Steven Cooper

1. What is the first question the CEO asked him to answer?
Are we spending too much money on information technology? The real question is are we spending the right amount of money on the right systems.

2. Describe why this question is very hard to answer. Having the right information/communications systems is the difference between success and failure. In the case of the Red Cross, it could mean the difference between life and death. Designing an information/communications system that provides portable communications and data transfer via secure reliable means is extremely costly. The equipment must be portable and able to survive in extreme conditions. Some off the self-equipment can meet these requirements, but more often they are specially designed for a specific type mission and function. Further, as the CIO pointed out interoperability among the various agencies during Katrina lead to further chaos. The state and local governments were not able to communicate among themselves much less the federal government. All of the variables mentioned above are just few of the added problems that must be addressed in designing systems to meet the mission of the Red Cross.

3. How to value information? In the case of the Red Cross the right information could save lives making the information priceless, and on the other hand worthless information could cause the loss of life making that information worthless. Although the statement above is ambiguous because bad information could be priceless knowing what not to act upon could be just as important. Information has to be timely or time sensitive in many cases to be worthwhile. The source that the information is received from has to be a credible source or at least a verifiable source to determine accuracy.. Having the right information is hard to quantify the value until it is measured against the situation it is used in.

4. What is the main problem the Red Cross IT team ran into? The main problems were inoperability among the various agencies. A clueless governor that failed to ensure the state and local government agencies were able to communicate properly among themselves, much less with any federal agencies. Imagine a major city without a disaster plan in place or any type of emergency infrastructure in place or a strategy that the mayor or first responders could implement. The failure by the state and city government officials led a terrible disaster into a colossal disaster that resulted in massive loss of life. The Red Cross IT team had to regroup in Washington DC to come up with a plan and equipment to provide services that the state could not do and was unprepared to do. The Red Cross along with other federal agencies had to take over the role of local and state governments.