The document discusses Canada's Multi-Agency Situational Awareness System (MASAS), which aims to simplify information sharing between emergency response agencies by providing a single system to share incident information in real-time, rather than through separate communication channels. MASAS uses an open architecture and standards to allow various response tools and agencies to share information on a common operating picture in order to improve coordination and response times. The system has gained recognition in Canada as a national priority for public safety and has expanded to include over 225 agencies and organizations.
Preparing for the Unexpected with The Town of East Haddam, CTEverbridge, Inc.
Craig Mansfield, the Emergency Management Director of East Haddam, Connecticut, discussed how his town uses the Everbridge emergency notification system. The system allows East Haddam to quickly send messages to over 3,000 residents via multiple channels. During Tropical Storm Irene in 2011, daily updates were sent achieving confirmation rates of 4-17%. The system helped coordinate response efforts and keep residents informed during the widespread power outage. East Haddam finds the system saves time and payroll costs compared to manual notifications. They are happy with Everbridge and how it improves emergency communication.
The Evolution of the Sahana System, Community and Standards @ Taiwan 2010Chamindra de Silva
The document summarizes the evolution of the Sahana system and community. It describes how Sahana started in response to the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami and how it has expanded to support other disasters globally through an open source community-driven model. Key points include how Sahana has addressed coordination challenges during disasters, its modular design approach, and examples of deployments in countries like Pakistan, Philippines, Indonesia, and China.
Prepare for conditions that exacerbate stress during and immediately after incidents
Integrate best practices into emergency planning
Manage hyper-stress for emergency communication responders
Sahana General 2009 Community And SystemTalkSahana
The document summarizes the evolution of the Sahana system and community from its origins responding to the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami to its development into a global open source disaster management platform. It describes how Sahana was initially built hastily during the tsunami crisis, then redesigned as a modular open source system to address common disaster problems and attract broader participation. It outlines key Sahana applications and how the system and community have continued to respond to new disaster needs and official government deployments around the world.
This document summarizes a presentation by Everbridge about its incident notification system and how it can help Promise Regional Medical Center - Hutchinson improve its STEMI alert protocol. Some key points:
- Everbridge is a leading provider of incident notification systems that can help healthcare organizations satisfy regulatory requirements for emergency response times.
- Promise Regional is seeking to replace its existing manual STEMI alert system with a new "swiss-army knife" notification solution to more quickly activate its heart team.
- Everbridge Aware allows Promise Regional to automate STEMI alerts through pre-recorded voice and text messages that notify staff via multiple contact paths until confirmation is received, helping to reduce response times.
- The
Emergency Management Magazine Jan Feb 2011Sonia Singh
This document is the January/February 2011 issue of Government Technology's Emergency Management magazine. The cover story discusses how domestic terrorism threats have forced law enforcement to focus more on preventing "homegrown" terrorism. Other articles examine underestimating the cyber threat to critical infrastructure, the role of emergency managers having multiple responsibilities, health risks of fire extinguishers in healthcare facilities, the impact of the Integrated Public Alert and Warning System, and responsible use of social media. The document also provides information on upcoming emergency management events.
1) Emergency notification solutions have evolved from early systems like the Emergency Broadcast System to current integrated systems that can notify people via multiple channels.
2) When selecting an emergency notification vendor, it is important to consider their support for mobile technologies and device-specific applications, as well as their ability to scale to handle high message volumes.
3) Future emergency notification systems will move beyond simple messaging to provide comprehensive emergency management and situational awareness across all phases of an incident.
Rene Grossrieder, Vice President of Worldwide Channels & Alliances and General Manager of International Operations at MIR3, presented on their Intelligent Notification software platform. The presentation provided an overview of MIR3's mass notification capabilities, customer success stories, the growing market opportunity, strategic partnership with Singlewire, and demonstration of their notification platform.
Preparing for the Unexpected with The Town of East Haddam, CTEverbridge, Inc.
Craig Mansfield, the Emergency Management Director of East Haddam, Connecticut, discussed how his town uses the Everbridge emergency notification system. The system allows East Haddam to quickly send messages to over 3,000 residents via multiple channels. During Tropical Storm Irene in 2011, daily updates were sent achieving confirmation rates of 4-17%. The system helped coordinate response efforts and keep residents informed during the widespread power outage. East Haddam finds the system saves time and payroll costs compared to manual notifications. They are happy with Everbridge and how it improves emergency communication.
The Evolution of the Sahana System, Community and Standards @ Taiwan 2010Chamindra de Silva
The document summarizes the evolution of the Sahana system and community. It describes how Sahana started in response to the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami and how it has expanded to support other disasters globally through an open source community-driven model. Key points include how Sahana has addressed coordination challenges during disasters, its modular design approach, and examples of deployments in countries like Pakistan, Philippines, Indonesia, and China.
Prepare for conditions that exacerbate stress during and immediately after incidents
Integrate best practices into emergency planning
Manage hyper-stress for emergency communication responders
Sahana General 2009 Community And SystemTalkSahana
The document summarizes the evolution of the Sahana system and community from its origins responding to the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami to its development into a global open source disaster management platform. It describes how Sahana was initially built hastily during the tsunami crisis, then redesigned as a modular open source system to address common disaster problems and attract broader participation. It outlines key Sahana applications and how the system and community have continued to respond to new disaster needs and official government deployments around the world.
This document summarizes a presentation by Everbridge about its incident notification system and how it can help Promise Regional Medical Center - Hutchinson improve its STEMI alert protocol. Some key points:
- Everbridge is a leading provider of incident notification systems that can help healthcare organizations satisfy regulatory requirements for emergency response times.
- Promise Regional is seeking to replace its existing manual STEMI alert system with a new "swiss-army knife" notification solution to more quickly activate its heart team.
- Everbridge Aware allows Promise Regional to automate STEMI alerts through pre-recorded voice and text messages that notify staff via multiple contact paths until confirmation is received, helping to reduce response times.
- The
Emergency Management Magazine Jan Feb 2011Sonia Singh
This document is the January/February 2011 issue of Government Technology's Emergency Management magazine. The cover story discusses how domestic terrorism threats have forced law enforcement to focus more on preventing "homegrown" terrorism. Other articles examine underestimating the cyber threat to critical infrastructure, the role of emergency managers having multiple responsibilities, health risks of fire extinguishers in healthcare facilities, the impact of the Integrated Public Alert and Warning System, and responsible use of social media. The document also provides information on upcoming emergency management events.
1) Emergency notification solutions have evolved from early systems like the Emergency Broadcast System to current integrated systems that can notify people via multiple channels.
2) When selecting an emergency notification vendor, it is important to consider their support for mobile technologies and device-specific applications, as well as their ability to scale to handle high message volumes.
3) Future emergency notification systems will move beyond simple messaging to provide comprehensive emergency management and situational awareness across all phases of an incident.
Rene Grossrieder, Vice President of Worldwide Channels & Alliances and General Manager of International Operations at MIR3, presented on their Intelligent Notification software platform. The presentation provided an overview of MIR3's mass notification capabilities, customer success stories, the growing market opportunity, strategic partnership with Singlewire, and demonstration of their notification platform.
Las obras del AVE en Barcelona han provocado pérdidas económicas significativas para los comerciantes de la zona debido a la disminución de clientes. Algunos negocios han tenido una reducción del 40% en las ventas y se han visto obligados a despedir personal. Los comerciantes piden algún tipo de compensación a las autoridades por los perjuicios económicos causados durante más de un año que durarán las obras.
Presentación del Colegio Profesional de Ingenieros Técnicos en Informática de Andalucía ante el Partido Socialista Obrero Español (PSOE) a fin de argumentar la necesidad, urgencia y oportunidad de regular la profesión de ingeniero técnico en informática en España
Este documento describe el nuevo Módulo de Atención al Cliente (MAS) que tiene como objetivo agilizar los trámites y pagos de los usuarios en un solo lugar. MAS tiene como misión ofrecer soluciones rápidas y eficaces para satisfacer las necesidades de los clientes utilizando tecnología avanzada y personal capacitado. Los objetivos generales incluyen brindar servicios que satisfagan a los clientes y tener ventaja sobre la competencia. El programa de atención al cliente se basa en reglas como sonreír, saludar cort
Med ett år på baken, og snart 150 aktive profiler, ser vi i GoMentor at etterspørselen for psykologhjelp gjennom portalen stadig vokser. GoMentor fungerer utmerket for psykologer som vil treffe private klienter. Her er noen slides som forklarer hva psykologer kan få ut av et samarbeid. Skriv en kort kommentar, så skal jeg finne en relevant referanse til deg som vurderer å knytte deg til GoMentor!
