Avagene Moore: Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the EIIP Virtual Forum! Amy Sebring, my associate, and I are delighted to see each of you here today. Avagene Moore: Our subject today is "Disaster Management Messaging Standards Update: The Evolving Relationship to NIMS." Avagene Moore: Our speaker is an old friend of the EIIP and he has been with us on several occasions as a speaker and as a participant in the audience. In fact, the EIIP has been involved with this gentleman since we started the Partnership ten years ago. Avagene Moore: It is a pleasure to welcome back Chip Hines, PMP, Disaster Management Program Manager, Command, Control and Interoperability, in the Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) of the Department of Homeland Security. ... Avagene Moore: Chip has over 30 years of experience working in the emergency management field with more than 15 of these spent developing and managing federal programs and systems designed to assist the country in being better prepared to manage emergencies. Avagene Moore: He has worked in the areas of National Preparedness, Emergency Operations, State and Local Preparedness as well as in Preparedness, Training and Exercises at the federal level. Avagene Moore: He holds a Masters of Science degree in National Resources Policy from the Industrial College of the Armed Forces, National Defense University. He is also a PMI certified Project Management Professional (PMP). Avagene Moore: It is with some sadness and yet best wishes for the future that we tell you that Chip is retiring effective June 1. Chip, we will miss you and wish you health and happiness in your future pursuits. On behalf of the EIIP, we thank you for your friendship and support. Avagene Moore: Before turning this over to Chip, the order for today is the formal presentation and then the Q&A segment of our hour when you can direct your questions one at a time to our speaker. ... Avagene Moore: For any who are new to the Virtual Forum, please note that Chip is using a few slides in his presentation. When you see a blue Web address (URL), you can click on it and the referenced Web page should appear in a browser window. ... Avagene Moore: After the first one, the browser window may not automatically come to the top, so you may need to bring it forward by clicking on a button at the status bar at the bottom of your screen. ... Avagene Moore: We will give you time to read / view the slides before going on with formal remarks. Please come back to the chat screen so you can keep up with our speaker. Avagene Moore: Please do not send Direct Messages to the speaker or moderator during the presentation. It is very distracting while we are trying to keep order and conduct a smooth, professional session. If you have a problem, please send a private message to Amy. Avagene Moore: A transcript of today's Forum will be available later this afternoon. Avagene Moore: After the formal part of today's session, I will give instructions for an orderly Q&A segment. Please watch for those and abide by them when we are ready for your questions and comments. Avagene Moore: Please take the time to read Chip's bio and links to related materials on the background page after our session. Avagene Moore: Please help me welcome Chip Hines to the EIIP Virtual Forum! Thanks for being here today, Chip. I now turn the floor to you. Chip Hines: Thanks Ava, it's great to be here. I am a big supporter of the work of EM Forum, I believe that forums such as this are vital to the success of the Disaster Management (DM) eGov initiative. Chip Hines: Let me start with a quick overview of our initiative. DM is under the Office for Interoperability and Compatibility (OIC), within the Science and Technology Directorate at the Department of Homeland Security. Chip Hines: OIC consists of two separate but equally important initiatives, one concerning voice and the other concerning data. Together both programs work to provide emergency responders, such as you in the audience with resources intended to address all aspects of communications interoperability. Chip Hines: DM was established to improve access to services and information relating to disasters without regard to the specific organization responsible. It was intended to present a functional look at how we prepare for, respond to, and recover from disaster. Chip Hines: It's a big mission, and our goal is to not duplicate the work of others, but instead to serve as a central access point to information and services, and to facilitate the development of new capabilities for the broad emergency management community. Chip Hines: Until recently, DM managed four components, the DisasterHelp.gov portal, the Disaster Management Interoperability Services (DMIS), the Open Platform for Emergency Networks (OPEN), and the DM Messaging Standards Initiative. Chip Hines: