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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 Lawrence Skelly 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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 A Note Commemorating 9/11 From One of Our UICDS Technology Providers
Dear Friends and Family,
As we reflect on the World Trade Center attack that took place 11 years ago today I request that you stand in the moment and celebrate the lives lost by recognizing the true American Hero - our First Responder.
Do you realize that over 90% of America's emergency responders are volunteers? Do you realize that these people work a regular job and when called to action they "shift" to superheroes. These individuals are givers as they risk their lives to protect our lives and property 365 days a year. Whether it be a home, building, forest fire, or terrorist attack they never back down. When a tornado, hurricane or any natural disaster hits the American First Responder swings into action!
I ask that today you make a positive difference. Stop by your local fire, EMS, or police station. Bring a pie, cake or just give them a pat on the back. The true hero never asks for anything in return but the acknowledgement goes a long way. If you see a boot out front of the fire house donate what you can as these funds are always put to good use. If you're driving by and you see the station doing a fund raiser STOP and contribute.
Be proud of our freedom and the standard of life we have in America! Know that your local fire, emergency medical, and law enforcement departments are available every moment of every day to protect that standard of living. Honor those who gave their lives 11 years ago today by honoring those who protect our lives and property 24/7 x 365 - First Responders.
Our First Responders are truly our every day first line of protection! Honor them today!
Peace
Albie
Albert Koenigsberg | President & CEO
GEOcommand, Inc.
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| Back to School Special: UICDS 101 - Everything You Need To Know About UICDS as Your Free Information Sharing Middleware from the Department of Homeland Security is Topic of the UICDS Tutorial and Biweekly Call on Thursday at Noon
Back to School always meant information sharing. So, the UICDS Tutorial and Biweekly Call begins this new school year with a comprehensive look at UICDS, the free information sharing middleware from the Department of Homeland Security, Directorate of Science and Technology. Drawn from more than two years of tutorials, this session highlights all the major components of UICDS - operational and technical.
Learn how you can implement UICDS to fill your information sharing gaps. Whether you are government or a private sector infrastructure, UICDS is the single most comprehensive way to share information - secure and by agreement, exactly the right information to coordinate your emergency planning and response.
This is the one-stop-shop for UICDS knowledge. Learn about:
- Lesson 1: Why You Need UICDS
- Lesson 2: Key to Meeting Your Information Sharing Need is Common Operational Data
- Lesson 3: UICDS Middleware as the Integration Layer
- Lesson 4: Managing Information Content Through UICDS
- Lesson 5: Two-Way Collaboration Means Information Sharing
- Lesson 6: Sharing Methods: Security and Control of Your Data
- Lesson 7: Your Steps to Implementing UICDS - And What We Do To Help
Each lesson includes a reference to documents or prior tutorials captured on video and available on the UICDS Collaboration Portal. This is truly the best way to understand UICDS - whether you are technical or operational - and to get that jump start on implementation.
So call into the tutorial and the always interesting "Open Mic" portion of the call where the UICDS participants take over for comments, questions, and updates.
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Join the UICDS Tutorial and Biweekly Call on Thursday at Noon ET
Call: 800-366-7242 code 735108
You can join the online meeting from your PC or mobile device.
Web Collaboration: Click here.
... If requested, enter your name and email address.
... If a password is required, enter the meeting password: uicds2012
... Click "Join."
If you must manually enter the URL into your browser, select the UICDS Biweekly Call and use the password above when you link to:
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| Naval Postgraduate School Exercise Shows GIS, Remote Sensing, and UICDS as Tools to Improve Earthquake Response Tutorial Now Available on UICDS Collaboration Portal
The most recent UICDS Tutorial and Biweekly Call hosted our speaker Chris Clasen of the Remote Sensing Center at the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) in Monterey, California. Chris discussed the NPS earthquake exercise and technology demonstration that employed UICDS and a host of other innovative hardware and software for emergency response.
