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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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UICDS The Movie
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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,  |
| 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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UICDS Update
The Department of Homeland
Security Information Sharing
Technology Program
In this issue ... |
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 UICDS Tutorial on Interoperability with IPAWS, the National Warning System, Features CAP Messaging on September 15th Biweekly Call at Noon
IPAWS is the Integrated 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.
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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.
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The Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) is the data format selected by IPAWS to establish the national alerting standard.
In 2008 UICDS selected CAP 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.
IPAWS also provides for messaging with the Emergency Data Exchange Language suite of standards. UICDS has implemented those as well and we will be conducting a separate demonstration on a call in the near future.
Join us for a real-time demonstration of CAP alerts distributed through IPAWS to UICDS applications and from UICDS applications to IPAWS and on to IPAWS destination alert disseminators. We will be joined by Buffalo Computer Graphics, Inc. and CellCast Technologies, LLC as live players in our demonstration along with the Indiana University of Pennsylvania Research Institute, the Rapid Response Institute of Monmouth University, and ARDEC and the New Jersey Institute of Technology.
And, of course, we always include our popular "open mic" session where you can make comments and ask the experts - and your colleagues - anything about anything.
To join the tutorial and our biweekly call:
Call 800-366-7242 and use code 735108 at noon ET.
Web Collaboration: Go to www.saic.com/customer/datax/ and use Conference Reference: 601203 Attendee PIN: 1143
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DisasterLAN from Buffalo Computer Graphics, Inc. Joins UICDS - IPAWS Information Sharing Demonstration
Buffalo Computer Graphics, Inc. is the developer of DisasterLAN™, a NIMS-compliant web-based crisis management solution that has been designed for use in any emergency operation center. The system provides an easy-to-use web interface based on the workflow requirements of the emergency management community. Highly secure, and easy to use, it is used by numerous agencies at the state, county and local level, as well as by private organizations.
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DisasterLAN provides a host of NIMS-compliant capabilities including CAP message transmission to IPAWS and consuming UICDS Alerts through IPAWS.
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A number of specialized feature modules are available including Incident Action Plans, Watch Command 24/7 Monitoring, Situation Reports, Status Boards, Messaging Center and a GIS-based Common Operational Picture (COP) Viewer. DisasterLAN provides users with a complete toolset for managing incidents of any size. Based upon the National Incident Management System, DisasterLAN excels at helping emergency managers comply with NIMS by:
- providing formal standardized documentation processes
- improving both interagency and inter-jurisdictional communications
- collecting, tracking and reporting on incident information and resources
- developing and sharing a common operational picture and maintaining situational awareness
DisasterLAN also has high-powered interoperable messaging capabilities, so that data can be easily shared with external systems. The system fully supports the NIMS interoperable messaging standards including CAP, IPAWS, EDXL-DE, and EDXL-RM. It also supports the standard data sharing mechanisms for KML, RSS, Geo-RSS and STMP. DisasterLAN is a proven, state of the art solution for the management of both planned events and crisis situations, preplanning activities, information storage and interoperable messaging.
For more information: www.buffalocomputergraphics.com
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CellCast Technologies, LLC Brings EAGLE Alert to the UICDS - IPAWS interoperability demonstration.
CellCast Technologies provides message processing systems for emergency messaging, public service messaging, community messaging and point to multi-point mobile marketing messaging.
CellCast messaging systems are used to deliver life-saving emergency alerts, post-disaster informational messages, public service messages concerning the location and availability of health care services (flu shots, etc.), prior to or during an outbreak, criminal activity alerts, and other important community interest messages.
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CellCast is actively participating in the roll-out of the Commercial Mobile Alerting System (CMAS) in the USA, including the completion of the first end-to-end CMAS pilot conducted in the State of Florida using cell broadcast. For the UICDS - IPAWS demonstration, CellCast will be sending all four kinds of CMAS messages through UICDS, all the way up to a Presidential Alert.
The CellCast product suite includes the EAGLE Alerts™ message processing system - the ideal solution for the creation and distribution of emergency messages and informational messages for federal, state and local emergency management agencies, law enforcement, educational and corporate campuses, healthcare agencies, private user groups, etc. EAGLE Alerts™ is a feature rich, flexible messaging system providing the ability to get your message out quickly to the target audience whether it be an emergency, public service or commercial message.
As a front end solution, EAGLE Alerts™ (Emergency Alerts for Government and Law Enforcement) is a secure, web-based alert system allowing registered citizens to be directly contacted during emergency situations through SMS text messaging, email, landline and cellular telephone. EAGLE Alert messages may include alerts and information about emergencies, such as floods, fires, acts of terrorism, weather related emergencies, and community notifications, such as criminal information, school closings and traffic.
For more information: http://www.cellcastcorp.com/
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CIMS - Civil Support Team Information Management System from IPU Research Institute Part of the UICDS - IPAWS interoperability demonstration.
CIMS (Civil Support Team Information Management System) has been specifically designed as a NIMS-compliant, all-hazard, tactical information system to manage CBRNE events through the provision of "digital battle board" capabilities. It provides the CST (Civil Support Team) with the ability to:
- share critical incident intelligence and data
- work collaboratively in a doctrine and standards-based environment
- monitor the completion of key team objectives
- accurately record the sequence of incident events
- report to supporting agencies and higher command in a quick and efficient manner
CIMS provides the CST with the ability to direct and monitor the execution of the team's objectives and to present a clear and thorough situation assessment to the on-scene incident commander and EOC. CIMS core functionality allows interoperability with both civilian and military information systems.