The three operational components (DHelp, DMIS and OPEN) are in the process of transitioning to other organizations within DHS. The transition of these vital components will enable DM to increase its focus, activities, and support of the standards. Chip Hines: A critical aspect to all the development activities of the DM program is working with the emergency response practitioners to develop standards that fit the needs of their day to day activities - this is commonly referred to as the 'practitioner-driven approach'. Chip Hines: This first slide describes this approach. Amy, Slide #1 please. Amy Sebring: http://www.emforum.org/vforum/EDXL/slide01.htm Chip Hines: The DM Practitioner Steering Group and the Standards Working Group provide us with "on the ground" requirements and needs of the emergency response community. We at DHS cannot begin to think we know what your challenges are, but with your input, our standards will hopefully help you do your jobs in a safer and more effective manner. Chip Hines: The DM Standards Initiative is a practitioner-driven effort to develop response operation messaging standards that enable the sharing of critical information. Chip Hines: The Standards Initiative works with public and private entities to ensure that the standards that are developed meet the needs of the emergency response community and will be included in vendor systems and software. Chip Hines: This next slide summarizes the purposes of the Standards Initiative. Amy, Slide 2 please. Amy Sebring: http://www.emforum.org/vforum/EDXL/slide02.htm Chip Hines: To date, the DM Standards activities are: Chip Hines: Common Alerting Protocol: CAP v1.1 was adopted as a standard on October 1, 2005. CAP provides the ability to exchange all-hazard emergency alerts, notifications, and public warnings, which can be disseminated simultaneously over many different warning systems (e.g., computer systems, wireless, alarms, TV, radio). Chip Hines: Distribution Element (DE): DE 1.0 was adopted as a standard in April 2006. DE provides a flexible message-distribution framework for data sharing in emergency information systems. Messages may be distributed by specific recipients, by geographic area, or by other codes such as agency type (police, fire, etc.) Chip Hines: Hospital AVailability Exchange (HAVE): HAVE was submitted to OASIS in January 2005. HAVE provides standard exchange of hospital status, capacity, and resource availability between medical and health organizations and emergency information systems. OASIS adoption is expected in Summer 2007. Chip Hines: Resource Messaging (RM): RM was submitted to OASIS in October 2005; it supports a pilot for the National Capital Region Data Exchange Hub. RM provides the standard exchange of resource information (persons or things) needed to support emergency and incident preparedness, response, and recovery. Chip Hines: RM is currently in 60-day public comment from April 9 to June 8; OASIS adoption is expected in Fall 2007. The draft specification and schema are linked from today's Background Page. The public announcement can be accessed at http://lists.oasis-open.org/archives/emergency/200704/msg00020.html. Chip Hines: The DM Program is in the initial phases of creating an Incident/Situational Reporting Standard: The Situation Reporting Messaging Standard addresses information gathered from a variety of sources that, Chip Hines: when communicated to managers and decision makers, can form the basis for incident management decision making. It provides information on the current situation, the operational picture, and current response and resources in an actionable form. Chip Hines: The Standards Working Group is currently organizing teams around scenarios to flush out additional requirements for the standard. There are five groups that meet twice a month to discuss the requirements. Chip Hines: The scenario teams consist of practitioners from multiple disciplines, and work on scenarios ranging from a train derailment to an evacuation resulting from a levee break. The scenarios teams are critical to developing draft specifications because the mock incidents provide the information exchange requirements of emergency responders. Chip Hines: The process by which DM creates standards is designed to include all facets of the emergency response community - public and private. The Practitioner Steering Group (PSG) meets to identify necessary requirements and prioritizes for those needs. Chip Hines: The Standards Working Group takes those needs and develops draft technical standards, which are reviewed and validated by the PSG, and are then submitted to the standards approval organization such as OASIS. Chip Hines: OASIS has a comprehensive process to ensure that the specifics of a standard are technically correct, responsive and effective. It's a fairly long process that is well