12:04:39 PM Amy Sebring:On behalf of the EIIP, I am pleased to welcome you to a special event in our Tech Arena. 12:04:50 PM Amy Sebring:Please hold all questions and comments until we get to the Q&A portion of the program about half past the hour. We will review the instructions at that time. 12:05:00 PM Amy Sebring:And now, it is my pleasure to introduce Troy Armstrong, RIMS Program Manager, Governor's Office of Emergency Services in California ... 12:05:11 PM Amy Sebring:California has been pioneering in terms of networking for emergency management, with their Response Information Management System (RIMS)... 12:05:22 PM Amy Sebring:Welcome Troy and thanks for being here today. 12:05:29 PM Troy:Thanks for having me 12:06:54 PM Troy:well, I'll start out 12:07:00 PM Troy:with a little prepared text 12:07:08 PM Troy:and then open it up to questions 12:07:20 PM Troy:The Response Information Management System (RIMS) is a set of applications designed by the Governor's Office of Emergency Services (OES) in Lotus Notes to assist in the management of disasters in California. 12:07:34 PM Troy:The goal of the RIMS project is to connect, via computers, the five levels of government (Field, Local, Operational Area, Regional and State) outlined in California's Standardized Emergency Management System (SEMS). RIMS has been operational since June 1995 and is in use by all 58 Operational Areas (counties) and 30 state and federal agencies 12:07:53 PM Troy:OES is now fielding RIMS down to California's Cities and is developing applications that can be used by emergency responders in the field. While RIMS has a wide variety of capabilities it was designed around two fundamental activities common all emergency response actions 12:08:19 PM Troy:1. Submission, Exchange and Analysis of Disaster Related Information: RIMS has a set of reports available to all levels of government that break down various categories of disaster related information in a manner that quickly provides an overview of an event or multiple events. 12:08:51 PM Troy:The structure of RIMS then allows users to zero in on specific details relevant to their particular role in the response effort. Because RIMS allows multiple users to submit and receive information on demand, it has dramatically improved the dissemination of disaster related information statewide. 12:09:29 PM Troy:2. Request, Task and Track Assistance: RIMS has established an electronic link between agencies requesting assistance and agencies that can provide the needed resources. It allows Operational Areas to submit requests for emergency response assistance by computer to one of OES' three Regional Emergency Operations Centers (REOC). 12:09:52 PM Troy:These REOCs then review the request and task the appropriate state agency to provide the requested assistance. The tasked state agency then updates the report periodically so that both OES and the requesting OA are constantly advised on the status of the resources being sent. 12:10:05 PM Troy:The database is currently being modified so that it can be used by City and Field level response organizations 12:10:32 PM Troy:To accomplish these functionality's, RIMS takes advantage of Lotus Notes' workflow/groupware architecture. It is through the use of Notes as the underlying software that allows RIMS to move and share information between large numbers of people/organizations that are located in a different places 12:10:54 PM Troy:A RIMS user creates a document that is then available to others who have a need to be informed of, or take action on, the subject of that document. Instead of setting up a standard "send/receive" system, OES designed RIMS so that no matter what level of government, or what position they hold, response staff can gain access to the information they feel relevant to their duties 12:11:13 PM Troy:RIMS accomplishes this by categorizing information along the SEMS organizational structure. This reduces the problem of information overload and ensures that emergency response staff can quickly identify information that is most relevant to their role in response operations 12:11:44 PM Troy:The hardware backbone of RIMS is a network of 13 file servers in various locations across the state that can be accessed directly from OES' wide area network or remotely via commercial phone line, cellular phone, the internet or Satellite. OES is currently developing the