Armed with critical information and a common operating picture, responders are given the best chance of successfully mitigating the situation in a way that can save lives and property while ensuring the safety of civilian and military personnel as well as the general public.
For more information email: rebecca.zukowski@us.army.mil
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Incidents that require joint military and civilian response are typically large, can have national security implications, involve communications and computing systems that have not been designed together, are infrequent, can include classified information elements, and involve commanders that do not normally work with each other or know each other. As a result, the requisite coordination is challenging and insight into these situations is critically needed.
The Rapid Response Institute (RRI) has been involved in analyzing the use of information technologies in emergency response for the last seven years (http://www.monmouth.edu/rapid_response_institute/default.asp). Working with several partners it has just completed the RISES (Rapid Information Sharing for Event Decision Support) project analyzing the interactions of civilian, military and private sector organizations using data messaging.
RISES stands for Rapid Information Sharing for Event Decision Support. In responding to emergency events, leaders of the incident response team must communicate rapidly and effectively in order to enable timely and accurate decisions. This communications issue has been at the heart of many problems in incident response and has been documented thoroughly. RISES addresses a specific aspect of this issue: the communication of information between military commanders and civilian leaders when an incident involves both military and civilian responding organizations.
RRI has developed two implementations of CAP authoring and networking tools for PC and Handheld devices. RRI is continuing work on the challenging task of adoption of these messaging technologies in the emergency response sector.
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ARDEC and NJIT CAP Collaborate on CAP Alert Process as Part of UICDS - IPAWS Capability Demonstration.
The U.S. Army Armament Research, Development and Engineering Center (ARDEC) has worked with the New Jersey Institute of Technology to employ numerous tools related to the Common Alerting Protocol. In support of this UICDS - IPAWS demonstration, ARDEC will be creating a CAP message using tools that NJIT used during NLE 11 to form CAP alerts.
 ARDEC is an internationally acknowledged hub for the advancement of armaments technology and engineering innovation. As one of the specialized research, development and engineering centers within the U.S. Army Materiel Command, ARDEC has the responsibility for meeting this critical demand. ARDEC's workforce provides lifecycle support for nearly 90 percent of the Army's lethality used every day by the U.S. Warfighter.
The NJIT effort is part of the Emergency Management and Business Continuity graduate degree program. a highly interdisciplinary degree designed to enhance critical skills and knowledge among private and public sector professionals working in the area of emergency management and business continuity. These professionals have to plan for, react well during, and afterwards analyze situations concerning "business not as usual" within corporations, governmental agencies and non-governmental organizations.
For more information on ARDEC, click here.
For more information on the NJIT Emergency Management and Business Continuity program, click here.
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UICDS Tutorial and Biweekly Call on Recent Technology Innovations Now Available on UICDS Collaboration Portal at UICDS.us
Our last UICDS Tutorial and Biweekly Call featured a Q&A with the experts and a summary of recent technology innovations surrounding UICDS. If you missed the call, now you can see the presentation and the questions and answers on the UICDS Collaboration Portal.
The topics we covered were:
UICDS Mobile Apps Update discussed the example code for our latest version of mobile apps for Android phones and also offered a sneak preview of the iPhone app and its availability.
UICDS in the Cloud During NLE 11 described the parallel technology showcase using a cloud deployment to show how UICDS can scale to a national event.
South Carolina Palmetto Vision Supported by UICDS was updated by Rob Zawarski and Phil Armijo of Earth Technologies Integration who described the impressive progress as South Carolina moves toward 30 counties operational with UICDS Cores as their information sharing pathway.
Richmond Computer-Aided-Dispatch UICDS Pilot described one of the "early adopter" UICDS Technology Providers, Intergraph®, in cooperation with Augusta Systems and the City of Richmond, has made UICDS the center of information sharing between the Intergraph computer-aided dispatch used by Richmond and other Virginia organizations.
Best Practice in Blue Force Tracking showed how to use UICDS for following a police car responding to a call for service or a truck fixing downed wires. The UICDS approach to Blue Force Tracking is to enable the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) Sensor Observation Service (SOS) for GPS locations to track resources managed through the Emergency Data Exchange Language-Resource Messaging (EDXL-RM) standard.
If you missed the live presentation, you can tune into the UICDS Collaboration Portal at any time to hear this informative discussion. Go to www.UICDS.us and click on Login - Technology Providers or View the UICDS Tutorial now.
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UICDS Mobile App for Android Example Code Available for Download by Technology Providers
Just as we have provided lots of example code for web application developers to download and make their own, we now release the example code for Android phones.
Among the features included in this 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
Use your access credentials to download the Android Example Code by clicking here.
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Tomcat Security Patch Now Available for UICDS
A security vulnerability was identified in Tomcat, the web server used in a UICDS installation. Tomcat released version 7.0.19 to improve security. In order to accommodate this Tomcat update, UICDS has released a patch that is now available for download. All the details are in the accompanying "Readme" file that downloads with the patch.
To download the security patch, use your access credentials by clicking here.
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Become 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?
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Use 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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