looks like someone needs 911.io -- replacement emergency 911 system using mongodb, node.js, and twitter bootstrap. ultra reliable, super scalable
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My hell as a 911 operator
101–110 of 241 posts
Re: My hell as a 911 operator
#102Twitter can handle north of 4k tweets per second on virtually entirely open source software and these morons can't record phone calls. If this is not a glaring example of government mismanagement and waste I don't know what is. Where are the criminal indictments?
And twitter was buggier than the 911 software for the first two years of it's existence.
Good thing no lives depended on it. You'd think they test 911 at more than the designed capacity before bring it into practice.
Re: My hell as a 911 operator
#103Are there any examples of complex, large-scale government IT projects that have succeeded, come in on cost and time and worked better than what they replaced?
I can only think of one example: the UK's Government Digital Service (who built www.gov.uk). Admittedly not a mission-critical project that saves lives, but they actually managed to bring the hundreds of different government websites under one site, re-wrote and re-rorganised the content so it was easier to find and read, and actually improved considerably on what was in place before.
It's an exception rather than the rule though to most government or local council projects in the UK. Any other examples of success? (There must be some)
Re: My hell as a 911 operator
#104Earlier quoted context omitted.
Have you ever been in a 911 call center? Many, many, many things are computer driven, not the least of which is interfacing with the various agencies one may have to deal with on a per call basis. Then there's "whose jurisdiction is this"? Kind of hard to determine with pen and paper. Who's dispatched to what? Who's covering which stations now? How many calls are in the queue? The list goes on and on. Having to recor…
I'm just saying that 20 years ago handwriting was the only option, and police still managed to get the job done.
Oh boy. In 1993 handwriting wasn't the only option. And we're talking about 911 dispatching, not just police. Fire, medics, police, dog catchers, tow trucks etc., are all involved now.
Re: My hell as a 911 operator
#105Twitter can handle north of 4k tweets per second on virtually entirely open source software and these morons can't record phone calls. If this is not a glaring example of government mismanagement and waste I don't know what is. Where are the criminal indictments?
Comparing twitter to a 911 call center is like comparing a monochrome display to a 4k display 911 call centers have to interface with many different computer systems (for example the National Criminal Information center, department of motor vehicles, FBI CJIS, in house databases, court records systems, mapping, computer aided dispatch, weather information, etc. Many of these systems (the NCIC, and CJIS have very stri…
While not entirely disagreeing, I would ask whether there's room to question any of those requirements. WHY does the 911 call center need to interface to all those systems. WHY do I need an interface to the FBI or court records in order to respond to a call from a woman whose husband is having a heart attack in the living room?
Tight coupling of many separate systems is a classic anti-pattern in software.
Re: My hell as a 911 operator
#106Earlier quoted context omitted.
1. When people say "but what about monopolies?" they seem to forget that we do currently have a giant monopoly, which is government, that prohibits others from entering the market by force, not just by market instruments such as predatory pricing (although that's the case too, since it is claimed the price of government services is zero). Even if you disagree with me that monopolies historically never remained monopo…
1. The government monopoly, as broken as it is, should not discriminate in matters of health and safety, whereas a corporate system that you're proposing would. I am Canadian and am not interested in defending the American system. We have free healthcare (so long as you're a resident paying taxes, and others of course are billed after receiving care). 2. So, in your world, the guy who seemed to have alcohol on his br…
1. I respect the fact you don't want to discriminate when it comes to matters of health and safety. I, on the other hand, would like to discriminate. If a person who led unhealthy lifestyle knowingly requires medical attention, I want to have a default option of not paying for this out of my own pocket, because I don't know that person at all. Now, say I'm a Canadian citizen too: would you give me the same amount of respect and not require me to pay tax money for the things I have no intention of supporting and allow me to only pay to my insurance company?
2. In my world what's most likely to happen is that this guy would be helped immediately, but the hospital stuff later will report the incident, the guy will lose his driving licence forever, will be unable to buy alcohol and will be required to pay to the hospital over time. I'm not gonna go into detail of how it is achieved without a government, but it's quite very possible and would even be enforced more effectively.
So, yes, my main point is: forced universal anything is bad and immoral. Everyone should know exactly how and where their money go and be free to decide what to do with their money. If I dislike how my charity works and if I dislike that it doesn't help drunk drivers, I switch to a different one which does. If everyone in a society agrees to pay for universal healthcare voluntarily without a threat of IRS or similar agency showing up if they don't pay, then I have no problem with it.
Re: My hell as a 911 operator
#107Ok, I have something to add here for the following reasons: * I build big call centers for a living * I'm a really big Telecom Nerd You might be wondering why something as important as 911 is not automated or accessible via any other mechanism; why is it that the most critical service in the country runs on a system that hasn't materially changed since 1984? For one, the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) is ex…
What's amazing is that this story seems eerily similar to when they upgraded the call centres for the London Ambulance service 21 years ago, and a more recent failure in 2006. You would have thought anyone dealing with these systems would have read that case study at some point?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Ambulance_Service#Syste...
Re: My hell as a 911 operator
#108Earlier quoted context omitted.
Because the beneficiary of the 911 provider isn't likely to be you, it's the person who needs the emergency who probably can't come to the phone. If someone needs to call 911 for me, I want to know it's regulated and up to quality - not based on whether the person who happened to pick their provider actually bothered to research a good one, etc
Did the system described in the article sound like a good one to you? Mandated monopolies have a way of discouraging innovation and depressing quality.
Monopolies? 911 dispatch centers should really not be a battleground for competing commercial entities. They're a public service. You may disagree with the general idea of a public service, but it's really one of the very few areas where government can do (and frequently does) things for the good of everyone.
Call centers might be bad sometimes regionally, but that doesn't mean they can't work in principle. For example, in my home country (Germany), there is a public dispatch system for all emergency services and after having had to use it repeatedly for a range of things from routine to disaster response, I have to say it works really well. And I wouldn't say Germany is exactly the paragon of efficiency when it comes to public services either. So with a little bit of political will, it's achievable - as it should be.
Re: My hell as a 911 operator
#109Re: My hell as a 911 operator
#110wtf emergency system costs one billion dollars???