The document lists 49 projects that were shortlisted to receive funding under the 2010 IEE Call for Proposals. The projects focus on various areas including consumer behaviour, energy efficient transport, buildings, renewable electricity, bioenergy, local energy leadership, and renewable energy in buildings. Each project listing includes the project acronym, short description, coordinator, country, contact name and email.
The document summarizes the features and capabilities of a cloud-based POS system. It discusses how the system allows control and synchronization of data from a cloud server to local POS devices. The API supports synchronization of products, categories, taxes and other data. It emphasizes high security, real-time backups, fast support, 24/7 monitoring and smooth server updates.
Economical SEO Services offers a variety of SEO services including Google Panda and Penguin recovery, link building, online reputation management, on-page and off-page optimization, blog submissions, mobile SEO, local SEO, social media optimization, pay-per-click advertising, and online reputation management. Their services are aimed at improving a website's search engine rankings and visibility.
Living labs cómo ecosistemas de innovación social a través de la tecnologíaJorge García Valbuena
Living labs cómo ecosistemas de innovación social a través de la tecnología.
Presentación realizada en el Máster de Innovación Social e Industrias Creativas y Culturales de la Universidad del País Vasco.
El documento describe los conceptos clave de la gerencia de proyectos de tecnología educativa. Explica que el rol principal de un profesional es desarrollar proyectos mediante una excelente gestión que incluye elementos como un ciclo de vida completo del proyecto. Este ciclo de vida se establece de manera adecuada por los principales participantes del proyecto como el director del proyecto, el cliente, la organización ejecutora y los miembros del equipo.
Deleuze, gilles deseo y placer (traducido por javier sáez, en archipiélag...Diana Gomez
Este documento discute varios conceptos clave en los trabajos de Michel Foucault sobre el poder. El autor comienza analizando la tesis de Foucault sobre los dispositivos de poder en Vigilar y Castigar y La voluntad de saber. Luego propone su propio concepto de "disposiciones de deseo" para describir cómo circula el deseo en una sociedad. Finalmente, cuestiona la idea de Foucault de que una sociedad se "estrategiza" en lugar de contradecirse, argumentando que lo primero son las "líneas de f
Ningbo Fah.Thermometer Co.,Ltd is a Chinese manufacturer of various types of thermometers. It provides contact information including address, phone, fax, email and website. The document then lists specifications for over 20 different thermometer models, including dimensions, temperature ranges, materials, accuracy, and intended uses. Price ranges from $0.02 to $1.50 per unit depending on the model.
This document provides an overview of microcarrier cell culture principles and methods. Microcarriers allow for increased surface area for cell attachment and growth compared to traditional cell culture methods. They enable higher cell densities and product yields by separating cells from culture medium, improving process control and scalability. Various microcarrier types made from different materials are available for culturing different cell types like mammalian, insect and plant cells. Microcarriers are used to produce vaccines, proteins, antibodies and more in small-scale equipment like spinners and roller bottles as well as large-scale bioreactors like stirred tanks, packed beds and fluidized beds. Careful selection of microcarrier properties, culture conditions and control strategies are required to optimize microcarrier cell culture
Introducción al curso "comercial inteligente" @llberganzaLuis Berganza
El documento describe la importancia de las nuevas tecnologías y la información para los comerciales inteligentes. Explica que las empresas deben aprovechar las TICs para extender su mercado, reducir costos y mejorar su imagen, y que los comerciales deben saber usar la información y comunicarse bien con clientes y redes sociales.
Viruses, viroids, and prions are infectious agents that are not considered living organisms. Viruses contain genetic material inside a protein capsule and reproduce by inserting their DNA or RNA into host cells. Viroids are small pieces of RNA that lack a protein shell and can still infect plants. Prions are infectious proteins that damage other proteins they contact. These three agents cause many diseases but viruses can also be used to deliver beneficial genes or drugs to cells through viral vectors.
This document provides information about the Technology Ventures Corporation's Deal Stream Summit conference. The summit facilitates private investment partnerships between developers of emerging technologies from laboratories, the private sector, and investment community. Over the years, about 30% of companies presenting at the summit have received funding, fueling commercialization. The summit provides a platform for new technology presentations, keynotes, and panels. It is aimed at venture capitalists, corporate investors, startup executives, researchers, lab officials, and more. The program includes presentations on cellular services, medical devices, food safety technologies, and more. It also features a parade of technology posters from various DOE national laboratories.
Este documento describe un simulador para la familia profesional de Informática y Comunicaciones. El simulador tiene como objetivo identificar contenidos difíciles dentro del currículo de grado medio en Sistemas Microinformáticos y Redes y crear escenarios de aprendizaje. El simulador cubre temas como elementos de red, direcciones IP, configuración de adaptadores de red y seguridad básica en redes. El documento evalúa el simulador como altamente efectivo, relevante y funcional para los estudiantes.
Este documento resume la importancia de las remesas familiares para la economía mexicana entre 1990 y 2007. Algunos de los puntos clave son: 1) México fue el principal receptor de remesas en América Latina y el Caribe en 2006, captando $24,354 millones de dólares. 2) Entre 1990-2007, México recibió un total de $161,524.01 millones en remesas de Estados Unidos. 3) En 2007, las cinco entidades federativas que más remesas recibieron fueron Michoacán, Guanajuato,
El documento describe las características histológicas y funcionales del tejido óseo. El tejido óseo se compone de células óseas como los osteoblastos y osteoclastos inmersas en una matriz ósea rica en colágeno y sales minerales. Esta estructura le otorga dureza y resistencia mecánica al esqueleto. El tejido óseo se renueva constantemente mediante el proceso de remodelación ósea llevado a cabo por los osteoclastos y osteoblastos.
Designing an Effective Enterprise Search Solution Cognizant
For enterprise search requirements, we assess the Google Search Appliance along with SharePoint, social search, and AutoSuggest, in contrast to Apache Lucene and Solr.
How Do Get Police, Fire, Paramedics and Others to Share Information? Built T...ForgeRock
Presented by Darrell O'Donnell, P.Eng, President, Continuum Loop Inc. at ForgeRock Open Stack Identity Summit, June 2013
Learn more about ForgeRock Access Management:
https://www.forgerock.com/platform/access-management/
Learn more about ForgeRock Identity Management:
https://www.forgerock.com/platform/identity-management/
Las obras del AVE en Barcelona han provocado pérdidas económicas significativas para los comerciantes de la zona debido a la disminución de clientes. Algunos negocios han tenido una reducción del 40% en las ventas y se han visto obligados a despedir personal. Los comerciantes piden algún tipo de compensación a las autoridades por los perjuicios económicos causados durante más de un año que durarán las obras.
Presentación del Colegio Profesional de Ingenieros Técnicos en Informática de Andalucía ante el Partido Socialista Obrero Español (PSOE) a fin de argumentar la necesidad, urgencia y oportunidad de regular la profesión de ingeniero técnico en informática en España
Este documento describe el nuevo Módulo de Atención al Cliente (MAS) que tiene como objetivo agilizar los trámites y pagos de los usuarios en un solo lugar. MAS tiene como misión ofrecer soluciones rápidas y eficaces para satisfacer las necesidades de los clientes utilizando tecnología avanzada y personal capacitado. Los objetivos generales incluyen brindar servicios que satisfagan a los clientes y tener ventaja sobre la competencia. El programa de atención al cliente se basa en reglas como sonreír, saludar cort
Med ett år på baken, og snart 150 aktive profiler, ser vi i GoMentor at etterspørselen for psykologhjelp gjennom portalen stadig vokser. GoMentor fungerer utmerket for psykologer som vil treffe private klienter. Her er noen slides som forklarer hva psykologer kan få ut av et samarbeid. Skriv en kort kommentar, så skal jeg finne en relevant referanse til deg som vurderer å knytte deg til GoMentor!
The document lists 49 projects that were shortlisted to receive funding under the 2010 IEE Call for Proposals. The projects focus on various areas including consumer behaviour, energy efficient transport, buildings, renewable electricity, bioenergy, local energy leadership, and renewable energy in buildings. Each project listing includes the project acronym, short description, coordinator, country, contact name and email.
The document summarizes the features and capabilities of a cloud-based POS system. It discusses how the system allows control and synchronization of data from a cloud server to local POS devices. The API supports synchronization of products, categories, taxes and other data. It emphasizes high security, real-time backups, fast support, 24/7 monitoring and smooth server updates.