coordinated, and we've come to value their work. A number of changes to the Distribution Element draft standard have been made, and we think it will be a better standard as a result. Chip Hines: This next slide is a flowchart of the process I have just described. Amy, Slide 3 please. Amy Sebring: http://www.emforum.org/vforum/EDXL/slide03.htm Chip Hines: So that our efforts can have a quick, practical payoff, we've also been working with a consortium of vendors, called the Emergency Interoperability Consortium (EIC) who provide software and advanced software support tools needed by many organizations. Chip Hines: To make this really pay off, we've designed our information exchange services so that these vendors can access them, and we've been working with them to develop standards for exchange of information between all software products. Chip Hines: This means, that when a standard is developed, the implementation process gets it into the vendor's software quickly. This last slide summarizes the key players in the process. Amy, Slide 4 please. Amy Sebring: http://www.emforum.org/vforum/EDXL/slide04.htm Chip Hines: As I mentioned before, DM works with various groups to ensure that the final standard is suitable to both the vendor community and the user community. While DM has been coordinating with the National Incident Management System (NIMS)Integration Center - (NIC) over the past several years, Chip Hines: recently a deeper partnership has developed. The NIC resides in DHS under Federal Emergency Management Agency and is charged with integrating effective practices in emergency response into a comprehensive national framework for incident management. Chip Hines: The deeper partnership will initially focus on 2 activities: 1. NIMS approval and acceptance of final DM standards 2. Coordination to test and evaluate technologies that have implemented the DM standards Chip Hines: NIMS is establishing a practitioner working group to review the existing Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) standard and the DE standard for NIMS adoption. Once accepted, they will become 'NIMS approved' standards, and will be housed in a NIMS repository for data messaging standards. Chip Hines: This will be vitally important to increase the exposure and adoption of messaging standards, as NIMS is the first widely respected standardized approach to incident management and response. Chip Hines: NIMS representatives are also initiating a process to assist with the testing and evaluation of technologies that leverage the DM standards in the NIMS testing center. Chip Hines: This process will validate the level of interoperability amongst industry products and ensure standards are being used appropriately. Currently DM is working with the NIMS leadership to define the scope and develop an implementation plan for this effort. Chip Hines: Simply put - the potential to integrate the DM standards portfolio into the NIMS usage environment will be a tremendous opportunity. The collaboration of DM and NIMS will enable responders at all levels Chip Hines: to work together more effectively and efficiently to manage domestic incidents no matter what the cause, size or complexity, including catastrophic acts of terrorism and disasters. Chip Hines: In addition, it is the intent of OIC to align the OIC/DM standards activities, NIMS, and the National Information Exchange Model (a joint DHS and Department of Justice partnership for standards). This alignment would provide comprehensive solution to meet the information exchange needs of the emergency response community. Chip Hines: This concludes my overview; we can now get into some more detail in response to your questions. I now turn the floor back over to our Moderator. Avagene Moore: Thank you for your update, Chip. I am sure our audience has questions. ... Avagene Moore: Our protocol for asking a question or making a comment is to input a question mark (?) to the screen. Once you have sent your ? forward, please start composing your question and have it ready when I call upon you by name. I will call upon you in the order of the names as they appear on the screen. Avagene Moore: Please submit one question at a time. If you have another question, get back in line and we will get to you. William Cumming: ? Avagene Moore: Please input your ? at any time. We are ready to begin our Q&A. Avagene Moore: William, when you are ready, please. David Coggeshall2: ? Paul Howard: ? William Cumming: How does your work involve the NCS (National Communications System-EO12472 ) and its advisory committees? Chip Hines: At the present time we aren't working with the NCS. Our standards are message based... Chip Hines: and are public standards rather than federal standards, but we do try to ensure that they are available and used by federal agencies and their programs. Mick Crnkovich: ? Avagene Moore: