White House to launch Web site for government, industry tech experts

PHILADELPHIA -- The White House plans to launch a Web site that would enable government and private-sector technology experts to exchange ideas for better information-sharing practices, the Office of Homeland Security's chief information officer announced in Philadelphia Monday.

"I need your help," Steven Cooper told more than 900 high-tech professionals from 32 states during a keynote address at a three-day homeland security conference. "We can't get a view of America from inside the Beltway. ... We don't know it all. We've got to hear from everybody."

Cooper said the Web site would enable high-tech firms and agencies at all levels of government to share their "best practices" for data fusion and integration with the Office of Homeland Security. He noted that the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks prompted communities in many states-including Pennsylvania, Texas, Minnesota, Utah and California-to launch information-sharing initiatives that have proven effective and that might be worth implementing nationwide.

Cooper said several communities in the Dallas area, for example, collaborated with the local FBI field office and the private sector to develop an emergency-response network that allows for the "reasonably secure" exchange of sensitive data regarding suspected criminal activity. He said the new system already has led to several arrests.

"They did it on a shoe string ... but it is extremely successful," Cooper said. "It's an example of something we can replicate ... in other parts of the country."

Cooper said he expects the Web site to be online in two to three weeks. "Once it's done, please talk to us," he said. "I need to know about best practices, centers of excellence and capabilities that already exist in America today. The Web site will enable us to share and communicate what's going on."

Pennsylvania Republican Curt Weldon, who chairs the House Armed Services Procurement Subcommittee and served as Monday's other keynote speaker, said that by failing to establish an effective, nationwide information-sharing system well before Sept. 11, the government "basically failed the American people."

"We could have and should have had, before 9/11, a better capability for fusing our data," Weldon said, noting that he has been calling for a nationwide center since the late 1990s. "There's no integrated domestic communications system in America."

Another problem, Weldon said, is that the U.S. education system does not place enough emphasis on information security and information sharing. "Every college trains young people how to use computers," Weldon said. "The real need in the 21st century is to be able to ensure the security of that data."

Cooper said federal agencies with homeland security functions will face a critical shortage of data-security experts in about five years, when about half of their information technology employees will be eligible for retirement. He said replacing those employees with "skilled and talented information technology professionals" will be a challenge because the federal government cannot compete with most private-sector salaries and benefits.

"We're losing people," Cooper said. "It's a problem because we don't have the skill sets to introduce new technologies."