Private Sector Innovation for Emergency Communications

Commons Lab of the Science and Technology Innovation Program, Woodrow Wilson Center.

Congress and the Administration are working to create a national public safety broadband network. The network will provide interoperable voice and data communications for emergency responders nationwide, and offers an opportunity to leverage mission critical technologies such as geospatial and social media that will dramatically enhance the way public safety prepares for and responds to emergencies.  Closing the gap between the emergency responders and private sector innovators is vital to achieving the full potential of the national public safety broadband network.  To do so we need to ask the following questions:

• What new technologies and applications in both the commercial and public safety markets are currently being developed that could be leveraged through the deployment and adoption of a national public safety broadband network?
• What new technologies and applications are in the pipeline which 5-10 years from now might aid the public safety and homeland security community?
• How do we create public-private partnerships to make this critical leap, both in technology innovation and adoption, as a nation?

Co-Hosts:

• WWCS Science and Technology Innovation Program
• WWCS Program on American and the Global Economy
• National Alliance for Public Safety GIS Foundation
• DHS Office of Emergency Communications

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