Early in 2013, UICDS will transition from a Department of Homeland Security, Directorate of Science and Technology, research and development program as fully operational information sharing middleware that will be managed by an open source consortium.  The not-for-profit National Institute For Hometown Security (NIHS) has been selected to lead the formation of the consortium with continuing technical development and support for UICDS provided as it is currently.

The transition of the UICDS DHS S&T program to the UICDS Consortium marks a significant accomplishment for the program.  This is the result of plans launched in 2008 to build the UICDS software out of fully open source components and to make the especially developed source code for the UICDS Core and example code available without license.  DHS will continue to make UICDS freely available through the consortium to eligible recipients.

Says Ewell Balltrip, President/CEO of NIHS:  "NIHS is excited to form the UICDS consortium because of our long experience in commercializing government and university technologies.  The consortium will be a unique form of commercialization and we look forward to exploring all the options with DHS and the UICDS community to arrive at the best solution for everyone.  We appreciate the DHS decision to move UICDS into full operational status and are committed to making UICDS the middleware of choice throughout emergency management government agencies and private sector critical infrastructure owner/operators."

The final plans are being put in place by DHS and NIHS for the launch of the consortium in early 2013.  NIHS will be the sponsor and administrator of the consortium, establishing governance and the funding structure for ongoing operations.  There will be no change in provision of quality assurance, configuration management, and technical support for the UICDS Core software code.  

The UICDS outreach program and pilot support programs, including the UICDS Tutorial and Biweekly Calls and the UICDS Update newsletter will continue in their present format.

Consortium membership will be open to government and critical infrastructure owner/operators who deploy UICDS and Technology Providers whose applications integrate with UICDS, including commercial companies, universities, volunteer agencies, national laboratories, and not-for-profit organizations. 

Anne Rosinski of the California Earthquake Clearinghouse expressed the sentiment of government end-users of UICDS to the formation of the consortium.  "That's exciting and welcome news!  We trust the UICDS Team as it is currently configured and will be watching closely the evolution of the consortium.  This looks to be an effective way for DHS to assure long-term support for UICDS for those of us who already have made significant commitments to UICDS implementations.  We expect to be active and vocal consortium members because UICDS has changed the way the Clearinghouse carries out its mission by allowing us to prove in the past two California earthquake exercises that a Virtual Clearinghouse expands our capabilities and speeds sharing of critical information after an earthquake." 

Technology Providers laud the move because it gives them greater opportunity to control innovation around UICDS.  Robert Zawarski of Earth Technology Integration, the prime contractor for the largest UICDS implementation in South Carolina, is enthusiastic:  "We view this as the "endorsement" we have long requested that DHS make about UICDS.  By going operational and establishing the consortium, DHS allows committed companies like ours to improve and tailor - and control - UICDS to best meet our client's needs.  DHS, thus, is ensuring the longevity and finally helping to build the marketplace that will sustain UICDS into the future."

Supporting this sentiment, Mark Wald of UISOL, Inc. said "Our interest has been to connect electric and other utilities to government operations centers through UICDS.  As we consider further UICDS integration with the utilities' Common Information Model standard it gives us confidence to know that we have a say in the control and development of the software [UICDS] that we are investing in."

Bob DiGioia of SpotOnResponse LLC shares this view:  "We've invested heavily in the development of the first application truly built on top of UICDS to share information from many other applications to our mobile app, SpotOnResponse™.  Because of UICDS we now deliver into people's hands Location-Based Situational Awareness™ and provide through UICDS Trusted Crowd-Sourcing™.  Knowing that we can help guide the future of UICDS gives us the confidence to further innovate in this market."

As a consortium, the members take over responsibility for future development of the software and many of the operational aspects of the continuing growth of UICDS.  Members will be able to innovate in their connectivity to the UICDS Core as well as to add components to the core, thus constantly evolving UICDS to meet the needs of the community.

Consortium members also are invited to sponsor consortium events.  For example,

• SpotOnResponse LLC, a UICDS Technology Provider specializing in mobile apps, will sponsor the production of the UICDS Tutorial and Biweekly calls. 
• KZO Innovations will continue to provide the UICDS Collaboration Portal as their contribution to the future growth of the consortium and UICDS for the coming year. 
• Emergency Information Sharing Alternatives ( EIS Alternatives), a commercial website and marketplace dedicated to information sharing technologies, will sponsor the distribution of the UICDS Update newsletter. 

As the consortium develops, sponsorships for training and education seminars, webinars, publications, white paper research, and software development prizes will become available.

The consortium will also be involved in representing the interest of the UICDS community in conferences and meetings.  Among the organizations the consortium expects to become actively involved in are: 

• Emergency Interoperability Consortium
• OASIS™ and its Technical Committees for the Emergency Data Exchange Language (EDXL),
• Activities related to the National Information Exchange Model (NIEM),
• The newly formed National Emergency Interoperability Consortium (created by the DHS S&T First Responder Group), and
• Technical committees of the National Emergency Management Association and the International Association of Emergency Managers. 

