Signal Detection 2009 brought together an international group of researchers working at the frontiers of infectious disease surveillance and mathematical modeling. It included a series of lively presentations and conversations about how models can inform and enhance surveillance systems, how surveillance data can be used to parameterize models in real time, and how we can go about "democratizing" and (to a degree) automating surveillance and modeling such that these activities are no longer solely the province of resource-rich public health regions and university-based academics.