of geospatial intelligence.
The term “geospatial intelligence” (GEOINT) means the exploitation and analysis of imagery and geospatial information to describe, assess and visually depict physical features and geographically referenced activities on the Earth. Geospatial intelligence consists of imagery, imagery intelligence and geospatial (e.g., mapping, charting and geodesy) information. GEOINT is also a crucial component to the success of international humanitarian efforts, such as tracking floods, disaster support, and peacekeeping.
Through the Multinational Geospatial Co-Production Program (MGCPP), 28 countries share a central database for geospatial information. As a key member, the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) is currently exploring a strategy for enhancing the MGCPP into an interoperable resource capable of supporting multinational nation building efforts. Their immediate interest is in developing an open standards based “community cloud” that would support the 26 NATO, 10 partner and 2 non-NATO/non-partner countries of United Nations Security Council established International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan.
Current plans are to kick off this collaborative effort during the NCOIC Plenary Meeting in Brussels, Belgium, June 21-25, 2010. On Thursday June 24th NGA would like to explore how NCOIC processes and patterns could be used to achieve this goal. This 2-hr afternoon plenary session will open with NGA representative providing an overview of their challenge. NCOIC IPT and working group representatives will then provide some initial insight into how their processes and/or products could support the NGA strategy. The session will close with the development of an action plan for developing NCOIC recommendations for presentation during the September plenary session in Falls Church, VA.
The NCOIC June plenary week will also feature addresses from three senior European organization representatives:
- Dag Wilhelmsen, Technical Director, NATO Communications and Information Systems Services Agency (NCSA)
- IGA Patrick Fermier, National co-Vice Chair, NATO Command, Control & Communications (NC3) Agency Board
- RADM Denis Trioulaire, European Defense Agency
( Thank you. If you enjoyed this article, get free updates by email or RSS - KLJ )
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