Economical SEO Services offers a variety of SEO services including Google Panda and Penguin recovery, link building, online reputation management, on-page and off-page optimization, blog submissions, mobile SEO, local SEO, social media optimization, pay-per-click advertising, and online reputation management. Their services are aimed at improving a website's search engine rankings and visibility.
Living labs cómo ecosistemas de innovación social a través de la tecnologíaJorge García Valbuena
Living labs cómo ecosistemas de innovación social a través de la tecnología.
Presentación realizada en el Máster de Innovación Social e Industrias Creativas y Culturales de la Universidad del País Vasco.
El documento describe los conceptos clave de la gerencia de proyectos de tecnología educativa. Explica que el rol principal de un profesional es desarrollar proyectos mediante una excelente gestión que incluye elementos como un ciclo de vida completo del proyecto. Este ciclo de vida se establece de manera adecuada por los principales participantes del proyecto como el director del proyecto, el cliente, la organización ejecutora y los miembros del equipo.
Deleuze, gilles deseo y placer (traducido por javier sáez, en archipiélag...Diana Gomez
Este documento discute varios conceptos clave en los trabajos de Michel Foucault sobre el poder. El autor comienza analizando la tesis de Foucault sobre los dispositivos de poder en Vigilar y Castigar y La voluntad de saber. Luego propone su propio concepto de "disposiciones de deseo" para describir cómo circula el deseo en una sociedad. Finalmente, cuestiona la idea de Foucault de que una sociedad se "estrategiza" en lugar de contradecirse, argumentando que lo primero son las "líneas de f
Ningbo Fah.Thermometer Co.,Ltd is a Chinese manufacturer of various types of thermometers. It provides contact information including address, phone, fax, email and website. The document then lists specifications for over 20 different thermometer models, including dimensions, temperature ranges, materials, accuracy, and intended uses. Price ranges from $0.02 to $1.50 per unit depending on the model.
This document provides an overview of microcarrier cell culture principles and methods. Microcarriers allow for increased surface area for cell attachment and growth compared to traditional cell culture methods. They enable higher cell densities and product yields by separating cells from culture medium, improving process control and scalability. Various microcarrier types made from different materials are available for culturing different cell types like mammalian, insect and plant cells. Microcarriers are used to produce vaccines, proteins, antibodies and more in small-scale equipment like spinners and roller bottles as well as large-scale bioreactors like stirred tanks, packed beds and fluidized beds. Careful selection of microcarrier properties, culture conditions and control strategies are required to optimize microcarrier cell culture
Introducción al curso "comercial inteligente" @llberganzaLuis Berganza
El documento describe la importancia de las nuevas tecnologías y la información para los comerciales inteligentes. Explica que las empresas deben aprovechar las TICs para extender su mercado, reducir costos y mejorar su imagen, y que los comerciales deben saber usar la información y comunicarse bien con clientes y redes sociales.
Viruses, viroids, and prions are infectious agents that are not considered living organisms. Viruses contain genetic material inside a protein capsule and reproduce by inserting their DNA or RNA into host cells. Viroids are small pieces of RNA that lack a protein shell and can still infect plants. Prions are infectious proteins that damage other proteins they contact. These three agents cause many diseases but viruses can also be used to deliver beneficial genes or drugs to cells through viral vectors.
This document provides information about the Technology Ventures Corporation's Deal Stream Summit conference. The summit facilitates private investment partnerships between developers of emerging technologies from laboratories, the private sector, and investment community. Over the years, about 30% of companies presenting at the summit have received funding, fueling commercialization. The summit provides a platform for new technology presentations, keynotes, and panels. It is aimed at venture capitalists, corporate investors, startup executives, researchers, lab officials, and more. The program includes presentations on cellular services, medical devices, food safety technologies, and more. It also features a parade of technology posters from various DOE national laboratories.
Este documento describe un simulador para la familia profesional de Informática y Comunicaciones. El simulador tiene como objetivo identificar contenidos difíciles dentro del currículo de grado medio en Sistemas Microinformáticos y Redes y crear escenarios de aprendizaje. El simulador cubre temas como elementos de red, direcciones IP, configuración de adaptadores de red y seguridad básica en redes. El documento evalúa el simulador como altamente efectivo, relevante y funcional para los estudiantes.
Este documento resume la importancia de las remesas familiares para la economía mexicana entre 1990 y 2007. Algunos de los puntos clave son: 1) México fue el principal receptor de remesas en América Latina y el Caribe en 2006, captando $24,354 millones de dólares. 2) Entre 1990-2007, México recibió un total de $161,524.01 millones en remesas de Estados Unidos. 3) En 2007, las cinco entidades federativas que más remesas recibieron fueron Michoacán, Guanajuato,
El documento describe las características histológicas y funcionales del tejido óseo. El tejido óseo se compone de células óseas como los osteoblastos y osteoclastos inmersas en una matriz ósea rica en colágeno y sales minerales. Esta estructura le otorga dureza y resistencia mecánica al esqueleto. El tejido óseo se renueva constantemente mediante el proceso de remodelación ósea llevado a cabo por los osteoclastos y osteoblastos.
Designing an Effective Enterprise Search Solution Cognizant
For enterprise search requirements, we assess the Google Search Appliance along with SharePoint, social search, and AutoSuggest, in contrast to Apache Lucene and Solr.
How Do Get Police, Fire, Paramedics and Others to Share Information? Built T...ForgeRock
Presented by Darrell O'Donnell, P.Eng, President, Continuum Loop Inc. at ForgeRock Open Stack Identity Summit, June 2013
Learn more about ForgeRock Access Management:
https://www.forgerock.com/platform/access-management/
Learn more about ForgeRock Identity Management:
https://www.forgerock.com/platform/identity-management/
Connect & Protect is an advanced information sharing service that allows government agencies and organizations to securely share sensitive information during crises. It aggregates data from various online sources and allows authorized users to set up communities to exchange information. The service was tested in Sweden with participation from emergency responders. Evaluations found that a system like Connect & Protect can effectively enable cross-organization information sharing needed to manage emergencies, by addressing issues like building trust between information owners and users.
MG Stephen Gross (USAFR) NEER IPT Chair Deputy Director Deloitte & Touche Center for Cyber Innovation Using a Cloud Computing Model to Establish Net-Enabled Emergency Response (NEER) Core Services
Knowledge Management in the Department of Defensejoannhague
The document discusses knowledge management (KM) in the Department of Defense (DoD). It provides definitions of knowledge and KM, and outlines the importance of KM for the DoD. The presentation covers the various KM tools and platforms used across the different branches of the military, including the Air Force Knowledge Now portal. It emphasizes that the future of KM is now, with new technologies like blogs, wikis and cloud computing playing a key role. The presentation encourages continuing the journey of KM.
The document discusses how information security practitioners are overburdened due to the increasing complexity of technologies and rate of change. It proposes forming "Infosec Trust Groups" where organizations in the same sector or region can share resources and intelligence to help specialize skills, increase efficiency, and reduce costs. Working together in these groups could help address issues like staff shortages and help turn raw intelligence into more actionable threat analysis.
Cloud Security: Trust and TransformationPeter Coffee
Common concerns regarding cloud security are increasingly being recognized as speculative cases, compared to the reality of how IT governance often fails in traditional on-premise environments: failure modes that the cloud model greatly offsets
Mobile collaboration tools can help improve disaster response efforts. The document discusses challenges with collaboration during crises like slow networks and lack of information sharing. It introduces four free and open-source mobile tools created to help address gaps: Mesh4X for data synchronization, GeoChat for location-based messaging, and mobile forms for collecting field data. The tools aim to facilitate real-time information exchange, analysis, and coordinated response during emergencies. The document also reflects on design principles for collaboration tools and ensuring broad adoption beyond just crisis scenarios.
Rethinking Disaster Prepardness to Leverage Resources in a Cloud and Mobile World: Presentation given at the 2012 Tennessee Higher Education Symposium (THEITS) - In many respects the disaster recovery plans of today are based upon the environments of old where commodity hardware, cloud resources and mobile devices didn’t exist. In November of 2011 the Tennessee Board of Regents office became the first public higher education organization to move its ERP system to the cloud by having it hosted at the state’s new data center. The following January, state auditors came on site to perform a routine biennial audit. The audit process included an information systems and disaster recovery component which led to a complete rethinking of disaster recovery in the new environment. This presentation chronicled the issues of moving mission critical systems to the cloud and how cloud resources from various sources coupled with mobile devices can be incorporated for cost effective disaster recovery planning.
- Basic concepts, a changing threat landscape, security intelligence methodology, the intelligence organization, metrics and effectiveness, automation of intelligence processes are discussed.
