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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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Watch
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™ is a Trademark of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security
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UICDS Update
An Information Sharing Technology Program from the Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology Directorate
In this issue ...
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 Resource Typing - Furthering the Discussion is Topic for November 10 Biweekly Call and Tutorial at Noon
Our next biweekly call will further the discussion on Resource Typing that was started on our last call. Now we will hear from two additional approaches to Resource Typing plus have an update from our last call. Presenting their projects on the call will be:
- LTC Fritz Krauss, Ph.D., California National Guard, Director J5/7, will describe the Civil Support Task List (CSTL)
- David Blakeman and Charlene Duncans, Preparedness-Technology, Analysis, and Coordination (P-TAC) Center, will talk about the Incident Resource Inventory System (IRIS)
- Aaron Lieb, U.S. Army Armament Research, Development and Engineering Center (ARDEC) will update on lessons learned from the resource schema discussions of the previous UICDS call
Civil Support Task List
The Civil Support Task List is a collaborative effort from many states and agencies to generate a common taxonomy and lexicon that allows the military to reframe our existing warfighting capabilities into emergency response capabilities in a way consistent with the National Response Framework. Most agencies that are not primarily emergency response agencies either have or will face questions surrounding how to reframe what they do all the time and understand in their own vernacular into a useful capability that can be seamlessly integrated into a coordinated response under the direction of the Incident Commander.
The complexity for the CSTL was compounded by the different terms, references, policies and capabilities generated by the different armed services, but the success of the project is attributed directly to the willingness of most of the states and over 100 different agencies to meet in the middle and build the bridging structure to support the ability of the military to respond when needed with the right capabilities.
Incident Resource Inventory System
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) National Preparedness Directorate (NPD) provides a "no cost" resource inventory tool. The Incident Resource Inventory System (IRIS) is developed and maintained by the Preparedness-Technology, Analysis, and Coordination (P-TAC) Center and allows response officials to enter typed and non-typed resources into a database and to search/identify specific resources for incident operations and mutual aid purposes.
IRIS features the capability for users to inventory resources and share resource information with other agencies. Furthermore, users are able to define non-typed resources and select specific resources for mutual aid purposes based upon mission requirements, the capability and availability of resources, and desired response times.
So join us on the UICDS Biweekly Call and Tutorial to hear, learn, and contribute.
To join the tutorial and our biweekly call:
Call 800-366-7242 and use code 735108 at noon ET.
Web Collaboration: www.saic.com/customer/datax/
Conference Reference: 601203
Attendee PIN: 1143
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In Search of a Resource Typing Schema Tutorial is Now Available on UICDS.us Collaboration Portal
We had a very lively discussion on our last call which was led by Aaron Lieb of the U.S. Army Armament Research, Development and Engineering Center (ARDEC), one of the long-time participants in UICDS. He addressed the question: Where do we get a resource typing schema?
The Resource Schema is the computer framework into which is placed any human-defined descriptive typing of resources, such as the NIMS Resource Typing that is an on-going effort supported by DHS. Such resource typing represents the content of resource names and types. In contrast, the Resource Schema is the computer format into which the content is placed.
Specifically, in the case of UICDS, the Resource Schema is intended to be inserted into the OASIS® Emergency Data Exchange Language-Resource Messaging (EDXL-RM) standard structure for information exchange.
Aaron described that he had begun with a resource typing schema that was developed as part of the FEMA IRIS resource system. From the IRIS User's Guide (see documentation below), Aaron derived a resource typing schema that he is offering as a starting point for discussion. Aaron's version is linked below.
The IRIS application was developed by the Preparedness Technology, Analysis, and Coordination (P-TAC) project which is supported by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, National Preparedness Directorate. P-TAC assists the response community with interoperability testing and evaluation and developed the NIMS Incident Resource Inventory System (IRIS).
David Blakeman and Charlene Duncans provided a little background on P-TAC and IRIS and will be making a presentation to the next UICDS Tutorial and Biweekly Call on November 10.
To read up on some of the issues about resource typing and to see the draft schema Aaron is offering up for discussion, you may download the following documents:
View the Resource Typing and Schema Tutorial
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Looking Ahead - Three Great UICDS Tutorials Coming Up This Winter
Put these dates and topics on your calendar. You won't want to miss these excellent discussions from some of the best experts in the field of information sharing and interoperability.