UICDS was the link between a transportable network fielded by NPS and the rest of the emergency response community. NPS developed mobile apps using the Open Data Kit that they named Lighthouse. UICDS consumed mobile assessment data from Lighthouse in the form of San Diego County damage assessments and Cal Fire structure loss assessments. These moved through UICDS to the San Diego County WebEOC, DHS OneView, and ESRI Flex Viewer and other mobile apps.
 | | The overall exercise CONOPS included numerous technologies. UICDS served as the gateway between the transportable hardware and software and the existing emergency management infrastructure. As shown above, the Sensor Island COP served UICDS data related to field assessments that were then available as UICDS Work Products to applications as diverse as DHS OneView and the San Diego County incident management software. |
The exercise was the culmination of applied research sponsored by the Department of Homeland Security, Directorate of Science and Technology, to support early responders during events where robust communication, network, and power are not available to provide the data collection and mapping needs of response to a large incident. The exercise, and prior technology foraging and development, focused on imagery and data relevant to the two primary essential elements of information: life and property. Operating in the field at Camp Roberts, California, the exercise was conducted entirely with transportable technologies.
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| New Version of UICDS Features and Benefits Tutorial Now Available on UICDS Collaboration Portal
The release of UICDS Version 1.2.1 was the topic of our most recent UICDS Tutorial and Biweekly Call. The tutorial highlighted features of the release including backward compatiblity, improved performance in off-nominal network environments, and aligning the UICDS AdminConsole with the Section 508 Amendment to the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. In addition to these changes to the UICDS code base, the significantly simplified UICDS installation was demonstrated live on the tutorial.
This version had many updates to the latest versions of open source components used by UICDS including:
- Java JDK 1.7.0_5
- Tomcat 7
- eXist 1.4.2
- OpenFire 3.7.1
- OpenDJ 2.5
In addition, we improved UICDS performance in off-nominal environments focusing on UICDS core-to-core connectivity in the presence of intermittent network availability. There is now greater assurance that UICDS Work Products are shared reliably between UICDS cores by incorporating several connection checking features.
In order to facilitate the administration of UICDS by people with disabilities, as guided by Section 508, the UICDS Team incorporated text equivalent labels to the UICDS AdminConsole elements and enabled keyboard-based access to the AdminConsole, among other enhancements.
Finally, on the tutorial, the UICDS Team showed the significantly reduced UICDS installation process. Demonstrated live on the tutorial was the UICDS InstallKit installation which had its internal processing commands reduced from 108 to 18 and the human interaction during the installation reduced to 3 entries. The entire installation took under 10 minutes and was greeted by great applause from those "old hands" among UICDS Technology Providers who understood the value of this new release.
View the UICDS Version 1.2.1 Introduction Tutorial on the UICDS Collaboration Platform at UICDS.us.
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Great Upcoming Tutorials this Fall
Watch this spot for new tutorials planned for the fall ...
Mobile App Field Observations
Moving information from the field - especially from mobile apps - is a new frontier for emergency management. But with the abundance of handheld devices today, and the advent of social media taking pictures and making postings throughout an incident, UICDS is leading the way on this new form of information sharing. This tutorial focuses on field observations and the use of the Sensor Observation Service (SOS). In short, "human sensors" provide an extraordinary view of an incident. Whether formally involved in data collection using a field investigation tool or informally involved in crowd-sourced data submitted by individuals, the UICDS SOS is the ideal place to store observations and associate them with incidents. This tutorial will describe Best Practices for using the SOS format for all the updates provided by the "human sensors" in the field.
Getting the UICDS Accreditation for Operation on Highly Security Networks
UICDS recently received the Authority To Operate (ATO) on one of the Department of Homeland Security secure networks. This Certification and Accreditation (C&A) process delved deep into the inner workings and code of UICDS and into the implementation policies and procedures. UICDS passed with flying colors, in part because development follows the Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) Level 3. The CMMI is a process improvement maturity model for the development of products and services created by Carnegie Mellon University for the Department of Defense certification for which is now managed by the Software Engineering Institute. It consists of best practices that address development and maintenance activities that cover the product lifecycle. Join us to learn more about the C&A process and how UICDS achieved this important accomplishment.
UICDS Self-Demo
This tutorial will provide you with all the information you need to see what UICDS can do. This is live data being consumed by a UICDS Core from several different applications. You will be able to actually use a number of applications to see the data and interact with it. Thanks to the wonderful participation of some of the UICDS Technology Providers, you will be able to use live versions of their software to see UICDS data. These include a video aggregation application, mobile apps, a utility outage response application, plus commonly available geospatial visualization tools like Google Earth. So join us for this tutorial and walk away with the ability to use UICDS at your desk or on your phone.
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| UICDS Mobile App Example Code Available for Android® and Apple®
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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 should 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 1.1.1 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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