About This Blog

Blake Harris - 08/May/09 12:49 PM Blog Title: Frontline 2.0 Blog tag line: How technological innovations are changing public safety, justice and first responder operations. Author: Paul Weinberg paulweinberg@rogers.com photos - attached About the Author Paul Weinberg has written about information technology since the 1980s for a host of publications including eChannelLine.com (Daily Channel News), Connect IT and the Toronto Globe and Mail's Report on Business section. He also writes on a regular basis for the Rome based Inter Press Service news wire. About This Blog Frontline 2.0 closely scrutinizes the technologies geared to help front line workers in law enforcement, fire and emergency prevention do their jobs effectively and efficiently in a more complex world facing conflict, financial meltdown and climate change. Many major urban police forces, for instance, rely on sophisticated databases to collect information on suspects and statistics on various crimes in local areas. But it is not unusual to find a reliance on paper files by some patrol officers Also, various surveillance solutions purchased in the haste of a post 9/11 scenario make sense and help front line people in local government do their jobs; others appear to be a waste of money. Furthermore, the Katrina related tragedies in New Orleans have demonstrated the necessity for a more co-ordinated and technological response towards impending natural disasters. As a correspondent for Digital Communities I plan to separate the wheat from shaft in policing, fire and emergency prevention solutions and products from my conversations with the vendors, users and analysts.