Geo Challenge and GIS Issues: Defence Intelligence Interviews

NEW! - Q&A Interview with Steven Ramage, Executive Director, Marketing and Communications, Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC)

"...There are two things that I guess I’ve noticed over the last 6 to 12 months that people are listening to; one is around some of the sort of the technical interoperability, is what people have always talked about our own standards…..the second thing then comes in, which is business value. Why should people use standards? Well, we need to go beyond interoperability and say what does interoperability enable? That’s the key thing we need to do..."

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NEW! - Q&A Interview with Ashley Truluck, Strategic Advisor, Defence & National Security, i2

"Our biggest challenge is the sheer volume of data. We’ve been collecting thousands of contact which only a software program such as i2 have got can actually sort out and pick out the key factors we need. What we don’t have as strongly is the terrain aspects of that and where ESRI and a lot of these other organizations in the geospatial area have been working in parallel has been developing visualization of terrain analysis. Put the two together and the product is greater than the sum of the separate powers, and that’s the trick we’re trying to pull."

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NEW! - Q&A Interview with Richard Brittan, GIS Consultant, British Embassy, Kabul

"I think the Afghanistan context shows that we really don’t understand the situation we face. It’s highly complex, it’s highly dynamic and fluid, and understanding the communities we’re working with, looking to try and influence, looking to try and enhance the quality of their life means we need to understand these communities better...."

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NEW! - Q&A Interview with Michael W. Powers, Technical Director, Geospatial Research and Engineering, US Army

Michael Powers is the Technical Director of Geospatial Research and Engineering research for the US Army Engineer Research and Development Center and the Army Geospatial Center. In this insightful interview, he tells us: "I think that the biggest challenge we face right now within the geo and community in our location specifically is the change in the nature of security in the fight, the duration of deployment, and the complexity and the impact that puts on defining and representing the operational environment that our soldiers and staff have to operate in."

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NEW! - Q&A Interview with John Lucier, Senior Product Manager, International Defense & Intelligence, DigitalGlobe

During a 20-year career in the defence, intelligence, and homeland security arenas John has collaborated with partners in industry as well as at the local, state, federal, and Allied levels. As a member of the DigitalGlobe International Defence and Intelligence Domain team, John is responsible for defining and implementing the company’s strategic direction necessary to identify user needs and help devise solutions solving customer problems.

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NEW! - Q&A Interview with Bg(ret.) Amnon Sofrin, former Chief Combat Intelligence Corps,IDF

Bg(ret.) Sofrin has served in the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) from 1973 to 2003 His last assignment with the IDF has been Chief Combat Intelligence Corps. He ,et us at DGI 2011 to tell us his thoughts on current and future trends withis GIS: "It’s not easy. It’s a problematic issue because you get only a part of the picture and you have to; let’s say to possess it with other sources as well in order to get the whole picture, meaning it’s not enough to get only something that’s coming up from airborne platform or from observation obstacles on the ground, but it’s easy to have in addition, human sources and single sources as well and to combine it all together. And the big challenge is how to build a machine that can take the whole information coming out on various sources and to integrate it into one picture, and then to make the differentiation between who is who in the zone."

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Audio Interview With Col. (ret) Neil Thompson, Managing Director, WC Group, Canada

With Geospatial Intelligence Data very much at the core of strategic decisions for virtually all modern military campaigns, the necessity for the industry to develop and implement new geospatial defence technologies has never been more important. But with the ever-increasing understanding of GIS technology by those that use it, can the solution providers keep up with the demands of their customers?

DGI Podcast - Interview with Neil Thompson, leading GEOINT consultant by wbrradio

Interview with Col. (ret) John D. Kedar, Comd JAGO, UK MoD

"There are several challenges I want to tackle in Afghanistan. The first is getting hold of useful data. There’s a lot of data around, but it doesn’t flow within Afghanistan. So it might be in Kabul, but it’s not down where my guys are in Helmand, or it might be in DGC in Feltham, but it’s not necessarily on the ground with us. And it really is a case for us of getting the data moving around, be it imagery, or be it topographic type data of any sort."

