Regional telecommunication incident coordination: Sharing information for rapid response

Abstract

Governments around the world are increasingly turning to information sharing as a lead strategy for developing response capacity for problems in a wide range of program and policy areas. One form of information sharing is regional coordination, which links together organizations or groups within close proximity to one another to pursue similar interests, goals, or mandates. Regional coordination requires leveraging currently held resources in innovative and potentially more efficient ways, as well as the establishment of new business processes, communication flows, and a system of governance that satisfies the needs of all stakeholders. In addition, trust, collaboration, and timely cross-boundary information sharing all play a pivotal role in this new model. This paper presents the experiences of the New York State Department of Public Service as it explores the concept of regional telecommunications incident response in New York; although this case study presents only one example of regional coordination, it raises issues which may apply in other regional information-sharing initiatives.