- Security intelligence involves gathering, evaluating, correlating and interpreting information to reduce uncertainty and enable decision making. The intelligence cycle includes direction, collection, processing, and dissemination.
- Threats have evolved from defacement to complex targeted attacks exploiting vulnerabilities. Intelligence collection targets both internal and external sources to understand evolving threats.
- Automation is being used to help with collection, analysis, and hypothesis generation, but human analysis and judgment remain important aspects of the intelligence process.
As correctional facilities adopt an expanding technology platform to improve operations, facility management and correctional education, new modes of risk are continuing to grow. NDY associate Travis Chehab was a featured speaker at the 2015 Prisons Conference where he presented on the Australian Government Information Security Manual (ISM).
Steve Parker - The Internet of Everything: Cyber-defense in an Age of Ubiquit...EnergySec
This document discusses the growing threat of cyber attacks on internet-connected devices and infrastructure in the age of the Internet of Things. It notes that as more devices are connected, there are more potential pathways for attacks. The document explores how cyber attacks could be used to support traditional attacks by disrupting critical services like power, water, communications, and GPS. It also discusses challenges like protecting everything, prioritizing critical systems, building resiliency through redundancy and recovery plans, and managing dependencies on external factors outside an organization's control. Finally, it considers scenarios for potential cyber attacks to disrupt electric power, airlines, manufacturing and other sectors.
This document provides a whirlwind tour of big data, security, and cloud computing. It begins by looking back at where technology has been, from mainframes to client-server models to virtualization. It then examines the present state of early decentralization and a focus on cost-cutting and flexibility. Looking ahead, it discusses the future of commodity-based computing and storage and the need to revise governance. The document emphasizes that security is not one-size-fits-all and should be tied to risk tolerance policies. It stresses the importance of standards, privacy, and continual adaptation to vulnerabilities. In the end, it summarizes that cloud, big data, and security require balancing tolerance to risk with strong governance and adaptability
Symantec is a global leader in digital protection, providing comprehensive security and availability solutions to protect digital infrastructures, information, and interactions from emerging threats. It protects consumers, small/medium businesses, and large enterprises through over 150 integrated solutions. Symantec has evolved from desktop antivirus to safeguarding all digital assets through its global network, and aims to inspire trust and freedom in the digital world.
Preventing The Next Data Breach Through Log ManagementNovell
The document discusses how log management can be used for prevention, detection, and investigation of security incidents and data breaches. It explains that log management provides transparency by collecting logs from across an organization's IT infrastructure in a central location. This allows security teams to discover misconfigurations, unauthorized access attempts, and other anomalies that could indicate potential threats or actual security breaches. The document advocates for taking a preventative approach to security by using log data to monitor user activity and identity risks. It also promotes investing in security intelligence capabilities like security monitoring, analytics, and automated remediation.
The document summarizes lessons learned about crisis communication from the September 11th attacks and discusses how communication has changed in the past 10 years. It notes that mobile technology and social media have significantly advanced, creating new challenges and opportunities for crisis notification. While regulation and preparedness have improved, fully addressing human factors and meeting evolving public expectations remains difficult. The presentation concludes by emphasizing the importance of testing emergency response plans that incorporate modern communication strategies and channels.
OEM Presentation - IA and Emergency ResponseNoreen Whysel
An introduction to Information Architecture and Emergency Response technologies presented at the NYC Office of Emergency Management for the Women's History Month Breakfast. This presentation is a companion to my IA Summit presentation Information Architecture and Emergency Response, which goes into more detail on the kinds of technologies used in Emergency Response.
REDUCING CYBER EXPOSURE From Cloud to Containersartseremis
REDUCING CYBER EXPOSURE From Cloud to Containers
(Sponsored by tenable)
Lessons Learned by Industry Leaders.
- Securing a Dynamic IT Environment.
- Rethinking Security for a Cloud Environment.
- Moving Security to the Application Layer.
- Focusing on Data Security.
- Automating Security Testing and Controls.
Where worlds collide: Agile, Project Management, Risk and Cloud?Livingstone Advisory
The new CIO is expected to be truly agile, deliver transformational value using new technology based services and have a deep understanding of, and engagement with the business – all whilst managing and mitigating risks. In addition to this, the CIO is also expected to be a ‘business partner’ in the real sense of the word. On top of these factors, Cloud is often seen in the eyes of business as a metaphor for timely change, and a convenient ‘get out of jail’ card in their push to lower IT cost, and collapse IT project lead times.
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1. Canada’s Multi-Agency Situational
Awareness System – Keeping it Simple
March 29 2012
Jack Pagotto P.Eng MEngMgmt
Head/Emergency Management &
Systems Interoperability S&T
Centre for Security Science
2. OUTLINE
• Who we are (2 slides only – we have a booth!)
• Our call to action… information silos cost lives!
• The Complex Problem & The MASAS Simple Solution
• Transforming Information Flows
• Key Ingredients to success
• Future Research
• 5 min video (if time & technology permits)
2
3. Centre for Security Science
Vision:
“S&T Excellence for a Safe and Secure
Canada”
Mission:
“Strengthen Canada’s ability to prevent,
prepare, respond and recover from acts
of terrorism, crime, natural disasters and
serious accidents through the
convergence of S&T with Policy, Ops &
Intelligence”
(Canada’s equivalent to Department of Homeland Security S&T)
3
4. Centre for Security Science
• Scientific Trusted
Advisor (agency neutral)
• Assess technology
trends, threats, and
opportunities
• Engage industrial,
academic and
international partners to
transition S&T to
operationalize national
capabilities (fix national
capability gaps)
• COME TO OUR BOOTH!
5. First Responder Requirements were our call to action…
NB Brady Report
2009
Inability to share reliable
SARNIA - SNOWMAGEDDON 2010
incident information quickly
with 1st responders:
• delays response time
• risks lives/property
• wastes resources
5
6. The Complex Problem…
• The “fear factor” on real-time sharing
Emergency Management information …
– Information release to public is process-sensitive;
• Non-interoperable information systems
– Intellectual Property Protected Tools + Frailty of Incident
Management Tools sector
• Complexity and maintenance of inter-agency
sharing agreements
6
7. For every complex problem there is a
simple solution ….
…. unfortunately it is almost always
the wrong solution.
Simplify the problem to simplify the
solution.
7
8. Simplify the problem to simplify the solution.
Eliminate inefficient & unmanageable Share it once with all...rather
information flows… than repeatedly with many
Incidents
s
re
Ea
fi
rt h
ild
qua
W
k es
YOU YOU
h er CBRNE
W eat
ROAD CLOSURES
<NIEM> 2-MIN VIDEO
ILLUSTRATING THE SAME PROBLEM
AS SHOWN ABOVE LEFT.
FROM WWW.NIEM.GOV (NATIONAL
INFORMATION EXCHANGE MODEL)
8
9. From: “restrict what we share”
To: “restrict what we don’t share”.
Restricted access Hub:
“the break-out room”
Road MOST INFO OF
closures, INTEREST TO
severe weather, EMERGENCY
check points, MANAGERS
area of operation,
IS NOT
command posts, plumes,
SENSITIVE!
evacuation zone, shelter
water stations, shelter status,
staging area, Supply depot, live
cameras, media events, sensors,
sitreps, earthquakes, space weather,
...
9
10. Our design philosophy...
• OPEN STANDARDS AND ARCHITECTURE (CAP,
ATOM ..)
• OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE (CLEAN, HIGH QUALITY
CODE)
• PROVIDE A DEVELOPERS SANDBOX – OPEN TO
ALL
• SIMPLE, RELIABLE AND DISASTER RESILIENT
HUBS
• DO NOT COMPETE WITH COMMERCIAL TOOLS
• WORK WITH EXISTING TOOLS or USE OUR FREE
TOOLS
11. MA-SA-S
Multi-Agency
• Local, regional, provincial/territorial, federal, first nations, & US partners.
• Non-government organizations, Search & Rescue, Military.
• Utilities, critical infrastructure managers, critical commercial service providers,
• FIRST RESPONDERS, emergency management, transportation, health, public
works, utilities, education, ... ALL PUBLIC SAFETY EMERGENCY
MANAGEMENT RELEVANT OFFICIALS & ENTRUSTED PARTNERS
Situational Awareness
• Dynamic, current, transient, event-related geospatial information
• For use with base maps, thematic maps, and other information
• For routine use every day, rapidly scalable to support major incidents.
System (of systems)
• Open architecture: GIS, incident management, dispatch, ...
• Open standards: Messaging, documents, geospatial, ...
