U.S. Department of State
ORION
The real-time common operating picture for inter-agency Task Forces and Crisis Management
Just-in-time data logistics for crisis management
ORION (Ops Response Interagency Operations Network) is a common operating picture application developed for Crisis Management Officers in the Executive Secretariat Operations Center. ORION pulls real-time intelligence from swaths of internal and public sources, threading together scattered data into an array of coherent situational awareness views.
Getting our arms around a planet-sized problem
How do you keep your thumb on the pulse of an overseas US post?
Supplies, equipment and facilities, personnel data, political climate, local news, nearby events, flood risk, CDC alerts, and even tracking comms disruption from geomagnetic solar storms are only a fraction of the factors used to gauge a post’s operational health and safety. We needed enable a handful of staff to monitor, anticipate, and react to conditions at over 200 US posts scattered across all corners of the planet.
Culling noise and breaking down barriers
ORION is about two things. First, get a lot of good data. Second, show as little of it as we possibly can.
Of course there’s more to it, but framing our approach through that lens helped us build air-tight information feeds and data visualizations, tuned to precision through rapid iteration with our core users to ensure they could always see exactly what they needed at exactly the right time.
This user-centric strategy was a compounding success, helping Ops broker successful interagency data-sharing agreements in all discussions that included an ORION demonstration, strengthening cross-agency collaboration.
Let's build something great.
