Purpose of X24 México

Exercise 24 (X24) México is the third iteration of a primarily virtual, open-invitation, humanitarian assistance and disaster relief (HADR) exercise with real-world functional components that is hosted by San Diego State University’s “Immersive Visualization Center” (VizCenter).

Participants include DHS/Office of Health Affairs, NORAD-NORTHCOM, US Customs and Border Protection/Global Borders College, Mexican Army and Navy, Mexico Federal Police, Ministry of Defense from Vietnam, India National Disaster Management Agency, World Shipping Council, Red Cross, Pacific Disaster Center, NYK Logistics, National defense University, and growing.


Background

On 24-25 September 2010, the VizCenter hosted a virtual HADR event called “Exercise X24”.  X24 involved over 12,500 people from 79 nations and 90 U.S. government, non-government organizations, and public/private partners in a collaborative environment using crowdsourcing, social media, and cloud computing applications. This was the first time a collaborative HADR exercise of this scale occurred online and integrated into real events.

A second exercise, X24 Europe, was held from March 28-31, 2011. X24 Europe transcended all expectations in its ability to form a collaborative bridge between individuals, communities, and nations with over 49,000 participants from 92 nations that included two ambassadors, a US major general, as well as representatives from US European Command (EUCOM), US Northern Command, US Transportation Command, Office of Navy Research, STAR-TIDES at the Center for Technology and National Security Policy from National Defense University, and many others. The focus area for the scenario was the Balkans region with a seismic event that generated a tsunami in the Adriatic Sea followed by aftershock damage inland. 78% of participants were from the Croatia, Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovinia.


X24 México Goals
  1. Demonstrate the use of no/low-cost, off-the-shelf social media, crowdsourcing, and collaboration web tools to gather, coordinate, and share actionable real-time information to build situational awareness to help victims of a natural disaster and help save lives;
  2. Establish dialogue and build relationships between all partner nations, international organizations, and public/private partners regarding the use of online tools;
  3. Test online tools to measure effectiveness, and streamline cyber information sharing in preparation for the next real-world crisis;
  4. Address the virtual flow of information and activities of international organizations during a natural disaster and a terror attack utilizing biological weapons of mass destruction/effect; and 
  5. Encourage all formal and informal groups to actively participate or observe the exercise.

Open Invitation to Formal and Informal Networks

All formal and informal groups across the globe are welcome to actively participate or observe X24 México:

  • Governments of partner nations
  • Other municipal, regional, and national governments
  • Non-government public/private organizations
  • Academic institutions
  • Volunteer Technology Communities

Schedule of Events (updated: 25.Jan.2012 12:38PST, Dr. George Bressler)

Initial Planning Conference (IPC) - San Diego, CA, USA. (Complete)

Mid Planning Conference (MPC) - Rosarito, BCN, Mexico (Complete)

Final Planning Conference (FPC) - San Diego, CA, USA (Complete)

X24 México Exercise - February 7-10, 2012 (Worldwide)

  1. Academic Day - Feb 7
  2. Exercise - Feb 8-9
  3. Hot Wash (post-exercise review) - Feb 10

Rules of Engagement
  • This is a “no fault” environment where participants are free to explore potential solutions.
  • Participant collaborations, decisions, and actions may not reflect policy, practice, procedure, or previous agreement and are not a commitment of policy, practice, procedure, or agreement.
  • All participants must be self-funded and are responsible for any and all expenses related to planning, implementation, and recovery from their activities related to X24 México.
  • All activities related to X24 must be safe and legal to be considered a part of this event.
  • All verbal and email communications related to X24 México during this event will include TEST NOT REAL in the language of the recipient of the communication. This message must be in the language of the recipient of the communication.
  • All Twitter and Facebook communications must start TEST NOT REAL prior to any message and include the hashtag #X24.

Notice and Consent: I understand that by accessing websites or using social media such as, but not limited to, Twitter, Facebook, e-mail, texting, chat, and blog postings, to name a few, a transfer of information may result causing my identity and location to be publicly revealed. By completing the X-24 registration process on this website page, I acknowledge that my personal information, identity and location could be viewed by the public.