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.“Build it and they will come …”
  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

DMIS Selected by NWS as Platform for New HazCollect System

Emergency managers need a fast, reliable way to inject emergency messages into the Emergency Alert System (EAS); however, no single technical solution has been federally mandated or locally selected to do this. The National Weather Service (NWS) hopes to resolve part of this dilemma by developing the All-Hazards Emergency Message Collection System, HazCollect. HazCollect will be a comprehensive solution for the centralized collection and efficient distribution of Non-Weather Emergency Messages (NWEMs), commonly known as Civil Emergency Messages or CEMs, to the NWS dissemination infrastructure, other national systems, and to the EAS. NWS received funding for HazCollect in its Fiscal Year 2004 budget to begin development of the HazCollect capability. HazCollect will leverage functionalities of FEMA’s DMIS, the NWS AWIPS infrastructure and the NWS operated public dissemination systems such as NOAA Weather Wire and NOAA Weather Radio (NWR).

Emergency managers will use the DMIS desktop client to write NWEMs in Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) and send them through DMIS for processing including authentication and authorization. DMIS will send authorized, authenticated messages to the HazCollect server for conversion to NWS format and dissemination through the existing NWS warning systems.

NWS has made significant strides in the development and implementation of HazCollect. Last winter, emergency manager comments on the HazCollect operational concept were used as input in the development of operational requirements. NWS and the International Association of Emergency Managers (IAEM) formed a working group to provide emergency manager input during the design and development of HazCollect. Work was officially assigned to three major development efforts in the HazCollect project:

• Battelle will develop the HazCollect central server system to interface with FEMA’s Disaster Management Interoperability Service (DMIS) and NWS’s communication infrastructure. Battelle will also verify DMIS meets HazCollect security requirements for user authentication and authorization and provide program management, operations and maintenance support.
  
• NOAA’s Forecast Systems Lab (FSL) will develop and modify Advanced Weather Interactive Processing System (AWIPS) code to ensure automated dissemination of non-weather emergency messages (NWEM) through the existing NWS communications infrastructure.
  
• Northrup Grumman Information Technology (NGIT) will develop necessary changes to the NWS AWIPS Network Control Facility system to ensure full system integration with the HazCollect central server and provide integration testing and technical support.

NWS expects to field deploy HazCollect in the fall and winter of 2005-2006. A limited system demonstration is planned for February 2005, with functional testing to follow in the summer of 2005, and operational testing and evaluation to occur in August and September 2005.

(Information on HazCollect provided by Lawrence Lehmann, HazCollect Program Manager, National Weather Service.)

DMIS Made JWID 2004 Success Stories’ and Top Performer's Lists

The Joint Warrior Interoperability Demonstration (JWID) is an annual Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff event with the international community to investigate command and control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance solutions. JWID 2004 welcomed US Northern Command (USNORTHCOM) as the host combatant command and the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) as the lead. USNORTHCOM invited agencies within the Department of Homeland Security to participate for the first time, including the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the US Coast Guard, and the National Guard Bureau. US Joint Forces Command assisted with select fielding of technologies to combatant commanders.

The June 14-25 event focused on helping the command meet the challenge of developing information-sharing capabilities between the Defense Department and civilian agencies through advancements in technology, tactics, procedures and policy. Under new standards, proposed solutions were to address requirements identified by the combatant commands, services and agencies and be sponsored by a government agency to participate in the event. The agency was responsible for ensuring that the technology is mature enough to be fielded within a year. Solutions that successfully completed the challenges of JWID are considered for fielding by the government sponsor, the services or U.S. Joint Forces Command on behalf of the combatant commands.

While the homeland security focus of JWID 2004 created broad opportunities to explore interoperability issues, it also created greater levels of complexity. This year’s event involved 25 countries, military services and government agencies that participated in a scripted scenario via a global network.

During JWID 2004, DMIS successfully demonstrated stated JWID objectives by providing interoperability infrastructure enabling information sharing among disparate automated systems supporting homeland defense and security. The DMIS Application Tool Suite provided basic responder tools to facilitate capture of the emergency incident common operation picture and enabled shared situational awareness throughout a response force. DMIS enabled civilians in the National Capitol Region (NCR) to receive and share important security event information from the military. As a result, DMIS is listed among the Success Stories of the JWID event with a notation stating that DMIS is the “proposed standard for the Department of Defense.” DMIS also made the Top Performer list based on assessment results and inputs from the USNORTHCOM, US Joint Forces Command and JWID Joint Management Office working group staffs.

The JWID 2004 Final Report is available at http://www.cwid.js.mil/c/extranet/home ; the Assessment Brief Booklet at https://www.cwid.js.mil/public/cwid05fr/pdffiles/briefs.pdf ; comments by DoD personnel using DMIS may be found in the Warfighter Comments paragraph at https://www.cwid.js.mil/public/cwid05fr/htmlfiles/u114war.html .

DMIS Special Interest Group Progress

The exploration of a DMIS Users Special Interest Group (SIG) was continued on Thursday January 6, 2005. The primary purpose of the meeting was to discuss the status of testing of the new release of DMIS and determine when members of the group will participate in the operational testing and evaluation (OTE). Work is well underway and the OTE will probably take place within the first two weeks of February. The group will meet again the first day of February.