David Coggeshall, your question, please. David Coggeshall2: How can we get more information on the Incident/Situational Reporting Messaging Standard? How can we join the planning effort? Charlie Hanson: ? Ric Skinner: ? Chip Hines: The standards working group is open and we would love to have more involvement. The quickest way to get into the loop is by contacting Tim Grapes (tgrapes@evotecinc.com). if you have any problems get in touch with me. Avagene Moore: Paul Howard, please, sir. Paul Howard: Does your work include incorporate existing and legacy information exchange programs (like NC4 E-Team, WebEOC, and others) to build a fully integrated information exchange between DHS/FEMA, its partners, FEMA Regions, and the various states, territories, etc.? If so, how? Chip Hines: yes, we are working hard to include industry... Chip Hines: we work with the Emergency Interoperability Consortium of vendors to help get implementation moving quickly... Chip Hines: we also work with any specific vendors (including those you mentioned)... Chip Hines: in addition, we conduct demonstrations using multiple vendors to show the use of standards... Chip Hines: we also host OPEN, an exchange system that makes it quick and easy for vendors implementing our standards to start exchanging them... Chip Hines: in support of this we have staff to work with them to iron out any difficulties, and provide OPEN accounts to their clients so that they can quickly start using standards. Avagene Moore: Charlie Hanson, you are next, please. Charlie Hanson: Are the DM standards built into the NIMSCAST evaluation tool, or if not, is the plan to include them in the future? Chip Hines: I cant answer if they are in now, but if not we will work to make that happen. Richard Vandamme may know the answer to that question. Avagene Moore: Richard, do you wish to comment? Rich Vandame: Hi, Chip. I don't think the messaging standards are in there. Avagene Moore: OK, thanks Rich. Next is Mick. Please. Mick Crnkovich: With regard to NIMS adopting CAP and DE, do you think we are likely to see an actual "NIMS Approved" or the "NIMS Recommended" standards that came out of last year's efforts, i.e., NFPA 1561 and 1600? If only "Recommended" what will that mean to users? Chip Hines: I do think that we will have requirements for using the standards... Keith Miller: What are the plans to integrate a standard set of emergency messaging for use by all agencies and volunteer groups such as Amateur Radio Emergency Service operators in communications support? Chip Hines: there are already some grants requirements, and I expect them to be more specific in upcoming grants cycles... Chip Hines: we haven't worked out the details yet with NIMS but I do hope the standards will be required. Avagene Moore: Chip, please take Keith's question above. Chip Hines: the specific standards we work on are brought to us by a practitioner steering group... Chip Hines: we work on the priorities they provide us... Chip Hines: I hope over the next year to establish a "universe" of information sharing standards that need to be developed to better... Chip Hines: ensure that the highest priorities are being worked on and that the ones we do work on are in the full context of this universe... Kirby Sommers: ? Chip Hines: we aren't at present working in the voice communications arena, but we are trying to make our efforts well known. Avagene Moore: Ric Skinner, your question, please. If anyone has a question for Chip, please put in a ? at any time. We can take a few more questions before Chip has to leave. ric skinner: Do the DM initiatives consider the HL-7 standard or the work being carried out by the Public Health Data Standards Consortium? It seems both of these would be important in transmitting health related data during a disaster. Avagene Moore: ? Chip Hines: Our approach involves considerable research as to what already exists and who is working in the particular area... Chip Hines: we do not want to duplicate other efforts... Chip Hines: the HAVE standard came from the medical community, and we have continued to coordinate with them... William Cumming: ? Amy Sebring: ? Kirby Sommers: Are you saying this "universe" of information sharing standards will be ready for use within a year, or will it still be a work in progress? Chip Hines: that being said, I didn't want to continue in health related areas without more formal and closer ties to the health standards area. At present we are ... Chip Hines: following their work but need to get closer - right now its a matter of available resources. Avagene Moore: I suspect Kirby's finger slipped - please take the question above, Chip. Chip Hines: I wish I could have it done in a year. Actually, we will continue to work on our... Chip Hines: current priorities while we develop this universe. I think we should be working priorities