capability to connect to RIMS using packet radio 12:12:21 PM Troy:At this point I was going to start directing the group to my slides 12:12:33 PM Troy:But Amy and I had trouble getting them hooked up 12:12:54 PM Troy:So I will just describe where we are going with RIMS and how it has performed 12:13:10 PM Troy:during the past couple of major disasters here in Ca 12:13:25 PM Troy:The system worked pretty much as we expected, 12:13:39 PM Troy:However, we did experience some problems that we are now addressing 12:13:54 PM Troy:The first, and most critical is connectivity 12:14:08 PM Troy:We had a lot of problems with ISPs and phone lines 12:14:40 PM Troy:during the floods last Feb, several single points of failure in the statewide phone network failed 12:15:01 PM Troy:this cut off several counties from both long distance and the internet 12:15:15 PM Troy:we were able to switch some over to satellite 12:15:25 PM Troy:but it took to long for our satisfaction 12:15:43 PM Troy:we are now working to make the switch over smoother and more automatic 12:15:56 PM Troy:the second problem we had was with bandwidth 12:16:18 PM Troy:we never envisioned the amount of traffic that would be passed over the system 12:16:34 PM Troy:at this point in the programs development 12:16:46 PM Troy:thus we have had to do some redesign 12:17:12 PM Troy:to keep attached GIS and Digital photo files from clocking up the bandwidth 12:17:38 PM Troy:we feel we have this issue resolved and tests are showing that we should not have this problem next disaster 12:17:49 PM Troy:Another area of concern for us was training 12:18:13 PM Troy:we found we need to get a larger cadre of emergency managers trained on RIMS 12:18:32 PM Troy:Their were always one or two EMs at each level of Gov who could use RIMS 12:18:46 PM Troy:but they were unable to stay on duty 24 hours a day 12:18:57 PM Troy:so we are making an effort to get more people trained 12:19:17 PM Troy:Testing is another area where we are putting a lot of emphasis 12:19:39 PM Troy:we found that a lot of agencies had not tested their RIMS connections on a regular basis 12:19:53 PM Troy:so when they tried to fire the system up at the start of the emergency 12:20:00 PM Troy:they had a lot of minor problems 12:20:16 PM Troy:such as not having a good connection to their ISP 12:20:24 PM Troy:or having out of date databases 12:20:49 PM Troy:We have addressed that by having our regional staff conduct regularly scheduled tests 12:21:11 PM Troy:and also by having our IT staff regularly call our end users 12:21:26 PM Troy:to make sure they aren't having any problems 12:21:38 PM Troy:this seems to resolved this problem 12:21:57 PM Troy:during the event itself, most of the problems were fixed quikly 12:22:08 PM Troy:but we should not have found out about them during the event 12:22:20 PM Troy:thus we are putting a lot emphasis on testing 12:22:45 PM Troy:We are also embarking on a lot of new applications for RIMS 12:22:55 PM Troy:such as detailed resource tracking 12:23:13 PM Troy:applications geared directly towards the needs of field, city and county users 12:23:32 PM Troy:RIMS was originally designed from a strategic point of view 12:23:43 PM Troy:OES communicating with the counties 12:23:59 PM Troy:now we are experiencing a great deal of demand 12:24:28 PM Troy:for the system to have the capability of EOCs to work with their departments within the city and counties 12:24:40 PM Troy:as well as responders in the field 12:24:57 PM Troy:to address this, we are working with LA city 12:25:03 PM Troy:to develop a set of applications 12:25:23 PM Troy:geared dircectly at their EOC interacting with their various departments 12:25:38 PM Troy:and their Incident Command Posts (ICP) in the filed 12:25:40 PM Troy:field 12:25:59 PM Troy:The EOC to Department applications come on line in the next couple of weeks 12:26:14 PM Troy:and the field level apps come on line the end of this year 12:26:36 PM Troy:Another area we are devoting are effort to is the integration of GIS to RIMS 12:26:45 PM Troy:like everything else we do in RIMS 12:26:53 PM Troy:we are building it incrementally 12:27:14 PM Troy:We have tied some of our reports to a program called GEO FInder 12:27:30 PM Troy:soon all reports will be interactive with ARCVIEW 12:27:43 PM Troy:Finally, we are building direct web page interfaces 12:28:01 PM Troy:so that users will no longer have to