December 1: Standards Assessment of Information Sharing
Shane C. Mason and a team from SRI International will discuss their assessment of 14 architectural standards, two schema types, and two transport protocols and their utility for emergency management information sharing. The assessment used the standards to assess the Smart Integration Manager Ontologically Networked (SIMON) and Unified Incident Command and Decision Support (UICDS) as means to achieve situational awareness (SA) and Command and Control (C2) activities. Together, the study hypothesized, "SIMON and UICDS platforms are believed to represent a comprehensive collection of standards relevant to information gathering and sharing, as well as to interoperability." Such standards are "vital to information sharing and interoperation across jurisdictional lines." The UICDS Tutorial will present background information on the use and types of standards and then describe both SIMON and UICDS and the use of standards in the development and design cycle of the two platforms.
December 15: Pandemic Decision-Support with UICDS
Robert Kelly of the University of Louisville will discuss the use of UICDS in the Real-time Decision Support System (RTDSS) for Healthcare and Public Health Sector Protection. The project is a collaboration among several universities in Kentucky and Missouri with the support of the National Institute for Hometown Security and DHS Directorate of Science and Technology. The goal of the project is to develop a decision support system to provide pandemic response staff decision support tools to assist them with managing the response. The RTDSS consists of three primary components, the Pandemic Decision Support System (PanDSS), a Unified Incident Command and Decision Support (UICDS) core, and third-party data sources. Complex interactions among hospital applications can be conducted through UICDS including multiple distributed applications that update a work product and notification services in which various systems are notified when changes to a work product have occurred. Rob Kelley recently presented the results of this work to the First International Workshop on Healthcare Systems Engineering in Beijing, China.
January 12: A Framework for Interoperability
John Contestible of the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory explores why information sharing is important to successfully dealing with large scale events and how a lack of public safety communications systems interoperability is a major impediment. It describes how a conceptual framework of information layers (i.e. the Data, Integration and Presentation layers) is useful to developing solutions to the lack of interoperability. He further describes a concept of operations whereby Integration layer applications can form the core of a "Common Operating Picture" which can provide information to field personnel at the scene of an incident as well as the public. An inducement for jurisdictions to participate in such an information sharing framework is that they can gain access to wide array of information to which they would otherwise not be entitled and they can reduce the overall cost of such systems by sharing the infrastructure and system expenses across the regional partners.
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Check Out the Mobile Apps Discussion Group on UICDS Collaboration Portal
The popularity of mobile apps for UICDS has led us to establish a separate discussion group for mobile apps developers and users on the UICDS Collaboration Portal. Use the discussion group to ask questions, make comments, and provide answers. The discussion group is monitored by the UICDS Team and you can get answers from them about any questions you have. As well, you can dialogue with your fellow developers.
There are discussion groups for Apple® iPhone® and iPad® as well as for Android® apps.
There also is a separate discussion for end-users to discuss how they are applying mobile apps to their incident operations.
So, ask questions and get answers from the UICDS Team as well as discuss with your colleagues by joining the UICDS Mobile Apps Discussion Group.
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Apple® iPad® and iPhone® UICDS Mobile Apps Example Code Now Available to Download
Example code is developed by the UICDS Team for developers to download and make their own in their own applications. We are pleased to make available the UICDS Mobile App Example Code for the Apple® iPhone® and iPad®.
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The UICDS iPad App bring EOC knowledge to your fingertips. |
The iPad and iPhone mobile apps are derived from the same example code which is available for download by registered UICDS Technology Providers. The example code, as seen in the illustration, provides the following capabilities:
- The base display is a map centered on your current location showing Incidents and Alerts
- Display list of Incidents and Alerts independently
- Display text description (contained in a UICDS Work Product) of any Incident or Alert
- 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 from the list
- 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 for UICDS iPad and iPhone App Example Code Download.
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UICDS Mobile App for Android Example Code Available for Download
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UICDS on the Android
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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.
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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.
Use your UICDS access credentials to download the Tomcat security patch.
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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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