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Interview with Bg(ret.) Amnon Sofrin,former Chief Combat Intelligence Corps,IDF

Geospatial Intelligence helps us "group" the information and relate it to pre - known sites. This way we can see a more coherent Situation Picture,containing several layers of information.

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Interview With Michael W. Powers, Technical Director, Geospatial Research and Engineering, US ARMY

"At a most basic level, GIS is designed to adroitly handle spatial positioning and spatial relationships of the environment and objects( e.g. units, vehicles, threats and actors) within the environment. In that at a minimum, Commanders want to know where they are, where the threat is and what is my relationsip/orientation between the two GIS is a reasonable foundation."

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Interview With Col Mark Burrows, Head of JAGO, UK MOD

"The key to future lies in networking GIS systems and fusing available data. The ‘man/woman in the loop’ will remain critical. We already are adjusting the scale & scope of the analytical staff in tactical HQs to elevate the level of decision support to Commanders in acknowledgement of these and other associated changes."

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Interview with Gp Capt Harry Kemsley

"GIS is the ‘glue’ enabling positional information to be considered and analysed holistically both geospatially and temporally. The tools and training, especially within the geospatial community, afford a new level of analytical support to the Commander."

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Interview With Captain Kjetil Utne, Director, Norwegian Military Geographic Service

"Geo is already an embedded and implemented part of C4I and related processes, and as more functionality, solutions and services will be realised in these systems based on Geo information, the more important accurate and timely information will become."

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Interview With Lt. Col. Babis Paraschou, Chief Geospatial Officer, European Union Force

In modern war, the war against terror, with “no front lines” means we know “who” but not the specific person, we know “where” but not the exact place. With HTA we try and answer the famous question “what was it in the backside of the hill” in its modern edition “what is hiding in front of eyes and is preparing to threat our world, our freedom, our security, our way of life..”

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Interview With Col. (ret) Neil Thompson, Managing Director, WC Group, Canada

The Geospatial Intelligence community is slowly moving towards a more “joined up” Geospatial Intelligence enterprise approach. If we can accelerate the pace of using all types of imagery and data (space based, all types of air breathing, handheld, crowd sourcing and other open source Geospatial Intelligence) we can provide world class geospatial intelligence products to the entire customer base.

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Interview With Lt. Col. Michael Cairns, Commanding Officer Mapping & Charting Establishment, Commandant School of Military, National Defence, Canada

Human Terrain Analysis enables the commander to make decisions based on human factors which the commander must understand in a COIN environment. Mapping and Charting Establishment is putting effort into the development of specifications and standards to ensure that information is collected and made available to the commander in a logical, consistent fashion."

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Interview With Steve Pyatt, Director, GEOINT Policy and Plans, New Zealand MoD

"Information Management is the key to making the relevant info available to the right people at the right time. Metadata is important in this aspect as many organisation now have so much data they 'don't know what they DO know'! The ability to filter the relevant from the masses of data will be important at each level i.e. Common 'relevant' operational picture not common across all levels/functions."

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Interview With Colonel John Fitzgerald, Senior Staff Officer Intelligence Policy, (Geospatial/ Imagery/ JISR), International Military Staff, HQ NATO

GEOINT expertise and leadership is vital to effect this transformation within broader intelligence collection management and knowledge development, through a greater focus on this area.

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Interview with Brig. Gen. Schmidt-Bleker, Director, Bundeswehr Geoinformation Office (BGIO), Germany

Our approach is different - we try to take all geo-scientific related subjects into consideration in order to provide coordinated in-depth analysis to the Commander.

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Interview with Ray Caputo, Army GeoPDF Project Lead/Geographer, Geospatial Center (AGC), U.S. Army

GIS is well-trenched in the day-to-day operations of the US Army within the data generated by these Geographic Information Systems being used by generals and soldiers every day. Getting data to the lowest and highest ranks can be a challenge, so we seek out to easi(er)-to-use formats such as the GeoPDF to get this complex data to them without having to use complex systems.

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