11
12. MASAS =
Multi-Agency Situational Awareness System
‘Canada’s National Real-Time Incident Map’
• AUTHORITATIVE (trustable) INFORMATION
• REAL-TIME
• LOCATION-BASED
• INCIDENT and TYPE–RELEVANT FILTERABLE
• Multi-Agency (Emergency Mgmt partners)
• Multi-Level (fed/prov-territory/municipal/…)
• Nationally recognized/endorsed.
13. MASAS … a rapidly evolving national
capability.
225
Interest, Demand, Dollars
agencies
registered
users (Oct
2011-April
2012)
2007 Time 2010 2012
14. MASAS Nationally Recognized as a
“Canadian Public Safety Priority”
• National Strategy January 2011
– Approved by all Fed/Prov-Territorial
Ministers
• Identifies MASAS as a national
priority
14
15. CA-US Public Safety Priority
Beyond the Border
Action Plan
Page 25: “The second working group will focus on cross-border interoperability
as a means of harmonizing cross-border emergency communications efforts. It
will pursue activities that promote the harmonization of the Canadian
Multi-Agency Situational Awareness System with the United States
Integrated Public Alert and Warning System to enable sharing of
alert, warning, and incident information to improve response
coordination during binational disasters. Specifically, this working group will...”
15
17. Simple Open-Hub Architecture
Compatible with all commercial tools
MASAS Firewall Firewall MASAS
Basic Basic
Toolset Ops Toolset
Your Their
Your Their
Tool
Your Exer Tool
Their
Tool Tool
sTool cise sTool
s s
s s
Train
ESRI, EmerGeo, ing Incident management,
Interdev, Sentinel, IHS, mapping, dispatch,
CriSys, Command View, consoles, tablets,
IDV, MyStateUSA, smartphones, sensors,
SharePoint, Hazus, …, digital radio, …
basic MASAS tools
17
18. Challenge with email, fax, phone calls
EMAIL
Date: _________
To: _________
From: _______
CC: _______
BC: _______
Importance: __
PC Subject: Mac
________________
Body: What, where,
why, how bad, until
when, ...
UNSTRUCTURED INFORMATION = INFORMATION OVERLOAD
18
19. Focus is on connections and
structured information
Firewall
Content types: Alerts (CAP), doc, pdf, jpg, etc.
fa
Handshake
dfafa h
dfas kj
sdas hlkjhkjh jj
jj
fafhh khkhjhk
k hkh
Envelope
• From
•
Actual/Test/Exercis
e
MASAS Connection (API) • Category, Event
• Location Label
• Severity
• Content type 19
Similar to a newsfeed.
20. Structure defined by open standards
• Common Alerting Protocol (CAP)
• OASIS - Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards
• Recognized by United Nations – International Telecommunications Union (ITU)
• One of family of Emergency Data Exchange Language (EDXL) standards
– Canadian Profile of CAP (CAP-CP)
• Defines rules for Canadian implementations
– Mandates inclusion of an event and location code
– Limits each alert to only one event type
• Visit www.CAP-CP.ca for documents and more information
• Atom GeoRSS
• Atom is a universal publishing standard for web content. Ex. News feeds
• GeoRSS provides geographic context
20
22. CAP’s common threat assessment
Urgency
“Immediate” - Responsive action SHOULD be taken immediately
“Expected” - Responsive action SHOULD be taken soon (within next hour)
“Future” - Responsive action SHOULD be taken in the near future
“Past” - Responsive action is no longer required
“Unknown” - Urgency not known
Severity
“Extreme” - Extraordinary threat to life or property
“Severe” - Significant threat to life or property
“Moderate” - Possible threat to life or property
“Minor” - Minimal to no known threat to life or property
“Unknown” - Severity unknown
Certainty
“Observed” – Determined to have occurred or to be ongoing
“Likely” - Likely (p > ~50%)
“Possible” - Possible but not likely (p <= ~50%)
“Unlikely” - Not expected to occur (p ~ 0)
“Unknown” - Certainty unknown
22
23. CAP enables automatic message generation …
“This is a” (CAP-CP EVENT TYPE) “alert for” (CAP-CP LOCATION)
“issued by” (CAP SENDER), “effective until” (CAP EXPIRE
TIME).
“There is an “(CAP SEVERITY FACTOR) threat to life or property”.
“Responsive action should be taken... (CAP URGENCY FACTOR).”
“You should” (CAP RESPONSE TYPE)”.
This is a TORNADO alert for CALGARY
issued by NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE,
effective until 7PM. There is an IMMINENT
threat to life or property. You should take
cover immediately.”
23
24. … including very short
message formats …
Ver y Shor t Messa ge (RSS Title, Inter net
Headline)
• Critical Alert – Flash Flood – Mar 06, 2012 at 03:52PM
Shor t Messa ge (e.g. TXT messages,
Twitter)
• Flash Flood Alert Mar06 0352PM Take necessary precautions.
Drayton Valley http://emergencyalert.alberta.ca #ableg
24
26. Multi-Agency SITUATIONAL AWARENESS
3 Pillars of Situational Awareness
What is Why do I What do I
happening? care? do about it?
“As much as 88% of human error in response to an incident
is due to problems with situation awareness.”
Dr. M. Endsley
26
27. MASAS-X Priority – Get Information Flowing
MASAS Information eXchange
27
28. MASAS Information Flow
FILTER INFORMATION f
AUTHORITATIVE, Action/Monitor/Ignore
TRUSTED, Automated or Manual
UNCLASSIFIED
INFORMATION
29. Transforming Information Flow
Legend
Single
Entity
… while reporting protocols remain intact
Coordinating
Group
Agency 1 Agency2
Federal 2
Federal
EOC
EOC EOC
EOC
Regional P/T
EMO
Regional
Regiona
Regiona
l
Regional
Regiona
(P/T) EOC
Office
l Office Office
l Office
Local EOC
First
Responder
Field
External
Social Crowd
(Non- News
Media Sourcing
Authoritative
Community)
34. Ease of Use - Disaster Proven
Spring Flooding 201
•Province of Manitoba
•City of Brandon
•Small Communities
•Canadian Military
Workcrew note: “Do not
Emergent behaviour… drain breech – it is providing
backpressure to dike wall”
Notes on posted alerts
were used to share
information to
work shift crews.
34
36. MASAS community is growing quickly...
• All federal EOC’s
• Public Safety, RCMP National Operations Center, CF Command View,
Transport Canada Situation Center, Environment Canada, ...
• All provinces and territories
• Various stages of up-take
• Many municipalities, regions
• EM, police, fire, EMS
• NGO’s, Critical Infrastructure (Nuclear plants etc)
• Ex. Windsor University, Red Cross, Bruce Power, ...
• Many EM and GIS tool vendors
• Content providers
• Environment Canada, Earthquakes Canada, Canadian Space Weather,
36
38. … build the hub and they will come
• Limitless number/type of national sources of
valuable information that are being interfaced
– Sensors (stream level, bridge strain
sensors, radiation/chemical sensors)
– Broad-area alerts
• Solar Flares affect massive areas of Canada
• Flood polygons
– Road status
– Long-range weather products for EM
– Many more emerging
38
39. MASAS and Solar Flare Alerts
• offers opportunity to feed Solar Flare Alerts
into Emergency Managers across country
seamlessly
• Filterable messages … ‘only let me know
when a serious solar storm is happening’…
• Enables national CI owners/managers to
‘contribute observations to a common
national map of alerts’.
39
40. MASAS and Solar Flare Alerts
Space weather forecast:
Based on data from multiple inputs.
Updated every 15 mintues.
Posted on web site and RSS.
Feed into MASAS alerts
41. Activity level CAP Severity
to
Major Storm = SEVERE M
A
S
Stormy = MODERATE A
S
Active, Unsettled, Quiet = MINOR
0 3 6 9 12 15 18 21 24 27 30 33 36 39 42 45 48 51 54
43. MASAS VIDEO CLIP <6min>
1) Integration with BC Emergency Management (4min)
2) Integration with FEMA Integrated Public Alerts & Warnings
System (IPAWS) (2 min)
44. Success = …?
Sat 2012-03-17 4:45 PM - ACTUAL EMAIL FROM EMERGENCY MGMT OFFICIAL:
“We have evacuation planning software that calculates populations and provides best routing of
evacuees to shelters. This tool was developed for us for nuclear emergencies with con joined threats
such as hurricanes or storm surges that might constrain evacuation operations.
I picked an area for evacuation and generated a map with routes to shelters. I then created a
masas entry and embedded a link to the public information site and attached the
evacuation map. This took all of 5 minutes from start to finish at home on my RIM
Playbook.
Looking ahead to our upcoming nuclear exercise authorized users in our EOCs and emergency services
in the field will be able to get essential information off the map, essentially in real time.
