Author Information:

W. David Stephenson is a leading Gov./Enterprise 2.0-3.0 strategist, theorist and writer. He particularly focuses on the Internet of Things, strategic use of XBRL, homeland security and disaster management and ways to directly involve the public in policy and services debate and delivery. He is principal of Stephenson Strategies and is a consultant with the UK-based The Internet of People. He has consulted on strategies to increase governmental bodies' transparency and simultaneously increase operating efficiency: services that are particularly appropriate to the current loss of faith in governmental institutions coupled with the need to innovate in an era of dramatically-reduced resources. He is the author of an e-book, SmartStuff: an introduction to the Internet of Things, and of Data Dynamite: how liberating information will transform our world (Data4All Press, 2011). He recently was the producer/host of a video introducing the Internet of Things to the general public. In addition to work for his own firm, he has been a subject matter expert for the Homeland Security Institute,and participated in the Institute for the Future's "Open Source Warfare" project. Stephenson created the "Pandemic Flu Survival Guide" as well as the "Terrorist Survival" suite of programs that put all the information necessary to prepare for and/or respond to a terrorist attack in an easy-to-use data base for the first generation of smartphones. Stephenson gained international support for what he calls "networked homeland security" strategies that capitalize on the synergies between: the increasingly common and increasingly networked personal communication devices that people use daily (and will use in a crisis whether or not government wants them to) the growing body of scientific research about the power of social networks and the phenomenon of "emergent behavior," in which groups, even ad hoc ones such as the Flight 93 passengers, are capable of a far higher level of collaborative behavior than could have been predicted from the capabilities of individuals. Based on this theory, he created an emergency communications strategy for NPR-member radio stations to actively involve listeners in station response and wrote a white paper for the Department of Homeland Security's Science Directorate. Stephenson also consults on: e-gov transformation community education and empowerment win-win collaborations between government and the private sector that provide both security and economic benefits bio-terrorism and pandemic preparation. Stephenson is a frequent speaker on "outside-the-box" thinking at national and international e-government, Web 2.-3.0, and homeland security conferences. He taught courses in security management and issues in technology and criminal justice in the Criminal Justice Department at UMass-Lowell, and before that, taught Web and environmental strategies in the continuing education program at Bentley College.