Let's Share Information

I have heard you should never start with an apology, but that is precisely what I am going to do. Why? Well, I think it is owed to you if you have read the musings from earlier posts, only to see them dry up.
Now, there is a reason for that; honestly.

Content discovery engine Outbrain composed a haiku on the subject.

“If you wrote a blog
And no one came to read it
Did you write a blog?”

Well, yes I did.

OCEANUSLive has continued to develop the information sharing capability during this time. It has brought together many maritime-related organisations and companies to a single platform to see what is going on in the seafaring community when transiting high risk areas. It has delivered a Weekly Pirate Activity Report (takes up the time that could be spent blogging), which draws on many sources to provide a round up of piracy-related matters, including piracy incidents from around the globe during the preceding week; it looks to keep the reader abreast of events, conferences, announcements, attacks, release of vessels and crew, and, well, you get the idea.
OL, the eponymous name for OCEANUSLive, has the unenviable task of bringing together the seafaring community to 'crowdsource' information of not just piracy-related events in the HRA (high risk areas - Horn of Africa, Indian Ocean, Gulf of Guinea, South China Sea & South America), but also has the ability to establish Emergency Collaboration Centres at short-notice for such disasters as an oil spill, search and rescue, hurricanes and so forth. It enables better coordination, or Command and Control, for the organisations and ships involved where others only provide in-house/inter-agency systems, omitting many valuable and relevant organisations, authorities and users who are not a part of the main group of coordinators.

Not forgetting, of course, the situational mapping that is available for each area covered. It can display where hijacks, pirate attacks, suspicious activity and even spots where fishing activity is taking place (no pun intended) to avoid confusion with pirate sightings. It displays 24-hour, 48-hour, 7 days, 30 days, 6 months or 12 months of data for the user to use for their own analysis purposes. It has range indicators to show the potential distance travelled by, for instance, a Pirate Action Group (when plotted), and the ability to add in a ruler to gauge distance between incidents or locations. It's kept in a simplified graphical format so as to avoid the confusion and clutter that you might see in some cases. The situational map for the Horn of Africa region is viewable on the homepage (button top of the page), but registration is necessary for the other regions.
Of course, verified access is required to keep a level of integrity of users online. However, there will be further changes as we move from the 'freemium' status to a 'freemium' in some cases, and 'premium' in others. How much can you have for free? This system needs the funding, so a license for access will come about in 2012. Trust me, it is worth it when you consider what is available now.
Naturally, we have Twitter and Facebook accounts, which you are free to follow. Articles are posted via both, although the immediacy of Twitter has seen the followers grow steadily with some very interesting followers from high level organisations and persons. No names, no pack drill. You'll have to check us out on Twitter to see who keeps up to date though. Obviously, there are more 'tweets' relating to the maritime community, but there are also those concerning emergencies and disaster; the occasional generalised tweet, and the odd funny or reply to a question. We have passed the 10,000th tweet mark already!


OL has grown in reputation and is often quoted by many news agencies across the globe - yes, it does please us somewhat. However, we try to ensure the information we provide is verifiable and is not just hearsay. We now have a mutual support network with various other website news providers, and we are looking to arrange agreements with other companies to provide real-time alerts of incidents to a wider audience.
None of this happens without the support of the vessels, companies and individuals who provide the input. We, in turn, hope that we contribute to the increased domain awareness, and the enhancement of security and safety to the seafarer, after all, that is our mantra.


It does not stop there. A similar real-time capability can be provided for a company or organisation that wishes to enable their staff, vessels and crews to be able to exchange data in real-time. Why wait for email (becoming snail-email) when you can share information straight away? There are a few huge corporations who see it the same way. Exchanging documents, images and even short videos enables greater efficiency in processing data flows. Information between vessels, companies, ports, security agencies, law enforcement and maritime authorities can be easily shared. Importantly, it can be utilised in a ships' safe room, or citadel, to assistant in maintaining long-range communications vital to the establishment of contact with naval authorities.
Oceans Beyond Piracy has stated that "information regarding acts of piracy and armed robbery against merchant vessels and their seafarers and the increasing use of violence upon captured seafarers as an instrument of piratical acts is under-reported;" and further recognize "that the collection and reporting of such information will be of value to the maritime community as a whole and the global fight against piracy."


When you consider all of the points made, and the industry-wide acknowledgement that information sharing is a fundamental to improving coordination, cooperation and collaboration, then OCEANUSLive provides a solution that has been missing for some time now.


No one solution fits every need, but OL can be adapted to fit the various regional, national, or even bespoke requirements of an organisation or company, making the model pretty much available to fit those needs.


When taken in context with the improved and reliable use of powerline communications - using the electrical wiring infrastructure to provide high-speed data networks in any location; on vessels, buildings, ports & marinas, oil & gas platforms, for example, negating the mess and expense of fitting cables - an additional capability available through our partners (more on that in the future), then the ability to effectively share information, over such vastly differing locations and users, becomes simplified, reliable and secure.


After all, Information, Security, Safety; Shared says it all.