Lat week I was very fortunate to be able to attend and present a keynote at the National Guard’s annual Joint Information Management Council (JIMC) conference in San Diego.  (Colonels Tresh and Seitz with the platinum sponsors including Sean Coombs of Autodesk in the picture.)

National Guard’s Changing Role

I really had no idea how much ends up on the National Guard’s plate.  General McCann, head of IT at the National Guard Bureau (NGB) in Washington, mentioned that on any given day, 17 governors have called out the National Guard.  General Wade, the Adjutant General of the California National Guard, said that because in California there are four seasons, earthquakes, fires, riots, and floods, 50% of National Guard callups across the US are in California.

The National Guard’s role has changed in the last year as a result of legislation that was passed at the end of 2007, which gives the National Guard a much more important place at the table in the Pentagon in decision making, elevates the Chief of the National Guard from a three star general to a four star general making the Chief the prime military advisory to the Defense Secretary and to the Joint Chiefs, and directs the Pentagon to work with the Guard in planning on homeland defense.

Common Operating Picture and the Importance of Data Sharing

One of the major threads through out the conference was the importance of information sharing.  General McCann described the vision of the NGB’s IT group which is to “provide responsive, reliable, integrated, and interoperable information and communications systems for collaboration and information sharing for National Guard domestic operations.”

DoD has a program called DISDI that is an oversight program responsible for leveraging spatial information across DoD to better manage DoD’s global installation and bases.  Each of the services has a similar program.  The Air Force was the first to implement a spatial information sharing program called GeoBase, the Army has Army Mapper, the Marines GeoFidelis, and the Navy GeoReadiness.  The National Guard is in the processs of setting a standard for geospatial enabling, integrating spatial data into the technical and business processes of the National Guard, which will require focussing on key issues including governance, data standards, data interoperability, a financing model, and full integration with the IT community.  The major benefits that the NG expects to gain are increased efficiency and productivity, reduced redundancy, inproved information/communication flow, and a better ability to meet the NG’s mission, very similar to what other organizations in the utility and telecommunications sectors are targetting.