The UICDS consortium will be formally launched in early 2013.  This UICDS Update newsletter will keep you informed of details of the formation of the organization.  Watch this spot for updates!  

And if you have any questions or comments, we have created a special section on the UICDS Collaboration Portal for UICDS Consortium Discussions.  Click here and use your collaboration portal username and password to ask questions, make comments, or begin to get involved in the operations of the UICDS consortium.

On our most recent UICDS Tutorial and Biweekly Call we heard from Anne Rosinski of the California Earthquake Clearinghouse, Margaret Glasscoe of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) E-DECIDER program, and Tim Stough of NASA JPL's ARIA satellite program.  They all described how their data and models were used in the second of six planned exercises employing the Unified Incident Command and Decision Support (UICDS) information sharing middleware and the SpotOnResponse mobile situational awareness and trusted crowd-sourcing application. 

The application of UICDS and SpotOnResponse, two innovative technologies, now allows the Clearinghouse to create a "Virtual Clearinghouse" to serve the needs of geoscientists, engineers, and emergency managers in earthquake and tsunami events 

Below are highlights of how the Virtual Clearinghouse operated in the Shakeout exercise using UICDS for information sharing.   

Seismic Network Locates Earthquake and Shares Through UICDS 

Initial earthquake notification originate from the California Integrated Seismic Network, jointly operated by the U.S. Geological Survey, California Geological Survey, Cal Tech and University of California, Berkeley.  Shared through UICDS, non-scientists can see the epicenter and fault on any application, here using Google Maps.

Caltrans Traffic Sensors from FiRST Testbed Shared Through UICDS  

One of the early indicators of the extent of the earthquake are traffic sensors that show stoppages.  At the University of California, Santa Barbara, the California Department of Transportation is a supporter of the First Responder's System & Technologies (FiRST) Testbed which uses UICDS to monitor and distribute Caltrans traffic sensor data.  In Shakeout, FiRST simulated traffic flows affected by the earthquake.

Mobile Apps Allow Field Reports to Flow to EOCs Through UICDS 

This mobile app, SpotOnResponse, allows the professional team of public and private responders to be alerted to nearby incidents (red) and to provide field reports immediately, all of which are shared through UICDS to EOCs and critical lifeline infrastructure.

Field Reports Flow Through UICDS to All Connected Applications  

Here we see two field reports from SpotOnResponse (Damaged Rails and Building Evacuated) provided through UICDS to Google Earth or any other connected application with interest in field reports and permission to view them.  

USGS Field Notes Gives Geologists and Earth Scientists Reporting App

This mobile app by the U.S. Geological Survey allows earth scientists and geologists to record observations about earthquake fault ruptures, liquefaction, and landslides. In the hands of experts, the scientific calculations are dynamically entered and available on UICDS. 

Scientific Observations Made More Efficient Through UICDS Sharing

As earth scientists and geologists spread out following an earthquake using the USGS Field Notes mobile app, they report their observations and measurements to USGS. As they do, those reports are shared through UICDS to connected applications.  This allows other scientists, as well as emergency responders and critical infrastructure repair crews, to see the extent of damage and scientists to avoid wasted time in assessing previously reported areas.   

NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory Shares Satellite Imagery Analysis 

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, implemented a tool to use the analysis provided by the ARIA satellite, called Radar Deconfliction.  Radar Deconfliction is represented by the red locations that means between two radar satellite images there is a difference - which might mean a change in the landscape, for example, a loss of elevation that might mean a building collapse.  

Image Analysis Yields an Incident in UICDS to be Checked for Impact  

In Shakeout the California Geological Survey performed image analysis on the NASA Radar Deconfliction.  Putting the human in the loop lets someone distinguish between uninhabited areas from possible infrastructure losses.  The NASA APL tool identifies the location and allows entry of a note, "subsidence in parking lot," that points scientists and engineers to the location to investigate.    That information is transmitted through UICDS to local mobile devices of engineers who are part of the response team who are then able to investigate.

Satellite Image Analysis Enables Response Request Sharing

When mobile devices received the NASA satellite imagery analysis results from the California Geological Survey through UICDS during Shakeout, scientists and engineers had to decide how to respond. Using this location-based app, the location of the end-user allowed the app to determine their proximity to potential damage areas and, thus, point them to the nearest inspection site.  In Shakeout, the SpotOnResponse mobile app was a "gateway" for scientists and engineers to deeper investigation through the USGS Field Notes.

Earthquake Modeling from NASA JPL Helps Quickly Identify Vulnerable Infrastructure

The E-DECIDER program at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory incorporates a host of models that forecast the intensity of an earthquake.  In this view, the results of a model have been shared through UICDS to identify the epicenter and a 40 mile radius of potential damage. Within that area, E-DECIDER then queries the HAZUS data set, a national database of infrastructure, to identify what potentially vulnerable facilities exist - bridges, hazmat facilities, schools, healthcare facilities, and many more. These appear as icons on the map and can become the basis for further investigations and assessments, all of which are reported back through UICDS to other connected applications.

View the entire Shakeout Exercise UICDS Tutorial on the UICDS Collaboration Portal.