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.

 
 

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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.

 
 
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

wwwUICDSus 

UICDS Update 

The Department of Homeland Security Information Sharing Technology Program

 
August 9, 2011
 
In this issue ... 
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IntroIntroducing Mobile Apps for UICDS on the Biweekly Tutorial Call on August 11 at Noon  
  

This week's UICDS Tutorial and Biweekly Call will feature an early look at UICDS Example Code for Android. 

 

Just as we have provided lots of example code for web application developers
UICDS Mobile App Example Code

Example Code for UICDS Mobile Apps was used to create this Android app showing locations of incidents.

to download and make their own, we will be doing so for the latest version of mobile apps.  We begin with a release of example code for Android phones.  

 

Among the features included in the first release of UICDS Mobile Apps for Android are:

  • Display list of Incidents
  • Display list of Alerts
  • Display text description (contained in a UICDS Work Product) of any Incident or Alert
  • Display all Incidents or Alerts on a map
  • Highlight an Incident or Alert shown on the map and see brief summary information in a pop-up box
  • Display selected Incidents or Alerts on a map
  • Display polygon graphics associated with a CAP Alert on the map
  • Display Open Geospatial Consortium standard Web Mapping Service map overlays associated with an Incident on the map

To join the tutorial and our biweekly call:

 

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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releaseUICDS Version 1.1.1 Release Details Tutorial and Biweekly Call Now Available on UICDS Collaboration Portal at UICDS.us

 

On our last biweekly call and tutorial, Roger Wuerfel provided an overview of the updated features of the latest version of UICDS, 1.1.1.   This release of UICDS does a lot of new and important things - under the covers because the goals of this version release was to be completely backwards compatible to any adapter interfaces created by UICDS Technology Providers.  Thus, Roger was able to say:  "There are no WSDL changes from UICDS Version 1.1.0 to Version 1.1.1."   Which means that this version release will not require any changes to UICDS Adapters that have been previously developed.     

 

The Top Ten List of UICDS Version 1.1.1 improvements that were discussed on the tutorial are:

   

  1. Improved Work Product versioning performance.
  2. Added a GetCapabilities operation to the Map Service to make it easier to get map layers.
  3. Added the text address in the Digest for Incidents.
  4. Added the ability to send Notifications and EDXL-DE messages as XMPP messages.
  5. The automatic sharing of incidents now checks all current incidents when a core comes online to see if any incidents should be shared to that core.
  6. Specific incidents can now be shared individually when selected in the end-user application.  
  7. Enhanced the Admin Console to now include a Health and Status tab to report on the status of UICDS components.
  8. Added the list of resource instances to the Admin Console and the ability to create/remove resource instances from the Admin Console.
  9. Added configurable XSLTs to the Admin Console to enable viewing of all UICDS Work Products via the form view.
  10. Added link to the User Console on the UICDS Install Kit's main page.

 

Plus, we addressed many of the request tickets submitted on iAsk UICDS by our development colleagues for code improvements. 

  

If you missed the live presentation, you can tune into the UICDS Collaboration Portal at any time to hear this informative discussion.  View the UICDS Version 1.1.1 Tutorial now.

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pilotUICDS Pilot in Support of Palmetto Vision Project in South Carolina Tutorial and Biweekly Call Now Available on UICDS Collaboration Portal at UICDS.us

  

One of the largest and most comprehensive UICDS Pilots is taking place as part of the Palmetto Vision statewide information management project in South Carolina.  Sponsored by the South Carolina Emergency Management Division, Palmetto Vision will distribute to every county in the state an emergency management Common Operating Picture tool set.  Information sharing among the counties is enabled by UICDS.   

South Carolina Palmetto Vision COP

Palmetto Vision's ultimate goal is to provide a Common Operating Picture for each county and the entire state.

 

Phillip Armijo of Earth Technologies Integration, the prime contractor, began the tutorial by talking about Palmetto Vision as a "county-centric Emergency Management Common Operating Picture framework that provides consistent processes, tools, and data in order to more effectively plan and respond."  

 

He continued by describing Palmetto Vision UICDS Core implementations that are currently deployed at nearly 30 counties with a total of 30 to roll out in the coming weeks.  The overall project links instances of WebEOC, ESRI Flex Viewers, Google Earth, computer-aided dispatch, and the IPAWS alerting system in its first stage of deployment. 

