UICDS Update Newsletter Masthead
UICDS keeps you better informed so you can make better decisions.  UICDS is information sharing middleware for NIMS incident management that continuously receives and shares standardized data among many agencies during an incident.   Your everyday application gets from UICDS exactly the data you need to use, visualize, process, improve, decide, and then share back through UICDS to keep everyone informed.

 

Because UICDS is middleware, there is no new user interface to learn, no cost to obtain it, and you retain complete control over your data.  You get notified when an agency has provided new or updated incident data and you share your data with whom you want instantaneously and in the background without any disruption to your operation.

 

With UICDS you are better informed, your partners are better informed, and together you all make better response decisions.

 
 

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.

 
 
Learn All About UICDS Interoperability Middleware in Just Two Minutes
 
Your time is valuable, so here it is in a nutshell.
UICDS is middleware to share information among applications used by all levels of government and critical infrastructure to manageincidents.   UICDS has no end-user interface, so there is no training or new applications to buy. 
You should care about UICDS if you manage emergencies or provide technologies to those who manage emergencies.

Click here for a two minute video introduction of UICDS from the UICDS.us website.
 
 
Follow UICDS on LinkedIn 
 
UICDS is now on LinkedIn, the premier business-related social networking site.  The site is self-described as the "unofficial UICDS discussion group" among Technology Providers and End-Users.

To join  the discussion group, View our profile on LinkedIn
 
 
UICDS Quick Links
 
 
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
 
 
UICDS Update 

The Department of Homeland Security Information Sharing Technology Program

 
February 15, 2011
 
In this issue ... 
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ESRIUICDS Tools:  The RSS Injector Application and Example Code

Operational Applications and Example Code for Developers 


A common means of providing information from many applications is to open an Internet channel to publish data in a standardized format.  The most common channel uses RSS (Really Simple Syndication) to provide a "feed" of data that can be subscribed to by an application.  This allows point-to-point, application-to-application one-way delivery of data.   

A common variant on the RSS feed is GeoRSS which enables the channel to carry content that includes geographic locations, plus some related feature descriptions, that receiving applications can use to display on maps.   

The UICDS Tool, RSS Injector, is designed to show adapter developers how to create adapters to ingest RSS and GeoRSS feeds.  The reason for doing this in UICDS is to (a) create a one-to-many relationship for important feeds so that they are shared among UICDS applications without each application having to separately consume the feed and (b) to allow applications to select feeds to associate with an incident and select items from a feed to associate with an incident. 

Version 1 of the UICDS Tools RSS Injector will be the topic of the UICDS Biweekly Tutorial on Thursday, February 17. 

The RSS Injector V1 allows you to select a RSS/Atom feed and the feed's entries will be injected into the UICDS core. 

The RSS Injector application and example code allow the user to: 

  • Configure the feed's entries to be either UICDS Incident or Alert

o   If the feed's entry will be converted into a CAP Alert then an Alert Configuration Window will be provided for further mapping of the CAP-compliant fields

  • Configure the polling interval for the feed
  • The appropriate UICDS Incident or Alert Work Product is created
  • If the feed is configured as an Alert then an Incident Work Product named the same as the feed name is generated as a container for the alerts, allowing them to be shared among UICDS Cores
  • Work Products are updated at polling intervals if the feed entry has been modified between polls
  • If an item in the feed is removed between polling intervals, then the item is closed and archived indicating that the item is no longer an active Alert or Incident  

This UICDS Tool is intended to illustrate the capabilities of UICDS to ingest RSS and GeoRSS feeds; however, the most important role of the tool is to provide example code for developers to employ in their own applications and adapters.  Join us on the UICDS call at noon on Thursday to learn all about the RSS Injector and how to use the example code. 

