Reporting Developments of Interest to Stakeholders in
Disaster Management Interoperability Services

CONTENTS:

  1. Update on DMIS
  2. Disaster Management Interoperability Services (DMIS) Outreach
  3. COG Manager's Corner
  4. Of Special Interest - Notes on the SIG
  5. DisasterHelp.gov Enhancements
  6. Upcoming Events
  7. Upcoming EIIP Virtual Forum
  8. About the Disaster Management E-gov Initiative
  9. About the Interoperations Newsletter

Talking to the Feds

Over the last six months or so, we have been working to get DMIS installed in many federal operations centers. The point of this was not to have the federal government use DMIS as their incident management system – although some do. The main reason was that we felt we had reached a “critical mass” of COGs, and that we should start providing the capability for DMIS users to be able to communicate with the federal government operations centers if needed.

Of course our longer range goal is for any organization to be able to exchange their incident information with others – regardless of what software they use. The key to this will be standards development and implementation in DMIS and commercial products. You probably can already take advantage of this capability. The Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) is an OASIS standard for exchanging alerts. The DMIS toolset provides this capability and, therefore, you can send an alert to other COGs even those using other software systems assuming that each system is compliant.

But, back to today, we now have DMIS in a lot of federal operations centers. I am sure that many of you are coordinating and sharing information with other COGs but you might consider doing the same with a federal entity with an operations center in your area if you have the potential need. For example, if you have a military base in the area that might be a key organization in a local emergency, you may want to see if they have DMIS and would like to do some preparedness planning with you. If they do not have DMIS, recommend that they get it and show how it might help with your community planning for emergencies – or even for things as mundane as traffic congestion monitoring around the federal facility.

It is my belief that using DMIS daily helps you be better prepared to use it efficiently and effectively when you really need it. So consider reaching out to other COGs, to community leaders, and yes, even to the federal government installations in your jurisdiction. Sometimes a simple contact can achieve extraordinary results!
(Provided by: Chip Hines, PMP, Program Manager, Disaster Management eGov Initiative, Office of the Chief Information Officer, Emergency Preparedness and Response/FEMA, Department of Homeland Security)

Disaster Management e-Gov Initiative Now Under DHS

The Disaster Management e-Gov Initiative (DM) transitioned from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to the Office for Interoperability and Compatibility (OIC) in the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) Science and Technology (S&T) Directorate's Office of Systems Engineering and Development (SED) on December 1, 2005. Dr. David Boyd is the Director of the OIC; Chip Hines will remain the DM Program Manager.

DMIS Welcomes New Responder Liaison Team Member

DMIS is proud to announce that Richard (Dick) Shelton has joined the DMIS RL Team. He will be assisting with DMIS COG management. A Marine from the Viet Nam era, Dick retired from the Department of Defense as a Computer Specialist in 2000. He recently retired from the Stafford County (VA) public school system after serving as a Network Administrator. (See Dick’s contact information in the COG Manager’s Corner below.)

Responder Liaison Team Assists NASA DMIS Planning Seminar

A DMIS rollout planning seminar and tools training session was conducted with 18 NASA emergency managers and IT support staff on November 17-18, 2005, at Goddard Spaceflight Center, Greenbelt, MD. The attendees represented NASA Headquarters and all 11 Spaceflight Centers. The objectives for the session were:

1. Provide deeper understanding of DMIS Tools and the DMIS Interoperability Backbone to emergency managers at NASA Agency, HQ, and Center levels;
2. Provide training in DMIS Tools skills for DMIS Tools users;
3. Develop a concept of operations for incident response data-sharing throughout NASA, and with local civilian jurisdictions, using a mix of CAP-compliant/DMIS-ready tools; and
4. Identify routine use activities and exercises to maintain proficiency with data sharing among the mix of incident response tools.

The objectives were attained via an agenda that included:

1. The Introduction to DMIS briefing
2. A compressed COG Cookbook training and discussion
3. Basic DMIS Tools training
4. Identification of threats/scenarios that would prompt need for collaboration and data sharing
5. An ad hoc exercise using DMIS Tools to share CAP messages and incident records in the context of their worst case scenario (protests at multiple centers prior to launch of payload containing nuclear material combined with a spacecraft break-up over the continental U.S.)
6. Facilitated discussion resulting in decisions on DMIS COG structure, DMIS use procedures, data sharing among differing systems, activities to develop data-sharing/collaboration proficiency, and activities to sustain that proficiency.