have Lotus Notes to use RIMS 12:28:27 PM Troy:they will simply have to have Netscape or Explorer and access to the internet 12:28:49 PM Troy:an example of this can be found on our FIRESCOPE test site at: 12:29:02 PM Troy:http://firescope.oes.ca.gov/ 12:29:25 PM Troy:This application works both with our intranet and the internet 12:29:46 PM Troy:so that it doesn't matter whether you are using Notes or strictly a browser 12:29:54 PM Troy:our only concern with this is security 12:30:22 PM Troy:with Notes connections, we can put in several layers of security that are built into the software 12:30:39 PM Troy:with the web page interface we are limited to passwords and firewalls 12:31:08 PM Troy:At this point, I would like to open it up to questions 12:31:23 PM Amy Sebring:I would like to take a moment here to review how we will handle the Q&A so that we have an orderly session. 12:31:35 PM Amy Sebring:We ask that you indicate that you have a question by typing just a question mark (?). 12:31:46 PM Amy Sebring:Then you can prepare your question, but PLEASE HOLD (don't hit end or send) your question until you are recognized. 12:31:56 PM Amy Sebring:If we run out of time, you will have a chance to ask Troy afterward in the follow up session in the Virtual Forum. 12:32:06 PM Bill Lent:? 12:32:17 PM Amy Sebring:Yes, Bill, or Randy or whoever is at keyboard. 12:32:49 PM Bill Lent:Question from Randy: Troy, how exactly did you solve the bandwith problem you mentioned earlier in the conversation? 12:33:16 PM Troy:Mainly by keeping attachments to a minimum.... 12:33:34 PM Troy:people were attaching a lot of GIS files to their reports 12:33:51 PM Troy:We now... 12:34:05 PM Troy:have seperate databases for the transfer of these files.... 12:34:15 PM Paul Harris:? 12:34:23 PM Troy:this cuts down on the amount of data end users have to replicate. 12:34:31 PM Amy Sebring:Paul. 12:35:15 PM Paul Harris:I would like know if you have industrial applications / users currently? 12:35:38 PM Avagene Moore:? 12:35:40 PM Troy:the closest we have is utility companies. 12:35:50 PM Amy Sebring:Avagene 12:36:07 PM Avagene Moore:You mentioned training needed: How extensive is the training? Is it done in the field or where? 12:36:30 PM Troy:The training ranges from 5 hours to two days.... 12:36:52 PM Troy:in 5 hours we can get someone up to speed so they can do the basic reporting and requesting.... 12:37:31 PM Troy:In our two day course, they get a lot more instruction on how RIMS works within the Standardized Emergency Managment System (SEMS).. 12:37:44 PM Troy:framework in place in CA.... 12:38:07 PM Troy:We offer the two day course at our training institute, CSTI.... 12:38:25 PM Troy:and the 5 hour course at our Regional Emergency Operations Centers (REOCs) 12:38:35 PM Troy:. 12:38:38 PM Amy Sebring:Approx. how many system-wide users Troy? 12:39:11 PM Troy:We have all 58 counties, 30 state and federal agencies, and about 20 cities connected.... 12:39:35 PM Troy:We are now starting a program to get most of the cities hooked up over the next year.... 12:40:01 PM Troy:We hope to have over 200 cities and special districts connected by this time next year. 12:40:14 PM Amy Sebring:Will you have non-profits as well? 12:40:34 PM Troy:Depends, we already have a couple of Red Cross offices hooked up.... 12:41:04 PM Troy:and will hook up others if they are interested and have a role in CA's emergency management framework 12:41:06 PM Troy:. 12:41:29 PM Amy Sebring:Are you finding any uses during non- emergency times... 12:41:40 PM Amy Sebring:that is assuming CA HAS any non-emergency times! 12:42:11 PM Troy:Many, we use NOTEs for all our day to day work, travel claims, budgeting, time sheets etc.... 12:42:15 PM Troy:also.... 12:42:30 PM Bill Lent:? 12:42:32 PM Troy:it helps with training and exercieses 12:42:38 PM Troy:. 12:42:44 PM Amy Sebring:Bill 12:43:25 PM Bill Lent:What are your support issues going to be when you reach all 200 cities in addition to your current users? 12:43:52 PM Troy:the support issues are daunting to say the least.... 12:44:13 PM Troy:We are going to be putting on extra staff for help desk type operations.... 12:44:38 PM Troy:We have a very detailed, yet easy to follow install and connection instructions, 12:44:54 PM Troy:that should make it easy for new end users to get connected.... 