A written plan sent via email might take an hour; a situation report might update those
paying attention only hours later. This approach helps us distribute critical information
to all those with a need to know in near real time. We will continue to build a user
community and culture around this capability.
Lots of positive comments from the players, our ops, comms and Int units, DND, RCMP and many
others.”
44
45. For more information
and/or to become a
MASAS-X Participant
Visit www.MASAS-X.ca
Jack.pagotto@drdc-rddc.gc.ca
45
Editor's Notes
Bonjour toute le monde, Good morning Everybody – On behalf of the federal government of Canada if I can be so presumptious, I’d like to welcome our international guests in this important area of Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management. I’d like to thank the organizers for inviting me – brian Fisher, john Dill and others – I spend a lot of time briefing this topic amongst emergency managers and first responders, and with a diverse group of engineers in the tool development world – but I think this is the first time we’ve had a chance to air our MASAS system in front of such an academically strong group of scientists. A little bit intimidating but I truly welcome the challenge. I look forward to interacting with you and hopefully exchanging some ideas and maybe even research opportunities for where we can go with this in the future – as a funding agency for research – I invite you to consider some of the possibilities that we see this technology is making possible in a short time- that is rather unique.
So this is my outline for what I want to subject you all to this morning – I think I have an interesting story to tell you, I am extremely proud and excited about the rapid progress we have had in Canada in relation to enhancing Situational Awareness amongst Emergency Managers. I will touch on my program very briefly – because as you may have noticed we have a booth setup in the atrium and I welcome you to drop by and find out more about the Centre for Security Science. While here in Canada we have not “had our Katrina or our 9/11” yet, I do think key incidents can be catalysts for taking action and I will point to a couple of recent ones that I believe played a role in moving us forward. My overall theme is about how we decomplexed the problem of information sharing so that a simple solution can make a difference.I believe we owe our success to some fairly strategic decisions we employed and I’ll go over those. Finally I hope I will end off my talk with enough of a picture of how a system like MASAS can provide an information resource that can lead to innovation - by this I mean new capabilities that can harvest this real-time resource of trustable “what is happening now” information to provide enhanced decision support. Last but not least – if we do have time and technology permits – I’ll flash up a very short video clip that we have put together on MASAS.
The Centre for Security Science is a federally funded program whose mission is to engage S&T along with considerations of policy, operations and intelligence in strengthening Canada’s ability to deal with natural disasters and all forms of malicious threat. While we are by no means funded to the same level, we see ourselves as quite similar in mandate and focus as the Department of Homeland Security S&T, and in fact have a treaty where we do quite a bit of close collaboration – after all for those of you that are not familiar with Canadian geography – it may be of interest to know that 75% of the Canadian population resides within an hours drive of the US border.
Our centre is actually affiliated with the larger Defence R&D Canada agency which has 5 sister centers across the country as shown here. Again in the interest of time I won’’t dwell on what our programs cover in relation to disaster mitigation but invite you to drop by our booth and you should find that we are funding research in almost all areas that you can imagine that are relevant to crisis management.
So as I alluded in my opening, while we have not had our Katrina yet, I would like to mention two significant and relatively recent events that I believe served as somewhat of a catalyst or ‘call to action’ by our Centre for Security Science in terms of pushing forward to enhance information sharing for emergencies in Canada. The first and probably most poignant event occurred a few years ago during an annual spring flood seasons in New Brunswick. One afternoon a 911 call came in from a young girl who was home alone with her 16 year old asthmatic brother who had gone into respiratory distress. An ambulance was dispatched for what should have been a 10-15 minute response time. However enroute to the farmhouse the ambulance encountered a washed out back road and had to backup and try another route only to find that it too had been washed out. By the time the ambulance had found the only accessible route 54 minutes passed and the boy passed away. Meanwhile, unbeknownst to the dispatch center or the drivers of the ambulance, information on road closures were in fact available on a web site maintained by the ministry of highways with a long list of alphabetically and numerically listed road closures. Following a public inquiry known as the Brady Report, it was decided that New Brunswick would take pro-active measures to prevent this sort of instance from ever happening again just because left hand did not know what right hand knew. The National Resources Canada Geoconnections program funded the first prototype of the Multi-Agency Situational Awareness System shortly after this incident. Today New Brunswick continues to lead the country in its pro-active application of MASAS and as I will show you in my talk – they have truly empowered themselves with this tool. The second example that caught our attention happened a couple of years ago during a freak snowstorm off the east coast of Lake Huron that dumped in excess of 100 cm of snow in less than 36 hours in the small county of Lambton and the city of Sarnia. Over 200 vehicles were stranded on the highway for up to 48 hours with temperatures plumetting below -20C. A wide variety of agencies responded including military helicopters – however after action reports illustrated how poor information sharing was resulting in very inefficient response – with some vehicles being checked on repeatedly by various agencies while others were never visited even once. There was also an incident of an ambulance being dispatched to evacuate a pregnant mother only to find that after an hour long trip to get to her that a military helicopter had already taken her away half an hour previously. As a result the counties of Lambton and the city of Sarnia is one of the most pro-active regions in Canada for the uptake of MASAS – they also happen to have the highest risk area in Canada with over 20 sq. km of refineries.
So I’d like to take a moment here and consider the complexity of the information sharing problem. I believe a key aspect is what I will call the ‘fear factor’ associated with rapid real-time sharing of information during a crisis. In Canada the release of information to the public during a crisis is the responsibility of the province or territory. Each province is a little bit different in how they manage this release and experience has shown that various policy issues impose a significant burden on information sharing if the public are involved. A second factor is the inescapable reality that many commercial information systems are not as interoperable as vendor advertising would like us to believe. I have observed over the past 5 years the frailty of this sector as evidence by 3 leading tool vendors going bankrupt in the past two years alone. In many cases leaving a province ‘holding the bag’ so to speak with a tool that is no longer supported. It really is not sufficient to say that a tool with open standards is interoperable – there are many examples where open standards were in themselves not sufficient to allow incident management tools to talk to each other. Finally where peer to peer information sharing agreements are required to link crisis management systems, the complexity and cost of maintaining this labrynth of interfaces is often more than most smaller agencies can handle. So what do we do about such a complex problem …?
One of my favourite sayings is that for every complex problem – yes indeed there is a simple solutio – the only problem is that it is almost always the wrong solution. Like death and taxes there is no way around it - Complex problems require complex solutions. So the only alternative is to simplify the problem and thereby enable simplified solutions. It sounds a bit trite I know, but in honesty I think it has held true in allowing us to move forward in Canada with MASAS.
So how do we simplify the complex web of information exchanges that todays emergency managers need to contend with? As the sketch shows, the number of information sharing agreements and interfaces that the peer to peer solution requires impose a severe burden that in my opinion is not supportable by the great majority of emergency operations centers in Canada. It may be viable for a Toronto or a Vancouver, but I can tell you that some of the highest risk areas in Canada such as Sarnia – there is no way this can be managed - as we like to joke, for many of these op centers the IT support is often found at Staples. So I’d like to take a 2- minute sidebar on this problem because I encountered a very intriguing youtube video that does a great job illustrating it – in the context of explaining NIEM which is a fairly successful solution to information sharing that is emerging from the US, and stands for National Information Exchange Model. While NIEM is about establishing standardized information exchange packages and for those of you that don’t know about NIEM you should do some reading there is a wealth of information available at NIEM.gov , however I think the way the problem is summarized applies very well to the left hand sketch I have alluded to here. Go to video on NIEM. As I mentioned, the video is aimed at encouraging the viewer to learn about NIEM and I too recommend investigating it. However the peer-to-peer agency information sharing construct is in my view a complex solution to a complex problem. On the right hand side of the slide is the simple solution to the simple problem of sharing information that we can, once with all rather than many times repeatedly and individually with many. The data aggregation hub or my prefered analogy of the “information bucket” is exactly that – a repository of real-time authoritative information that has been pre-engineered to be brought together in a standardized bucket. Rather than the engineering that would be needed for every agency to receive this information separately, we do it once for all – and everyone benefits from the convergence – true much of the information could be independantly sought out web site by web site, MOU by MOU – however our solution does this for everyone. The information providers are happy, the tool vendors that can dip into our bucket our happy, and the users are very happy.
