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UICDS is the "middleware foundation" that enables information sharing and decision support among commercial, government, and academic incident management technologies used to support the National Response Framework (NRF) and the National Incident Management System (NIMS), including the Incident Command System (ICS), in order to prevent, protect, respond, and recover from natural, technological, and terrorist events. |
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Get UICDS Free from the Department of Homeland Security
Apply to be a UICDS Pilot and get your own complete UICDS installation, including support, to improve your information sharing. Make your request now. |
| UICDS Contacts
General Information
UICDS@DHS.gov
DHS S&T Program Manager Michael B. Smith Email Now DHS S&T Program Support Tomi` Finkle Email Now UICDS Project Manager Chip Mahoney Email Now UICDS Outreach Director James W. Morentz, Ph.D. Email Now |
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The Department of Homeland Security Brings You Information Sharing
In this issue, December 14, 2010 ...
- A Look at Three UICDS Pilot Deployment Planning Concepts
- iAsk UICDS - Learn About the New UICDS Issues Tracking Tool on Thursday's Biweekly Call
- New UICDS Video Gets Lots of Play
- Thinking About Becoming a UICDS Pilot? Here's How
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A Look at Three UICDS Pilot Deployment Planning Concepts
Tutorial Now Available on UICDS On-Demand Learning Portal
Our last UICDS Biweekly Call was a tutorial on Three UICDS Pilot Deployment Planning Concepts. The recording and presentation materials are now available on the UICDS Collaboration Platform. Or go to Login - Technology Providers thenTopic 3, Open Mic Conference Calls, and follow to Content 6, Part 6 on the UICDS Collaboration Portal.
The call focused on prospective UICDS Pilot locations and the Technology Providers who support them. We talked about:
- Boston, Massachusetts and the Boston UASI Area UICDS Pilot plans
- State of Maryland Emergency Management Agency UICDS Pilot plans
- West Virginia State Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management Modeling and Simulation UICDS Pilot plans
Each of the pilots is in its planning stage with deployment of the UICDS Cores to come shortly. The initial stage of deployment is designed to illustrate the capabilities of UICDS in the pilot community. The second phase of the UICDS Pilots moves to limited operational use among applications intended to provide immediate benefits. The third phase is an ever-expanding growth to include all potential agencies and jurisdictions and their various technology applications.
 | | The third phase of the Boston UICDS Pilot Planning Concept brings together state and local agencies throughout the area. |
The Biweekly Call overview of the planning concepts gave other potential UICDS Pilot locations an idea of what to expect from a UICDS Pilot and what you need to do to get involved.
Now you can listen to the tutorial to see what others are doing and begin to structure your thinking about how UICDS can improve information sharing in your community.
Some reminders about collaborating on the UICDS video platform.
· Simply click on "Add Discussion" to add your thoughts or questions at any point in the call.
· Your comments will be sent to several UICDS Team members so you will get the right technical or business answer.
· If you want to respond to a comment, click on "Add Discussion" below the bottom right discussion window.
· Your comments may inspire other comments, and you will be notified when you can join in a discussion with others.
· To see all the comments made even if you have not added to the discussion, click on the "View RSS Options" orange button at the bottom right of the video window
· Use "Filter" to search through content in the discussion
Remember, all our presentations are open to you for collaboration on the UICDS website www.UICDS.us and follow the Login - Technology Providers link.
If you don't have your username/password for the UICDS video collaboration platform, get one quickly by clicking on the appropriate link below: Answer a few questions and you'll get access to collaboration and the UICDS Installation Kit whenever you want it. |
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iAsk UICDS - Learn About the New UICDS Issues Tracking Tool on the UICDS Biweekly Call Thursday at Noon
This call is focused on UICDS Technology Providers and the Pilot locations they are supporting.
In order to resolve technical issues identified by UICDS Technology Providers and End Users, the UICDS Team has created iAsk UICDS.
iAsk UICDS is powered by Trac, an open source wiki and issue tracking system for web-based software development projects.
The iAsk UICDS tool allows UICDS Technology Providers and End Users directly to submit "tickets" when they encounter issues with UICDS. These tickets are then assigned to UICDS personnel for analysis and adjudication. Tickets should be submitted for both end-user procedural questions and technical adapter development issues.
Procedural questions - how to use UICDS, creating agreements, concept of operations, etc. - will be discussed with the questioner and the resolution will be shared through the iAsk UICDS tool. That way, everyone can learn and help UICDS grow.
In the event that a software bug is discovered, the UICDS Team will identify root cause, corrective actions and implement code updates as required.
Ticket originators will be able to use iAsk UICDS to view the status of their tickets and will be notified as the UICDS Team works the tickets to closure. This will be a great way to ensure that any UICDS technical issues are promptly addressed by the UICDS Team.
Join us on Thursday to learn how to use the iAsk UICDS issue tracking tool to improve UICDS and information sharing in your community.
Join your colleagues on Thursday at noon ET
Phone: 800-366-7242 code 735108
Web Collaboration: Click here and enter
Conference Reference: 601203
Attendee PIN: 1143
And, of course, every one of our biweekly calls includes the ever-popular "open mic" session in which you determine the topic, ask the questions, and get answers from the experts.
The UICDS Biweekly Call: Remember, whether you are a government agency, a critical infrastructure owner/operator, or a technology provider, this is the place to get your questions answered about technical development, user implementations, and the UICDS Pilot Areas. So join the call and find out how UICDS can improve information sharing in your community, region, state, or critical infrastructure. Consult the UICDS Calendar for the exact date of the next call.
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New UICDS Video Gets Lots of Play
Only two weeks ago, we invited you to take a look at the results of UICDS information sharing in a brand new short video. Viewing the video has become so popular that we wanted to remind everyone about the new video to be sure you did not miss it.
Now, we cautioned, please don't expect grand theater. But this real-time video of information sharing gives you a great overview of how UICDS works in the real world. The video starts with Computer-Aided Dispatch of traffic accidents and follows the accident data through the UICDS Core to several other applications.
Our thanks again to the following UICDS Technology Providers for sharing their applications:
- City of Richmond for its Traffic website
- Environmental Protection Agency for its ALOHA™
- ESI™ for its WebEOC™
- Google™ for its Google Earth™
- Image Matters™ for its Alert Smarts™
- Intergraph™ for its Computer-Aided Dispatch
- NC4™ for its ETeam™ and Mission Center™
- ObjectFX™ for its ObjectFX™
- Patriot Data Solutions Group for its Vigilys™
- SAIC™ for its EMSe™
- U.S. Army for the Command Post of the Future
To see the short video, click here.
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Thinking About Becoming a UICDS Pilot? Here's How
Over the next several months, UICDS Pilots will be conducted across the country with dozens of pilot installations. Pilots are conducted in areas with clusters of organizations that need to share and agree to participate in the UICDS Pilot information sharing.
The best pilots are those with a Champion - someone who wants to see huge progress made in information sharing.
How about stepping up to be a Champion or making your customer the Champion?
If you are a government agency, voluntary organization, or a responder group, you can become a UICDS Pilot, and the paper on Becoming a UICDS Pilot will tell you how.
You can also join our Biweekly Call on Thursday to learn more and ask specific questions.
We also encourage UICDS Technology Providers to step forward and propose their best clients as UICDS Pilots. This will be good for UICDS and good for your business. Join us on Thursday at noon on the UICDS Biweekly Call and ask how you can become the government sponsor of a UICDS Pilot or be a Technology Provider making your customer a UICDS Champion. To apply to be a UICDS Pilot, answer a few questions here or contact the UICDS Outreach Director, Jim Morentz, for details. |
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