A similar approach is recommended to larger organizations planning a DMIS roll-out. Thinking through scenarios that drive information sharing; then the COG structure, user accounts, user privileges, organizational policy/procedure, and activities to maintain proficiency forms the foundation necessary to be able to harvest the value of DMIS when incidents occur.

Responder Liaison Team Conducts Training at Johnstown IEOC

The City of Johnstown (PA), Pennsylvania (Penn) State University, and the U.S. Army Picatinny Arsenal are developing an Integrated Emergency Operations Center (IEOC) that brings together available resources, systems and databases as well as agencies to manage emergencies. The IEOC is envisioned as a center that showcases available technologies for the First Responder Community. At the request of the City of Johnstown, the Responder Liaison Team provided DMIS training for 11 representatives from the City of Johnstown, Allegany County (MD) and the Johnstown IEOC on November 15 and 16.

Other Outreach Activities

• DM staff attended the International Association of Emergency Managers (IAEM) Conference in Phoenix, Arizona. Staff manned a booth and participated in the conference program with a session featuring early 2006 interoperability between DMIS and the National Weather Service HazCollect System that entails the conversion of Common Alerting Protocol-standard alerts from text to speech for broadcast over the NOAA/NWS radio system. (For article on HazCollect / DMIS, see http://www.dmi-services.org/documents/Interoperations_Nov15_05.htm )
• DM attended a National Capitol Region technical session with National Information Exchange Model (NIEM) representatives.
• Staff planned for proposed DMIS Role in Trident Warrior ’06.
• DM worked with Emergency Management Institute (EMI) National Incident Management System (NIMS) members to gather requirements for proposed project.
• DM helped with DMIS installation and exchanged CP messages with the US Agency for International Development (USAID).
• Staff consulted with the Department of Justice (DoJ) on activities for an internal DoJ / DMIS planning meeting and future seminar.
• DM continues collaboration with Metropolitan Medical Response System (MMRS) teams in preparation for first MMRS pilot effort in Knoxville, Tennessee.
• Staff working with Louisiana MMRS, State Highway Patrol and State EOC personnel for future integrated project.

3. COG Manager's Corner

The DMIS Responder Liaison Team welcomes Richard (Dick) Shelton, who joins us to lend assistance with COG Management duties (please see his bio elsewhere in this edition). We look forward to working with Dick, who has already proven himself as a valuable asset on the team. He is taking over the functions to manage the steady flow of new DMIS COG registration requests from First Responders and Emergency Managers, and maintain the database of 1600+ registered DMIS COGs by ensuring that contact information remains current. With his assistance, we can now free up more resource time to focus on making further improvements to the COG management process, plus working more hands-on with users to increase DMIS utilization and proficiency.

If you have any questions related to the status of a DMIS registration request or information on other registered DMIS COGs in your area, please call or email Dick Shelton at 540-288-5625.

If you can’t reach Dick or have questions related to DMIS COG development and DMIS Tools use, please call or email Rick Hauschildt, DMIS COG Manager, at (540) 288-5671.

REMINDER: Updated DMIS v2.2 training materials are now available in the Training Section of the DMI-Services Website http://www.dmi-services.org/training_v2.html

Bryan Keenan, DMIS Help Desk Supervisor, was the presenter for the December 7 meeting of the DMIS Special Interest Group (SIG). Using MS Live Meeting and a conference bridge, Bryan did an excellent job of addressing Helpful Hints from the DMIS Help Desk. After questions from the audience, one participant commended Bryan for his thorough presentation and recommended that the information be made readily available for future use by any DMIS user. For the immediate future, a recording of the December 7 SIG Event is available via
http://www.emforum.org/DMIS/DMIS-SIG/Presentations/051207mtg.wmv .
.

DMIS SIG Special Events are regularly scheduled monthly programs for DMIS users and anyone interested in the functionality of DMIS and related topics. Wednesday, January 4, 2006, 12:00 Noon Eastern is the date for the next SIG meeting. The topic will be Achieving Data Interoperability with EXDL, Emergency Data Exchange Language with Chip Hines, Program Manager, Disaster Management eGov Initiative, DHS.

The DMIS SIG Steering Committee will meet January 18, 2006 (quarterly basis) to provide direction for SIG activities. Maryanne Anthony is serving as Chair of the SIG Steering Committee. If interested in serving on the committee, or for further information, contact Maryanne at 410-294-0844 or Maryanne@integritybasedsolutions.com .
If you would like to receive announcements of future DMIS SIG events and activities plus share information with other DMIS users, a DMIS listserv is now operational and available to you. Please send an email to asebring@emforum.org requesting subscription to the DMIS SIG listserv.