Another simplification that we took was simply to avoid the challenge of sharing sensitive information … What we found after analysing a number of disasters is that by far, most of the information that emergency managers need to share was unclassified - the only caveat is that it would have been difficult to release it publicly because of the protocols for public release that I mentioned earlier. Two years ago we had a rather significant earthquake in Ottawa (5.4) – it took the responsible agencies almost 2 hours to get the alert out to the public because of the need to review/edit/translate/review/edit/translate the alert message before it went out late in the day after most people had gone home and already learned of the earthquake through the local media news. Embarrassing but not unusual for information releases to the public. .. Why should we encumber all of our systems because of the very small point of the pyramid of information. Most if not all barriers to information sharing are there because of that small component of sensitive information. If we consider the majority of unclassified information of interest – there is much that can be shared without hesitation – and since we only share with officials – the complexity of public release protocols vanishes. I would like to comment that while MASAS shares the green portion of the pyramid of information, we do have a solution that will deal with the smaller amount of sensitive information – through what we call “Special Access Hubs’ – these are very analagous to the breakout room that you may see an incident commander will often use to deliberate privately with his inner circle of advisors before opening up an issue to the broader emergency operation. We ran an exercise last year in Point Lepreau New Brunswick where a nuclear reactor is in the process of being re-activated for service. The protocols in Canada for a radiation event require that the federal health protection bureau who manage the sensors, step in and provide an assessment of the sensor alarms prior to taking any formal action, because of the fact that there are so many false alarms. In the event of a Fukushima for example, the Radiation Protection bureau would make use of a ‘special access hub’ to confer with experts on the data before drawing any conclusion that would require evasive action to mitigate the threat – such as evacuating the public or imposing various radiation treatments.
So I’d like to quickly list through elements of our design philosophy that I believe were keys to our success with MASAS. We employ open standards and architecture – specifically the Common Alerting Protocol and ATOM. MASAS is open source for reasons of interoperability as well as the many other strategic benefits of an open source solution. The code is clean, and very high quality – and we hope to develop a community of developers across Canada including academia and potentially international partners to evolve it forward. We provide developers with a sandbox environment. This has accelerated tool vendor uptake of our interface. 4 th – we provide very simple, reliable and disaster resilient hubs. Our hubs are hosted in government data centers at two locations with a third here with Simon Fraser’s network operations center – thanks to Peter Anderson and steven braham. 5 th we are keeping our tools bare bones basic – we do not want to compete with commercial tool developers. 6 th while MASAS works with all tools we have encountered to date, we also provide a free basic set for those stakeholders that have nothing (the ones that go to Staples for their IT support). 7 th the simplicity of design means simplicity in operation – training on MASAS takes less than an hour, and we’ve proven it during the height of a flood disaster where MASAS was brought online for the first time via a 1-hour webinar to communities surrounding Brandon Manitoba. 8 th we know that engineering the information feeds into the hub will be a strong attractant to many stakeholders that want the free access to the information – no need to replicate engineering costs – we do it once for all as long as you maintain a MASAS API portal.
So to recap on what MASAS is, I’d like to break down the name here Its Multi-agency and this means local/regional, provincial and federal agencies are equally accessible to the hub, in fact we take this further because we have now enabled linkages directly with the US Integrated Public Alerting and Warning system. It’s about Situational Awareness – because the content is dynamic, real-time, geo-spatially presented and aimed directly at answering “what is going on now”. Finally it’s a system or more accurately a system of systems, because it’s architecture allows it to bridge across many legacy systems.
A few more key characteristics of MASAS It only allows in authoritative information. While we continue to seek how to data-mine Social Media feeds for example, we will not allow a direct feed because it cannot be authoritative in its current construct. (I would like to sidebar on this because just this month we have launched a project to develop a training curriculum for Emergency Op centers to collect the best practices and tools that can be used by a specialist who would be able to sift Social Media feeds and filter through those that can be trusted, so that they do cross into the decision supporting environment that MASAS provides). Secondly MASAS is real-time, when I first came into this field about 7 years ago, I noticed that almost every op center in Canada has a CBC and a CNN feed that is usually their first heads up that something is happening – and I found it odd that we rely on reporters to tell us what they have just learned from responders rather than get the information directly. We gave MASAS the goal to someday soon replace the CNN monitor or at least beat it as the first source of information when a crisis unfolds in Canada. Thirdly – we require all information be location-based. In fact this is also required by the canadian profile of CAP, and this is a good thing. As one emergency director during a flood operation told us – during the peak of a flood, his blackberry typically has 500 urgent emails in it – he often assigns a fulltime resource to simply go through the messages and tag them on a wallmap so that he can deal with the crisis location by location. MASAS does this for you automatically by forcing the alert to go onto a map. 4 th –we require incident and type tags that will allow a user to filter what he needs to be aware of. 5 th and 6 th are about multi-agency multi-level simultaneous sharing – and I’ll touch more on this in a moment ... And finally the national recognition and endorsement by federal and provincial authorities has been a significant factor that is helping buy-in and alignement.
I won’t say much more about the chronology – while MASAS has evolve fairly rapidly I added this slide to show that after declaring initial operating capability on the 4 th of November 20011 we are already up to 225 registered agencies.
As I mentioned in my previous slide, the national recognition of MASAS through the National Strategy for Interoperable Communications has been a benefit to solidifying federal funding and greasing the wheels to adoption. <pull out the strategic plan booklet>
We even caught attention of our national leaders by a beyond the borders action plan that flags MASAS and FEMA’s IPAWS as components that will make a difference.
So I’d like to drill down a bit further to explain some of the key aspects of MASAS
MASAS is simply a data aggregation service written mainly in javascript – I like to refer to it as the bucket. In fact we have 3 buckets <click> , one for operational live information, one for training and one for exercises. We also are putting one up that will be controlled access for federal op centers alone. We also provide an open source API to which stakeholders can interface their own tools. For those with no tools at all – we provide a basic open source set of a viewer and a posting tool at no charge.
After having toured a large number of federal, provincial and municipal emergency operations centers I can say with confidence that greater than 90% of information exchange during a crisis occurs through email, fax and phone calls with email carrying by far the majority of content. One of my roles is as science advisor to the Government operations center – and while I was there in support of Vancouver 2010 olympics, the G8/G20 summit last June and more recently with the Fukushima incident – I marvelled at the massive email distribution lists that are maintained and used to broadcast sitreps as events unfold. As I mentioned previously, one of the biggest challenges our provincial Emergency Operations centers have during flood season is the hundreds of urgent emails that they have to process and respond to. If you consider email – other than the minimal structured content in the header with name and date – the bulk of the key information is in the unstructured body of the message or in many cases the attached microsoft or pdf document. This makes filtering messages very difficult, if not impossible.
So a key to MASAS has been the rigorous employment of structured messages – through CAP and ATOM message formats. These message standards provide an envelope for various types of documents, and structure information for the label so that we can quickly identify the originator, the type of event, and key attributes such as location, time, etc. All of which enable the user to filter messages so that they are relevant to what they need to know about.
For those of you that are not familiar with CAP – it is an international standard from OASIS – the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards. OASIS is also responsible for Emergency Data Exchange Language or “EDXL” message standards. The Canadian Profile for CAP is unique in that it mandates inclusion of event and location codes – an idea that we see many other nations considering adoption. CAP-CP also limits each CAP alert to only one event type – again with the benefit being more effective filterability of alerts. Another message format we use is Atom GeoRSS this is a fairly universally known publishing standard for web content such as news feeds and the GeoRSs provides the geographic context.
So what is key about CAP – is the structure really works well for managing crisis information. In particular it’s remarkable how effective the tags of urgency, severity and certainty combined with event type – can be to helping organize incident relevant information.
If you take the example of a hurricane as the hurricane moves up the coast – we progressively adjust the certainty it will track over a particular area, the severity estimate based on whether it will cross warm waters or come on to land for example, and the urgency depending on the timeline for when it is estimated to arrive. This same construct works for almost any type of alert – we recently implemented CAP for solar flares and found it works remarkably well for that as well – and I’ll be coming back to that in a few minutes.
One of the most convenient features a structured alert message like CAP provides is the ability to automate message generation. In Canada alberta is one of the lead emergency management agencies at automating alert messages. In this slide you see that a generic message at top here can be composed to accommodate a very large variety of alerts by simply plugging in the CAP fields into the body of the text to generate the message as you see at the bottom.
And it works equally well for preformatted small messages such as you would have for an internet headline or RSS feed, or for a feed into Twitter or cell phone text messaging for example.
Last but not least, particularly for a country like Canada that has two official languages and up to 4 in the northern regions with the various first nations, is the ability for CAP translation tables to facilitate the automated alerting to happen in multiple languages. In fact the province of New Brunswick has implemented a simple tool that has the fields pre-loaded so that by entering a message in one language you will automatically populate the corresponding entries for the other language at the same time. I mentioned to you a few minutes ago how the Earthquake we had in Ottawa a couple of years ago took over a hour to get issued in both languages – with an automated CAP system this now can be done in seconds.
