Well, not big really. Maybe resilient and distributed.
The Mumbai terror attacks are demonstrating that those who wish to do harm to make a point are able to use the exact same technology that the rest of us can, GPS, cell and satellite phones, even Crackberries.
And with a time-piece like regularity, people are freaking out about the fact, concerned that the networked terrorizer will be able to tap into the flow of information and adjust tactics accordingly. This is what we call a “movie plot threat,” more plausible on the big screen then on the ground.
Think about this, suppose that a terrorist like the kind in Mumbai was actively monitoring or having monitored for them CNN and Twitter, and attempting to adjust their plan of attack accordingly. The nature of the beast would mean that the terrorist would be a step behind the whole way, using a source that would instantly report on them using it then shifting. If Twitter says “1st street is clear” and the terrorist heads to 1st, when he gets there Twitter will report the fact. And every report on Twitter or CNN or any news sources will further fragment the movement of people following it, a group of 20 people given the same information will arrive at who knows how many different conclusions.
But rather then learn how to manage that stream, let’s talk about shutting them down. Shutting down information dissemination routes that the many could use to avoid the few, in the hopes of inconveniencing the few doesn’t strike me as good policy. Anybody heard of the concept of “pack, not a herd?” Even faulty info systems enable a mass of people to make good, informed choices.
My uni institute a text message emergency system, which is a fine idea. But it still presumes that there is only one legitimate arbiter of relevancy, and that that arbiter will have access to all relevant data. In an emergency situation, this is categorically impossible.
You want to control these situations and maximize the effectiveness of your response, then you need some way of immersing yourself in the available information. That would be the lesson to learn here.
