It's On: COVID-19, Risk Ecology, and Preparedness Tips

As this issue goes to press, "its on" can refer to the disruptive COVID-19 pandemic Millions of people will be infected and hundreds of thousands will die before the pandemic ends "Social distancing" has entered the lexicon Companies and agencies have shut down Economic losses are stratospheric However, in slang terms, its always on: disruptions are going to happen, including pandemics, earthquakes, tsunamis, floods, droughts, and wars Yet, after the fact, people complain that they were unprepared This article explores emergency crises, preparedness, risks, surprise, risk fatigue, and tips The authors have more than a combined 160 years of experience with computing theory, research, design, construction, application, and evaluation In 1958, March and Simon said scheduled work drives out unscheduled work 1 Crises drive out everything Dependence on computerized systems is growing, and the consequences of disruption multiply accordingly People in computing must do better with what former U S Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld called "unknowns," both the known unknowns and the unknowns that often come as a surprise © 2020 IEEE Computer Society All rights reserved