I would now like to turn to reviewing the 3 pillars that define situational awareness as per Dr Mica Endsley. Dr Endsley contends that situational awareness is about perception, comprehension and projection, which is to say what is happening, why do I care and what do I do about it? We believe MASAS currently is very much aimed at enabling the first pillar. However there are a number of possibilities emerging that will leverage the information flow that MASAS provides to feed tools that will also support comprehension and projection.
In fact what we see is MASAS provides an underlying information exchange service – and this is why you will see us referring to it as MASAS-X. The X is for the Exchange service it supports that supports all 3 components of situational awareness.
This next slide illustrates how we see information flows in MASAS – [CLICK] a first responder may encounter a reason to send information, perhaps a major explosion has occurred. He then send the information to MASAS [CLICK] , which is received at the MASAS Hub [CLICK]. The Hub then repackages that information and makes it available to all stakeholders. [CLICK] At this point, many people looking at MASAS realize that there may be a lot of information flowing towards them. MASAS allows your organization to filter information in and out depending on the structured information that is sent via MASAS. [CLICK] Organizations can examine relevant data and decide, on their own terms, whether an item requires immediate action, monitoring, or to ignore/suppress it. These processes can be manual or automated. Depending on the participant they may have Publish and Consume capabilities, Consume-only and even Publish-only for groups that feed data to MASAS but aren’t privy to all the detail (e.g. Industry).
Another observation we’ve been making is that while MASAS transforms information flow because all recipients receive the information simultaneously , we still see, at least for the short term, that the legacy reporting protocols up and down the stack and across agencies seem to be remaining intact to what they were in the previous hierarchical cascade flows. A unique phenomenon that rapid sharing of situational awareness enables is what we call the ‘lean forward’ effect where an agency is aware of a situation unfolding and is able to anticipate the incoming reporting or requests for support before it arrives.
So now to some screen shots of MASAS views during actual live operations, First of all the first thing a novice will say is “too much information” – particularly if you look at too large a scale of an area such as the entire country in this view. You’ll notice the cluster of road closures in Manitoba – this was during the flood season of course, and there was also quite a bit of wildfire activity in northern ontario at the time. So if you are sitting in Ottawa’s federal Government Operations Center – you would likely turn down the selection criteria so that you do not see routine road closures but may want to know about the major highway severe disruptions, or any disruptions at key bridge crossings into the US. By selecting filter criteria an operator can see only what his duties require him to see.
So in the big national picture we would see broad area alerts such as severe weather and the number bubbles you see are indicators that there is a cluster of activity that requires zooming in to resolve.
A PROVINCIAL EMO would scale it’s view accordingly – in this case I am showing what a weather alert looks like, as you hover over an alert, the tool generates the polygon identifying the affected region.
Drilling down further, MASAS can also suport community level details – in this case a recent flood in New Brunswick where the view is showing particular hospital and school closures.
In the spring of 2011 we had the unique opportunity to test MASAS in a 300 year flood disaster. The Emergency Managers of Brandon Manitoba called in MASAS support and we were able to successfully train a number of community officials with the tool through a basic webinar session. So imagine that – during the peak of activity while responding to a vast flood, we found stakeholders were able to very quickly learn the tool, use it to populate road closure information and even come up with novel uses of the tool such as maintenance crews leaving notes for each other as they handed over during shift changes. Another neat development we saw was that since the Canadian Forces military were in the region and already had MASAS integrated – they too were able to benefit from the enhanced situational awareness that was being generated by the small communities.
And finally – the system provides location feeds and so your base maps can be whatever you want, ,Google earth, bing, open streets, or the Toporama maps provided by our fedeal mapping branch – there is no problem with all of the above.
So we are now 7 months since we initiated the national capability and we have over 200 agencies actively registered and exploring the concept of use for MASAS that suits their own requirements. All federal op centers are coming on board through a Sharepoint portal that will have a MASAS module imbedded. This MASAS module is going to be available as an open source widget that is free for any user. All provinces and northern territories have accounts and are in various stages of implementation – our general advice is that each agency has to develop their own SOPs, exercise with them, and then declare themselves operational when they are comfortable to do so. Recently we have brought in the Canadian Red Cross and are in discussions with St Johns Ambulance as well. In terms of critical infrastructure – the Nuclear power utilitiy agencies are interested – we have a major Ontario exercise with Bruce Nuclear simulating a tornado damaged reactor – this exercise will be one of the largest we have ever experienced in Canada with more than 200 agencies participating – and MASAS will be a main tool for controlling the exercise – it works great to administer injects – and will also be actively used as an SA tool by many of the participants.
In october of last year we signed an agreement with FEMA’s alerting system called IPAWS – so that we now have MASAS and IPAWS developmental hubs linked – and as part of the national strategy the approval of the Operation Hub links are expected in the next couple of months.
Today we are actively expanding the richness of information feeds that go into MASAS – the general idea being that the more content we can provide – the greater the pull to have Canadian public safety stakeholders participate. The greater the number of agency accounts, the lower the cost will be per account when we ramp off the federal funding and move MASAS to a not-for-profit operation. Our current back of the envelope calculations are anticipating that per account costs may end up being well below $1K per year. The number and type of feeds continue to escalate – for example here in Vancouver there is a system of bridge strain sensors that we are exploring integrating so that if an earthquake were to occur, any bridge that exceeds a particular threshold of a sensor would launch a cap alert that would be picked up into MASAS. Stream level sensors, and even radio communications status sensors can all be mapped in to activate an alert if/when they exceed a threshold that warrants calling attention. Probably the most popular alert of all is road closures – these are key to incident responders as you can well imagine. An interesting pilot that we just completed with our weather service examined the viability of long-range weather products that are specifically produced for emergency managers. Further work is required to acccomodate projections, one of the ideas we have is to implement a sliding bar that would allow the user to move foreward or backward in time quickly.
Probably the most recent alert type we have added is Solar Flares – and if you have been following the news on the solar cycle we are entering – you will know why. Prior to MASAS I was receiving a daily email from the solar flare forecast center – 99.9 % of the time the message was that all was quiet. As a result I have gotten in the habit of simply deleting or ignoring it – now with the MASAS implementaiton – I can set my threshold so I am only notified when the solar flare alert exceeds the most severe levels. An interesting anecdote is that when the major flare ocured earlier in March – we were pleased to witness how MASAS was used within hours of the flare to report various impacts on national infrastructure. We saw annotations from the north remarking on radio communications problems – we saw Tim Trytten from here in Emergency Mangement BC reporting on MSAT failure – and of course we had the authoritative solar flare alert that was provided by the national authority in our Space Weather Laboratory in Ottawa.
AS with all of our MASAS feeds, the message can accommodate a URL or an attachment – our routine protocol is to encourage alert issuers to imbed their home web site for the relevant information – MASAS can include links, and actual document attachments.
In the case of solar flares, the intensity can fluctuate fairly greatly over a short period of time. So we required our solar experts identify the thresholds which warrant notifying Emergency Managers – and map their alert system into CAP accordingly – it worked seamlessly and as of last week we now have automated solar flare alerts in Canada.
You might wonder how you show the affected area for a solar alert – well the regions are quite massive but still allow us to differentiate them by generating 3 polygons so as to represent a solar flare that affects the highest latitudes known as the polar zone shown here at top right; the mid latitudes of Canada or the auroral zone at bottom right, or the lower latitudes which are the sub-auroral zones on lower left.
I see that I have a few minutes so I’d like to pull up a 4 minute video illustrating MASAS This is jus a short excerpt from video we shot here in Vancouver last June as part of a CA US experiment we called CAUSE Resilience. You may recognize the narrator, Bruce Greenwood – new Admiral for the currently filming Star Trek movie – is actually a native Vancouver-born citizen who learned about MASAS while the experiment was happening and volunteered his time for free as a public service contribution. Believe me – there is no way I could have afforded him and so we do appreciate his support, I unerstand he had to delay his filmcrew by a full day in Hollywood just to make our video.
I see I have a couple of minutes so I’d really like to show you a very interesting email snippet that I just received a few weeks ago from Emergency Management Official. Note the yellow highlight statements –and so I’ll read them quickly here as they are significant confirmations that we’re on the right track.
Thanks very much for listening and the opportunity to show you MASAS – please do not hesitate to drop by my booth and drill in further should you have more questions or if you would like to see the system live. If there are any questions I’d be more than happy to address them now – or again please approach me in the atrium booth and I would be more than happy to try and answer them.