Roadside Bombs & IEDs (catch all)

[Stan]

Hey Joe !

Thanks. The purpose of the study is to actually examine this and figure out what, if anything can be added to/extracted from MRE and other types of awareness campaigns to reduce exposure, in addition to pushing the increased public health impacts of victimization. I'm not aware of anyone in the humanitarian community who's done a serious study of the targeting around civilians in high-threat countries to illuminate trends such as target locations, time(s) of day, groups being singled out, etc. We do that in our own way in the Humanitarian Mine Action arena, but tools such as IMSMA do not support this in an IED context for reasons that include what you said above - landmines/UXO are static, and IEDs are active. That's a major theme and discussion I've included in the proposal I'm finishing.

Glad you brought up IMSMA’s applications and inherent shortcomings when dealing with what Estonia considers ‘other aspects of Demining and UXO clearance’. More often than not, UXO are the lifeblood of our IED builders (our criminals scoop out the HE and sell the metal – a bit more refined and business savvy than their Iraqi brethren).

Because Estonia’s structure here includes typical law enforcement duties (sweeps and post blast to name a few), we deal with both UXO and IED threats. We decided long ago to tailor the IMSMA platform to meet our needs in both arenas. That is, the trends you mention above. We have yet to ‘master’ the system, but what we do have in our DB helped us catch our last mad bomber. Granted, Estonia is far smaller than Iraq and Afghanistan, and the criminals far fewer.

Regards, Stan

[redbullets]

Hey Joe !



Glad you brought up IMSMA’s applications and inherent shortcomings when dealing with what Estonia considers ‘other aspects of Demining and UXO clearance’. More often than not, UXO are the lifeblood of our IED builders (our criminals scoop out the HE and sell the metal – a bit more refined and business savvy than their Iraqi brethren).

Because Estonia’s structure here includes typical law enforcement duties (sweeps and post blast to name a few), we deal with both UXO and IED threats. We decided long ago to tailor the IMSMA platform to meet our needs in both arenas. That is, the trends you mention above. We have yet to ‘master’ the system, but what we do have in our DB helped us catch our last mad bomber. Granted, Estonia is far smaller than Iraq and Afghanistan, and the criminals far fewer.

Regards, Stan

Stan:

Its funny, its been so many years since I've thought of landmines and UXO seperately in the macro sense that I forget that was how it used to be.

I think we should show you the toy our uber-geeks came up with. We can do it over Skype, with a bolt-on application that allows live demonstrations kind of like WebX or Oracle.

The Operational Activity Security Information System (OASIS) that we developed does a whole lot of things, but one of the most important is that it takes the geeks out of the loop - all of the analyses and queries are doable by the average operator. That was a direct result of our many years working with IMSMA and hearing the concerns of field operators.

Cheers,

[Stan]

Stan:

Its funny, its been so many years since I've thought of landmines and UXO seperately in the macro sense that I forget that was how it used to be.

I think we should show you the toy our uber-geeks came up with. We can do it over Skype, with a bolt-on application that allows live demonstrations kind of like WebX or Oracle.

The Operational Activity Security Information System (OASIS) that we developed does a whole lot of things, but one of the most important is that it takes the geeks out of the loop - all of the analyses and queries are doable by the average operator. That was a direct result of our many years working with IMSMA and hearing the concerns of field operators.

Cheers,

Careful Joe, people could figure out just how old you really are

Although we're supposed to be the heart of Skype here, most steer clear of using it (and the MOI server tends to block it).

We also needed to take the geek factor out of using our DB, especially in the field. Unfortunately, I can't share or even access our server outside the intranet...we're working on that firewall issue though. We simplified IMSMA's system using our existing data base and then added Google Earth. We had to deal with Estonian laws and try to remain transparent too. 5 years later, I think we have a good product, but still can't share it with partners.

We're looking at a visit from WRA early next year and more funding Maybe, this time, DH will attempt to visit when it's warm

Regards, Stan