12:45:18 PM Troy:also we publishing a manual on our web page on how to use RIMS in the next month or so... 12:45:34 PM Troy:our big conern remains connectivity.... 12:45:57 PM Troy:we want everyone to use the internet as their primary connectivity to RIMS.... 12:46:10 PM Troy:this makes everyone dependant on ISPs.... 12:46:19 PM Troy:That makes us a bit nervous. 12:46:50 PM Amy Sebring:Can you tell us just a little more how the GIS is/will be set up? 12:47:27 PM Troy:Currently we have our GIS interaction set up so that it works of the end users hard drive.... 12:48:09 PM Troy:they post their icons related to a map on their hard drive and then only replicate the geo code for the location of the icon.... 12:48:30 PM Troy:that gets around having to send the whole file and takes care of the bandwidth issue.... 12:48:52 PM Troy:it also gives the end user the option to determine which icons they want to see.... 12:49:12 PM Troy:thus, when cal trans publishes its 200 or so road closures in RIMS.... 12:49:31 PM Troy:the end user only selects the closures they want to see on a map..... 12:50:04 PM Troy:they can also overlay it with it other icons such as locations of resources, locations of ICPs, staging areas etc...... 12:50:31 PM Troy:and off course you can double click onthe icon and it takes you to the associated report. 12:51:49 PM Amy Sebring:Tell us just a little about the field aspects coming later this year Troy. 12:52:08 PM Troy:We are working towards putting RIMS on palmtops.... 12:52:32 PM Troy:that could be carried by firefighters, police, public works etc...... 12:52:49 PM Ron Brittan:? 12:52:52 PM David Crews:? 12:52:53 PM Troy:this would allow them to come upon an incident...... 12:53:26 PM Troy:mark it on a GIS map, make a few comments and forward ti to an EOC or Department Operations Center, whatever their reporting chain is... 12:53:41 PM Troy:the big problem we are facing is wireless connectivity... 12:54:04 PM Troy:they're are a lot of promising products out their, but none seems to fit the bill yet. 12:54:13 PM Amy Sebring:Ron please 12:54:36 PM Ron Brittan:What about outside of CA? 12:55:00 PM Troy:Everything we develop, we give away...... 12:55:19 PM Troy:If other states want to use our system, they just have to ask.... 12:55:37 PM Troy:We haven't done anything revolutionary, we think it can work anywhere. 12:55:57 PM Amy Sebring:David (keep it short and sweet David!) 12:56:04 PM David Crews:How do you plan to share this info with the FEDERAL entities. In February the State gave the FEMA DFO very limited direct access to SEMS/RIMS. 12:56:41 PM Troy:Actually, we gave them whatever they wanted....... 12:57:19 PM Troy:When I traveled to Southern Cal with James Lee Witt, his staff had given him reports they took straight off of RIMS... 12:57:41 PM Troy:We have connections in FEMA region IX and are training their staff the 29th.... 12:57:47 PM Jim Cook:? 12:57:58 PM David Crews:I agree but release of the info became a very sensative issue. 12:58:06 PM Troy:also, DA DOMS, DOT and US Coast Guard are connected.... 12:58:22 PM Amy Sebring:We are just about out of time... 12:58:24 PM Troy:We would like to get as many feds on as we can, it makes our lives easier. 12:58:36 PM Amy Sebring:Thank you very much Troy for sharing this with us today. 12:59:00 PM Amy Sebring:We invite you and our guests to meet for a few minutes further... 12:59:10 PM Amy Sebring:back in the Virtual Forum, but First.. 12:59:16 PM Troy:My pleasure, if anyone wants to continue this I am available now 12:59:26 PM Amy Sebring:I would like Avagene to tell us about what is coming up tomorrow night. 12:59:29 PM Avagene Moore:The Round Table tomorrow night will be a good one. Jon Juette, Program Manager, for the DOE HAMMER facility will be in the Virtual Forum to tell us everything you want to know about this world-class training facility. Jon is a friend of mine from a former life when I worked in the Emergency Management Laboratory at Oak Ridge Associated Universities. Please join us for the informal discussion with Jon Juette at 8 PM EDT Thursday night. You won't be disappointed -- exciting things going on a 01:00:00 PM Amy Sebring:Thanks Ava... 01:00:04 PM Avagene Moore:at Hammer. (Sorry about thato 01:00:06 PM Amy Sebring:now if you can stick around... 01:00:22 PM Amy Sebring:please select the Virtual Forum from your Room menu... 01:00:28 PM Amy Sebring:and join us over there. 01:00:34 PM Amy Sebring:Thanks for coming.