 

Robert Zawarski then gave us an overview of the technical details on how ETI has used the UICDS example code to integrate multiple applications as well as several innovations that have been developed and will be shared with other UICDS Pilots in the near future.

 

South Carolina WebEOC Architecture

South Carolina counties have been long-time users of WebEOC and each county's WebEOC is being used as the basis for collecting COP information to share through UICDS.

One key UICDS integration is with IPAWS.  In South Carolina, only the state is the designated "warning point" that can issue IPAWS alerts.  With UICDS, any county can now create a Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) alert in their local incident management application and immediately submit it through UICDS to South Carolina Emergency Management Division for consideration as an IPAWS alert.  At the same time that this is occurring, the UICDS CAP Alert Work Product is shared with local subscribers, informing them that the IPAWS alert was submitted.

 

Rob also talked about the other critical component of Palmetto Vision, WebEOC from ESI911.  WebEOC is a statewide implementation throughout the counties of South Carolina.  It is being used as the data repository for all the county emergency management agencies.  Thus, it becomes the source of information to be shared through UICDS for situational awareness as displayed in the SC COP.   

 

If you missed the live presentation, you can tune into the UICDS Collaboration Portal at any time to hear this informative discussion.  View the South Carolina Palmetto Vision Tutorial now.

 

 

 

 

 

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LookingAheadLooking Ahead:  UICDS Tutorial on Interoperability with IPAWS Through EDXL on August 25th Biweekly Call

 

IPAWS is the Integration Public Alert and Warning System that was established by Executive Order 13407 for the United States to have an effective, reliable, integrated, flexible, and comprehensive system to alert and warn the American people. FEMA is designated within the Department of Homeland Security to implement the policy along with its federal partners, the Federal Communications Commission, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Weather Service and the DHS Science and Technology Directorate.   

 

EDXL is the Emergency Data Exchange Language, a set of standard data exchange formats originated by the Emergency Interoperability Consortium and established as a standard by OASIS.
IPAWS and UICDS Interoperability Architecture

UICDS can provide CAP messages to IPAWS for distribution by an Alerting Authority and consume CAP alerts from IPAWS to share with UICDS-connected applications.

 

IPAWS has formalized EDXL as its data exchange format.  Thus, to create the national alerting system, IPAWS uses EDXL-CAP, the Common Alerting Protocol.

 

CAP is the data format selected by UICDS in 2008 as the basis for the UICDS Alert Work Product, the atomic unit of information sharing for applications to share information about their alerts through UICDS.  As a result, now that the latest version of IPAWS is currently operational, UICDS is introducing its interoperability with IPAWS.

 

Look for more details on the UICDS interoperability with IPAWS tutorial in the next issue of UICDS Update.
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WebinarWebinar of Interest - CrisisCommons:  Connecting People, Tools, and Resources to Support Crisis Response 

The UICDS community may find this social collaboration program of interest, so we pass along details of this upcoming progam sponsored by the Emergency Information Infrastructure Project.   On Wednesday, August 10, 2011, beginning at Noon ET, EMForum.org will be hosting a one hour presentation and interactive discussion on the topic of CrisisCommons, an organization that seeks to advance and support the use of open data and volunteer technology communities to catalyze innovation in crisis management and global development. 

 

Speaking will be CrisisCommons Co-founder Heather Blanchard, and previously, Deputy Director of the Ready Campaign for DHS. Ms. Blanchard successfully supported CrisisCommons in attracting a $1.2M investment by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation through the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, and she recently testified before a Senate Homeland Security Subcommittee during a hearing on the power of social media as a communications tool in the aftermath of disasters.

 

Also joining will be Pascal Schuback, Emergency Management Program Coordinator for King County (WA) Office of Emergency Management with responsibility for supporting technical operations and systems in the King County Emergency Coordination Center (ECC). Mr. Schuback is active in CrisisCommons and is one of the organizers for the CrisisCamper tour.

 

For further information, click here

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pilot2Become 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 Compliance 
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?
  
Now there is a guide to what it means to "comply" with UICDS.  Get the new  UICDS Compliance Overview report to see the details.  And you can see and listen to the UICDS Compliance Tutorial about compliance with UICDS v 1.1 on the UICDS Collaboration Portal.
  
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.