against the universe within the year, and we can use this... Chip Hines: to reach out to other organizations working on standards to help coordinate efforts and recognize interdependencies. Avagene Moore: Chip, in addition to focusing on standards, will DM be taking on new activities or program elements as well in the next fiscal year? If so, can you tell us what they will be? Chip Hines: we are now in a time of high activity... ric skinner: ? Chip Hines: as I said earlier we are working to have some of our ongoing operations successfully integrated with other activities in DHS... Chip Hines: we are also working more closely with the voice standards group in OIC to be more effective and efficient.. Chip Hines: for example expanding the data sections in the SAFECOM statement of requirements. Avagene Moore: William, your question, please. William Cumming: Do you make a distinction between standards and/or protocols and their development and adoption in your work? Does your office have any written materials on this distinction, if any, available to the public? Is this an important distinction, if it exists? Is there a DHS/S&T contact on issues discussed by you today after June1st? Chip Hines: now that's a question! Chip Hines: we do have a "soup to nuts" approach to our standards efforts... Chip Hines: our end goal is adoption, but we are trying to facilitate in all areas to make this happen... Chip Hines: practitioners give us requirements, our standards working group process does research and develops a draft, OASIS provides professional... Chip Hines: standard work to ensure a tight, effective product, and we work directly with industry to speed adoption via providing development and testing... Rich Vandame: ! Chip Hines: services as well as demonstrations. We are also as I said working to get more specificity in the grants language. Chip Hines: ... Chip Hines: oh, and my replacement will be Denis Gusty (denis.gusty@dhs.gov). Im very excited about this... Chip Hines: since he has been working with OIC for several months and has the right approach and a terrific background... Chip Hines: he was also an eGov program manager for GovBenefits.gov which is very citizen focused. I feel great about him stepping into the job. Avagene Moore: Amy, please. We are running out of time, folks. Amy Sebring: Chip, in our last session on IT for Disaster Management, Art Botterell suggested we may need a standard for Directory Services. Do you have any thoughts about improving the architecture for message distribution, (based on geography, individuals and/or roles as you mentioned in connection with DE), ... Amy Sebring: to achieve the integrated network that Mr. Howard referred to earlier, to include the public? And/or, will this be impacted by the work that is going on in mobile communications (e.g. cell phones, etc.) under the FCC auspices? Chip Hines: Leave it to Amy... Chip Hines: I have heard of this proposal, and I do think it has merit. to some extent we already address some of this through DE and CAP... Chip Hines: but this isn't the final solution. One issue is that this is a technical issue, and at present we are working more specifically in support... Chip Hines: of the specific exchanges required by the community. If I can get the resources, I'd like to better evaluate this requirement and see what we can do about it. We don't have anything on the horizon at this point. Avagene Moore: OK. That is all the time we have today. We know you have another commitment this afternoon, Chip, and we thank you for sharing this update today. Avagene Moore: If I may before we close, we welcome three new EIIP Partners to the fold today. ... Avagene Moore: National Warning Corporation www.natwarn.com with David Coursey, CEO, as the designated Point of Contact (POC) to the EIIP; Community Safety Programs http://linkedin.com/in/creativecommunications with POC, Michelle Cadieux, MBA; and Baystate Medical Center, Health Geographics Program www.baystatehealth.com/gis - Ric Skinner, GISP, Senior GIS Coordinator, is the POC. Avagene Moore: If interested in partnering with the EIIP, please see the "Partnership for You" link. If you would like to be alerted to future Virtual Forum topics and are not on the EIIP Mail List, please subscribe by going to the EIIP Virtual Forum homepage. Avagene Moore: Again, the transcript of today's session will be available later this afternoon and a notice will go to our Mail List when it is posted. Avagene Moore: Before we sign off, please help me thank Chip Hines for his presentation. Feel free to wish him well in his retirement. --- And thanks to you, the audience, for your presence and participation. The EIIP Virtual Forum is adjourned! Chip Hines: Thank you all for coming - I think this is a tremendous opportunity for our programs as well as for the community. Take care all, I will stay in touch.