 

Call 800-366-7242 and use code 735108 at noon ET.  Web Collaboration:  Click here and enter Conference Reference: 601203  Attendee PIN:  1143

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TutorialUsing UICDS in the Field:  A Guide to Becoming a UICDS Pilot Tutorial Now Online

 

This tutorial was conducted during the UICDS Biweekly Call on January 6 and it is now online at the UICDS Collaboration Platform.  The tutorial provides everything you need to know about getting your own UICDS middleware deployed in the field as a UICDS Pilot. 

 

To see the tutorial, link to the UICDS in the Field Tutorial.

 

The tutorial session covers:  

 

  • How UICDS Works to Improve Incident Management
  • What it Takes to Become a Pilot
  • Costs, Timeline, and Schedule
  • How Information is Controlled and Secured
  • Technical Overview for Non-Technical People
  • The UICDS Pilot Site Collaboration Portal

 

This is the one-stop-tutorial to help you decide if you want to join the cities, counties, and states across the country who are implementing UICDS at no cost through the DHS Science and Technology Directorate pilot program.

  

Supplement the Tutorial with a Look at UICDS in Real-Time Operations 

 

The UICDS Pilot Tutorial online presentation should be supplemented with a 

short video that could have been called, Seven Minutes in the Life of UICDS.  The video is a real-time capture with narration of what was happening on a Sunday afternoon in Richmond, Virginia ... live.  The Richmond traffic data on real-time accidents is provided to a UICDS Core from which it is shared to other UICDS Cores and to a number of applications.  This short video depicts what it looks like to share information through UICDS and is a great way to see the results of UICDS after going through the UICDS Pilot Tutorial.  
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BinaryESRI™ ArcGIS™ UICDS Adapter Tutorial Now Available on UICDS.us   

 

During our biweekly call and tutorial on February 3, we introduced the ESRI™ ArcGIS™ UICDS Adapter as the latest of our UICDS Tools.  UICDS Tools are part of a "starter kit" of application example code that all UICDS Technology Providers can access to speed their way to full UICDS conformance.  The audio and video demonstration and discussion of the ESRI ArcGIS Adapter and Example Code Tutorial is now available on the UICDS Collaboration Platform. 

 

The ESRI ArcGIS desktopadapter enables the following capabilities:

 

  • A widget accesses a list of current UICDS incidents
  • ArcGIS geospatial data is displayed as usual 
  • ArcGIS lets you select data relevant to an incident 
  • The widget associates that data with the incident
  • The adapter updates the UICDS Map Work Product 
  • UICDS notifies other applications that there is new geospatial data available

 

To learn more, watch the tutorial and ask questions directly on the UICDS Collaboration Platform while you are watching the tutorial.

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PilotBecome a UICDS Pilot - Yours from DHS 
  
Tired of watching and want to get involved?  Are you a government agency that knows you shoud share information better?  Critical infrastructure owner/operator in need of coordination with governments?  Technology provider who wants to better serve emergency management and response organizations? 

It is time to become a UICDS Pilot.  A answer a few questions to apply to be a UICDS Pilot. 
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TechnologyProvidersUse the UICDS Development Kit To Win Contracts that Require UICDS Conformance 
Recently, the State of California and the State of West Virginia both issued requests for proposals that called for UICDS compliance as a condition of the contract.  Feeling left behind?
  
If this is you ... and you don't want to be excluded from future bids ... just answer a few questions to get the UICDS Development Kit and example code to build your UICDS Adapter today.  Get started by clicking here.
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UICDS Biweekly  

Call ... 
Don't forget to join us every other Thursday at noon for the UICDS "Open Mic" call.  Join Technology Providers and End-Users who discuss all the value they get - and sometimes the problems they have - in getting UICDS implemented in an area.  This is the frank, no-holds-barred discussion to help get everyone operating better and at lower cost in time and money than they probably could do alone.  Nobody who participates walks away without a tip, an idea, or a good sense of how to proceed with UICDS information sharing.  

Call 1-800-366-7242 code 735108 at noon ET every other Thursday. 

 Check the UICDS Calendar for the exact date.