To prepare for future meetings using MS Live Meeting and the teleconference bridge, review the Connection Instructions and Participant Guidelines in advance for complete instructions:
http://www.emforum.org/dmis/dmis-sig/meetings/LiveMtgInstruct.doc

5. DisasterHelp.gov Enhancements

Designed for first responders and others interested in disaster management, the DisasterHelp.Gov portal is expanded and improved each month. If you are not a registered user please learn more about this online resource by going to https://disasterhelp.gov/portal/jhtml/index.jhtml .

What’s New at DisasterHelp.gov?

The Disaster Management e-Gov Initiative (DM) provided the following updates, support and / or outreach related to the growth and use of DisasterHelp.Gov:

• FEMA – Long Term Recovery: Assisted the Long Term Recovery Group in creating a way to display large amounts of HTML-formatted text on their community homepage.
• EMI-NIMS: Worked with EMI NIMS reports to create a system to make data available to appropriate parties through DisasterHelp.gov.
• Emergency Management and Response-Information Sharing and Analysis Center (EMR-ISAC): Drafted document about EMR-ISAC bulk registrations regarding current policy and potential enhancements to make bulk registration easier and more flexible.
• USDA: Continued assistance to USDA in their regular utilization of Collaboration tools.
• DMIS Special Interest Group (SIG): Updated DMIS Responder Forum page to reflect DMIS SIG Special Events and progress.
• Addressed user feedback.
• Verified newly registered users and set up numerous DisasterHelp.gov user accounts.

February 9-12, 2006: 27th Annual International Disaster Management Conference. The Rosen Centre, Orlando, Florida. See http://www.emlrc.org .

February 11-15, 2006: National Emergency Management Association (NEMA) 2006 Mid-Year Conference. Alexandria Mark Center, Alexandria, Virginia. For more information, please see http://www.nemaweb.org/?1508 .

February 19-23, 2006: Firehouse World Conference and Exposition. San Diego, California. The program is being revised to address educational needs in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Contact info@firehouseworld.com; http://firehouseworld.com/.

From Your Desktop: The University of Minnesota Public online Health Emergency Training (UM PHET) covers Disease Surveillance and Investigation; Contact Investigation; Isolation and Quarantine; Special Populations; Disaster Mental Health; Personal Protective Equipment (coming soon); and Decontamination (coming soon). http://www.sph.umn.edu/umncphp/phet.html.

7. Upcoming EIIP Virtual Forum

Welcome to the EIIP!

The EIIP Virtual Forum provides 'live chat' presentations and interactive Q&A with subject matter experts on timely topics on two Wednesdays each month, 12:00 Noon Eastern.

January 11, 2006: The EIIP Virtual Forum begins the New Year with an update on the NFPA 1600 Standard. Our guest speaker will be Lloyd Bokman, Chair, NFPA 1600 Technical Committee on Disaster/Emergency Management and Business Continuity Programs

About the EIIP: The EIIP is an educational non-profit association of individuals and organizations seeking to enhance their effectiveness in coping with disasters and emergency situations by exploring the opportunity for sharing information and ideas made possible by electronic technology. The EIIP also shares its vision and educational opportunities through the EIIP Community on the DisasterHelp.gov Web site http://www.disasterhelp.gov .

8. About the Disaster Mangement E-gov Initiative (DisasterHelp.gov and DMIS)

The Disaster Management E-Gov Initiative is part of the President's Management Agenda for making government more focused on people and results. Its goal is to provide an easy-to-use, unified point of access to disaster management knowledge, services and toolsets to achieve an accelerated and improved quality of disaster mitigation and response. There are two major parts of the initiative: Disaster Management Interoperability Services (DMIS) and the DisasterHelp.Gov portal. DMIS is focused on the responder/emergency management profession, while the portal provides information and services to citizens, business, federal, state, and local government and non-profit organizations relating to disaster and emergency response.

9. About the Interoperations Newsletter

The Interoperations Newsletter reports on the developments of interest for the disaster management community. Reader comments, questions, and notifications to cancel this newsletter can be forwarded directly to the Editor, Avagene Moore at (931) 762-4768, or the Responder Liaison, Scott Eyestone, at (540) 288-5622; or provided via the DMI-Services Web site at http://www.cmi-services.org/. Your feedback is welcome and appreciated.