Other DMIS Outreach Activities

• DM surveyed all Virginia DMIS COGs, updated contact information and compiled feedback on DMIS usage for a report to the Virginia Commonwealth First Responder Interoperability Committee.
• DM is working on a report comparing the Global Justice XML data model and the Emergency Data Exchange Language (EDXL) to illustrate how the two products complement each other and will work together.
• DM staff met recently with Department of Defense (DoD) Project Guardian Program Management. Project Guardian is looking to leverage DMIS capabilities at 35 DoD installations. DM is now confirming COG details, including points of contact, on communities surrounding those DoD installations.
• Last month, DM participated in the All Hazards Forum Conference and Exhibition in Baltimore MD. DMIS, DisasterHelp.Gov, and the (EDXL) “message wrapper” standard were demonstrated for conference attendees.
• The DM program met with representatives from the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to assess the use of the DMIS interoperability backbone with other software packages. The TSA currently uses WebEOC in their operations center; the DMIS interoperability backbone would enable WebEOC to share data with other incident management software applications connected to the backbone.
• DM met with the National Fire Protection Administration (NFPA) and the Institute of Medicine regarding their standards work and EDXL. The following groups have also been contacted about areas of work related to standards and EDXL:
  
  Association of Public Safety Communication Officials (APCO)
  National Emergency Numbers Association (NENA)
  Orange County Fire and Rescue

3. COG Manager's Corner

Happy New Year to you all! Your COG Manager continues to receive new DMIS COG registrations at a steady pace of three per day. Rather than experiencing a slowdown over the holidays, registrations seemed to increase somewhat possibly because emergency managers and first responders took advantage of a little more spare time to attend to administrative tasks. Our total COG count should reach 1130 by the time this article is published.

New Mexico and Connecticut are making good progress with their state rollouts of DMIS tools. The Responder Liaison Team will train New Mexico’s trainers at the end of this month. Connecticut has completed registering their five regional COGs (in addition to over 80 local COGs) and plans to have the DMIS Responder Liaison Team return to train its trainers in February.

The DMIS Project Team and Special Interest Advisory Group continue to work diligently towards developing a viable platform to support an active DMIS User Group. We hope to have more to report in that area by next month’s issue of Interoperations.

Please feel free to call or email Rick Hauschildt, DMIS COG Manager (540)288-5671.

DMIS Training for New Mexico State Personnel

The State of New Mexico is in the process of rolling out DMIS statewide. The next DMIS Train the Trainer class is scheduled January 25-27 at the Department of Public Safety, Office of Emergency Management, near Santa Fe. Interest in the training is strong due to DMIS use during exercises conducted at the 13th Annual Emergency Management Conference last September. (See article in October 2004 edition of Interoperations.)

5. DisasterHelp.gov Enhancements

What’s New at DisasterHelp.gov?

The Disaster Management E-Gov Initiative (DM) provided support and / or outreach as follows using DisasterHelp.Gov:

• US Fire Administration (USFA): bulk registration of 650 members of the American Ambulance Association, and 1450 members of the International Association of Emergency Managers (IAEM)
• Social Security Administration (SSA): Set up administrator permissions and provided PowerPoint presentation in preparation for January training
• FEMA: assisted Region 10 in Collaboration Center update
• Mitigation Outreach: helped Region 5 with registration and collaboration; spoke with representatives of METCAD 911 and the Clara Barton Center for Domestic Preparedness regarding user buy in
• EDXL: Discussed possibility of an EDXL page or document storage on DisasterHelp.gov
• Continued work on New Top Disasters Channels
• Updated Red Cross page with new Red Cross Headlines channel
• Assisted in outreach to recently verified DisasterHelp.gov users
• Requested updates to Seed URLs and Referral Records
• Addressed User Feedback

February 12-15, 2005: National Emergency Management Association (NEMA) 2005 Mid-Year Conference. The Capitol Hilton, Washington D.C. http://www.nemaweb.org

February 24-25, 2005: Medical Aspects of Consequence Management. Omni Shoreham Hotel, Washington DC. http://www.marketaccess.org/event_consmgmt.asp

February 25-27, 2005: International Association of Emergency Managers (IAEM)Mid-Year Meeting. National Emergency Training Center, Emmitsburg, MD. See http://www.iaem.com for details and registration.

March 8-10, 2005: Seventh Annual DOE/EFCOG Chemical Management Conference – Perspectives on Chemical Hazard Identification. Forrestal Auditorium, US Department of Energy, Washington, DC. No fee. Register via http://www.eh.doe.gov/chem_safety .

April 30-May 4, 2005: 2005 National Disaster Medical System (NDMS) Disaster Response Conference: Catastrophic Care for the Nation. Orlando Florida. For more information, see http://www.ndms.chepinc.org/ .

May 10-16, 2005: 14th World Congress on Disaster and Emergency Management. Sponsor: World Association for Disaster and Emergency Medicine Edinburgh, Scotland. E-mail info@wcdem2005.org; Web site http://www.wcdem2005.org/ .

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 EST. Please visit the EIIP Virtual Forum homepage http://www.emforum.org or subscribe to the EIIP Mail List via the Homepage to monitor our schedule for upcoming hot topics for the remainder of the year.

On Wednesday January 26, our speakers will be recent attendees of this month’s World Congress on Disaster Reduction (WCDR) in Kobe Japan. Walter Hays, Global Alliance for Disaster Reduction, University of North Carolina at Charlotte; Dr. Louise Comfort, Professor, Graduate School of Public and International Affairs, University of Pittsburgh; and others are invited to share their perspectives on the outcome of this global gathering of world disaster management leaders in light of the catastrophic tsunami disaster in southeastern Asia.

No advance registration or user account is required; use the Chat Login link under Quick Picks on the EIIP home page at http://www.emforum.org. NOTE: The Forum is using new chat software. Please check your connection prior to your first meeting with us; you may need to download the latest version of JAVA.

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

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. DMI-S 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.