Decision Infrastructure for Federated Multi-Stakeholder Systems
Here you will find: Frameworks for building federation infrastructure when integration isn’t viable. Proven patterns for coordinating autonomous entities with different technical maturity, competing priorities, and independent governance. Built from 20 years of federal disaster response, enterprise architecture, and international partnership coordination.
Decision infrastructure for when systems break under pressure. When interfaces fail or coordination stalls, there are diagnostic tools. When you need deep frameworks, there’s comprehensive doctrine.
Routes for triage when you’re under pressure. Doctrine for comprehensive frameworks when you have time to study. Field notes from operational reality. Distilled from systems that had to work.
SCALE & IMPACT: 296,000+ ENTERPRISE USERS | FEDERATION ARCHITECTURE: 200+ PARTNERS | 200+ SHADOW SYSTEMS REFORMED | 20,000+ PERSONNEL SUPPORTED
What you will find here
This site is organized around three things I do repeatedly (and have done for twenty years).
Routes (Diagnostic Triage)
red band
Quick protocols when decisions are stalling or systems are breaking. Think emergency checklists, not pilot operating handbooks: diagnostic flowcharts that identify the failure mode and route you to solutions.
Doctrine (Patterns & Frameworks)
gold band
Deep patterns from 20 years of federal work & enterprise interoperability. Federation vs integration. Coordination without authority. Capacity planning. Read these when you have time for mental models.
Field Notes (Ops Stories)
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Real examples from disaster response, coalition coordination, federal integration. Hurricane Katrina geospatial systems, DHS infrastructure protection, multi-national coordination.
–>Figures (Visual Library)
200+ indexed diagrams. Decision altitude maps, organizational structures, integration patterns. Visual pattern recognition and reference material.
Systems Built Using These Frameworks
The frameworks documented here aren’t theoretical – they’ve produced systems that remain operational across multiple domains:
International multi-sovereign coordination:
International Civil-Military Coordination (2010): The application of federation principles enabled civil-military emergency preparedness coordination with the US Army Corps of Engineers across Moldova and Ukraine. These frameworks allowed for successful cooperation where formal authority does not extend across sovereign boundaries. During the 2010 ash cloud disruption, relational scaffolding and established credibility ensured mission continuity across multi-national and diplomatic interfaces.
Link: Read the field note
Institutional governance:
USFS Business Analysis Center of Excellence (Established 2016): This office was established to identify and bring 200+ unbudgeted “shadow” systems into enterprise compliance to mitigate critical succession and institutional risks. Following this initial compliance and intake phase, the Center transitioned into a stable Operations and Maintenance (O&M) phase. It now provides ongoing governance and resources for research systems that manage mission-critical and Congressional reporting data for 20,000+ agency personnel.
Link: Read the field note
Federal enterprise coordination:
Enterprise Geospatial Federation (late 2007–Present): The iCAV architecture established the foundation for a federated mission system that evolved into the Geospatial Information Infrastructure (GII) and DHS OneView. By utilizing two-lane architecture, the system enabled a growth from the initial 50 partners to the current 200+ federated sovereign partners at the federal, state, and local levels. It currently serves as the standard common operating picture for 296,000+ users across 22 DHS components.
Link: Read the field note
Where to Start
Evaluating coordination capabilities? Start with Doctrine 01: Federation vs Integration, and Doctrine 03: Interface Ownership to understand the framework, then read the iCAV field note showing how federation architecture coordinated 50+ autonomous partners (still operational as GII/DHS OneView, serving over 296k users).
Looking for patterns on a specific topic? Browse the Doctrine guides organized by domain, or use Routes (diagnostic triage) to navigate by problem type.
Want context on the author? Read the About page.
Featured stories from the field
A few starting points if you want to see how this work looks in practice.
When You Cannot Force Compliance: iCAV, Hurricane Katrina, And Lessons In Federation
Coordinating 50+ autonomous partners (now 200+) with different systems and authorities required federation over forced integration. iCAV’s architecture evolved into DHS GII and OneView, serving 296,000+ DHS users across 22 components plus hundreds of external partners – proving that respecting sovereignty creates more durable systems than demanding uniformity.
Link: Read the field note
Stranded in Vienna, Responsible in Kyiv
When volcanic ash grounded flights across Europe, I went from technical lead to sole US representative coordinating civil-military emergency preparedness with former Warsaw Pact nations. Delivering training to 100 participants, managing diplomatic protocols, and operating without my team proved that federated environments require adaptability over authority.
Link: Read the field note
Bay St. Louis: Trust Before Logos After Hurricane Katrina
Multi-agency disaster coordination fails when outsiders mistake formal authority for earned trust. After Katrina, watching a large relief organization try to centralize a local pastor’s distribution network taught me that federation respects sovereignty while integration destroys participation. The lesson applies anywhere autonomous entities must coordinate without centralized control.
Link: Read the field note
Why This Exists – The Stewardship Obligation
I was trained as a remote sensing and GIS scientist and spent my early career on the boundary between natural hazards, emergency response, and information systems.
Operational knowledge that isn’t transferred dies with the operator. This is decision infrastructure from twenty years of federal operations: DHS infrastructure protection across 200+ partners, FEMA disaster response, wildland fire coordination, and international coalition environments. Built as a resource for whoever inherits these systems. So the next system administrator, incident commander, or enterprise architect doesn’t start from zero.
That work took me from wildland fire academies and a self-built mobile mapping unit for Hurricane Katrina, to:
- Geospatial and C4ISR work in the U.S. Department of Homeland Security
- Wireless networking and RF path loss modeling for emergency communications
- Internal doctrine like the Government Video Guide and testimonial frameworks for federal programs
Over time, I realized I kept doing the same thing in different domains (even when it looked like three different careers on paper):
See a gap. Ground truth it. Build a practical, forward-deployed system. Plug it into existing teams. Then document it so the work can be understood, defended, and improved.
This site is where I keep that pattern visible and honest. For myself, for the people I work with, and for anyone who needs to build similar systems under their own constraints.
How to read this site
If this is your first time here, a quick decoder.
- Gold bars = Doctrine
These are core principles and patterns. They answer “What do I believe about how good systems behave under stress?” and “What are the reusable ideas?” - Green bars = Field Notes
These are stories. They show doctrine colliding with reality, deployments, projects, and case studies where things went right, wrong, or sideways. - Blue bars = Services and contact
These are the few ways I work directly with organizations that want help making sense of their own systems and stories. - Red bars = Routes – guided paths when you are under pressure and need traction
If you are just browsing, start with a few doctrine guides and one or two field notes (the Mobile Mapping Unit and Katrina Book are good entry points).
Need help with your own systems?
- Being introduced? Start with the Interpreter Kit
- Ready to talk? Use the chat bubble or contact form with a bit of context
Just browsing? Pick a field note, see if the patterns match problems you recognize.