12:03:42 PM Avagene Moore:On behalf of the EIIP, I am pleased to welcome you to a special event in our Tech Arena. Our topic today is ERLink. ... 12:03:59 PM Avagene Moore: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. Now ... 12:04:33 PM Avagene Moore:before I introduce our special guests... 12:04:44 PM Avagene Moore:I would like to review how to use links to display Web pages in another browser window for the benefit of any newcomers. ... 12:04:55 PM Avagene Moore:When a full URL is typed in the message area, it becomes a hot link, so you can just click on it, and a webpage will display in another browser window. ... 12:05:02 PM Avagene Moore:for example... 12:05:11 PM Avagene Moore:http://www.emforum.org/varena/erlink/sld001.htm ... 12:05:27 PM Avagene Moore:And now, it is my pleasure to introduce John O'Connor, Engineer with the National Communication System (NCS) ... 12:05:40 PM Avagene Moore:and ... 12:05:49 PM Avagene Moore:Rodney Volz, Senior Consultant with SETA Corporation. ... 12:06:10 PM Avagene Moore:Welcome gentlemen ... 12:06:17 PM Avagene Moore:and thank you for taking time to be with us today. 12:06:36 PM John OConnor:Your welcome, our pleasure. 12:06:56 PM Rod Volz:Thank you Avagene -- John and I look forward to sharing information about ERLink with all of you. 12:07:09 PM John OConnor:On behalf of the ERLink Program Office thank you for the opportunity to brief today. Rod and I will both be briefing and will be available for questions after we get through the next 5 slides. 12:07:30 PM John OConnor:Next slide please ... 12:07:33 PM Avagene Moore:http://www.emforum.org/varena/erlink/sld002.htm 12:07:57 PM John OConnor:The Emergency Response Link (ERLink) is provided by the Office of the Manager, National Communications System (OMNCS) for exclusive use by the Emergency Response community. ... 12:08:14 PM John OConnor:It supports the Federal Response Plan (FRP), as well as State and local agencies responding to natural disasters and other domestic emergencies. 12:08:48 PM John OConnor:A demonstration site is available at http://www.erlink.com 12:09:21 PM John OConnor:Next slide please ... 12:09:26 PM Avagene Moore:http://www.emforum.org/varena/erlink/sld003.htm 12:10:02 PM John OConnor:Rod please take us through some of the history 12:10:12 PM Rod Volz:Gladly John - thank you 12:10:31 PM Rod Volz:In the way of background information, ... 12:10:48 PM Rod Volz:following the difficulties of communicating during the 1994 Northridge, California earthquake, the OMNCS, in conjunction with FEMA, undertook an effort to improve the information flow among the 28 agencies and organizations comprising the Federal Response Plan (FRP) community. 12:11:19 PM Rod Volz:Successfully reacting to and mitigating a situation depends on receiving accurate and timely information. To facilitate the flow of information, the OMNCS designed and developed the ERLink to be the focal point of information sharing within the emergency response community. 12:11:56 PM Rod Volz:Next slide please ... Over to you John 12:11:58 PM Avagene Moore:http://www.emforum.org/varena/erlink/sld004.htm 12:12:40 PM John OConnor:ERLink is a controlled access Web site providing the response community with a means of sharing information regarding response activities. ERLink was designed with the very basic principle of making information sharing easy. 12:13:21 PM John OConnor:The Internet was chosen as the backbone for its wide-reach and easy extension into emergency operation shops and into remote affected areas. 12:14:17 PM John OConnor:Avagene got a little ahead of ourselves. Should have sld0003 up. Sorry. 12:14:45 PM Avagene Moore:http://www.emforum.org/varena/erlink/sld003.htm 12:14:58 PM John OConnor:thanks 12:15:22 PM Avagene Moore:(Sorrry about that.) 12:15:30 PM John OConnor:Continuing with backbone discussion. 12:15:38 PM John OConnor:Development focused upon capitalizing on the point-and-click nature of the Internet for information retrieval. 12:15:59 PM John OConnor:Similarly, ERLink's point-and-click upload function allows emergency response personnel to upload and share information with the entire response community. 12:16:32 PM John OConnor:Avagene, sld004 please 12:16:38 PM Avagene Moore:http://www.emforum.org/varena/erlink/sld004.htm 12:16:42 PM John OConnor:Thanks 12:17:01 PM John OConnor:Rod please run through some of the benefits. 12:17:17 PM Rod Volz:I'll give you a moment to review the benefits slide and would then like to add some detail about security ... 12:18:18 PM Rod Volz:Now that you've had a couple moments to digest this information (benefits).... 12:18:25 PM Rod Volz:ERLink hosts operational information such as situation reports. While not classified, operational information is often sensitive and requires security precautions due to privacy issues such as casualties, contract funding, and unsubstantiated reports requiring confirmation. 12:19:07 PM Rod Volz:To achieve a balance between sharing and securing information, ERLink utilizes authentication, userid and passwords, and ... 12:19:31 PM Rod Volz:encryption, via Secure Socket Layer (SSL) technology built in to most web browsers, to provide the response community with a virtual private network to conduct operations. 12:20:05 PM Rod Volz:Turning back to you John .... next slide please... 12:20:07 PM Avagene Moore:http://www.emforum.org/varena/erlink/sld005.htm 12:20:15 PM John OConnor:Please take a quick review the "Why Use ERLink?" Slide 5 and I would like to say a little more about two items ... 12:20:55 PM John OConnor:Agreements with FEMA and the National Weather Service's National Hurricane Center (NHC) are improving the quality and value of information uploaded to ERLink... 12:21:23 PM John OConnor:The FEMA Daily Report is published daily (Mon - Fri) to ERLink. It is a summary of current activities and an outlook at potential problems. A screen capture of a typical report can be found at http://www.erlink.com/fdr.gif 12:22:15 PM John OConnor:Additionally, NHC data (such as weather conditions, storm intensity, and storm tracks) are now mirrored on ERLink. This provides the response community an alternative information source for hurricane data rather than having the community compete for resources from the public hurricane Web site... 12:23:04 PM John OConnor:during an actual event. Currently we are tracking Alex in the Atlantic and Darby in the Pacific. 12:23:21 PM John OConnor:A screen capture of the NHC mirror page on ERLink can be seen at http://www.erlink.com/nhc.gif 12:24:04 PM John OConnor:Rod, Next slide please ... 12:24:08 PM Avagene Moore:http://www.emforum.org/varena/erlink/sld006.htm 12:24:30 PM Rod Volz:How to become an ERLink user? 12:24:49 PM Rod Volz:Our user population comes primarily from these areas: Federal, State, and local Governments ... 12:25:00 PM Rod Volz:Police and fire Protection ... 12:25:13 PM Rod Volz:Private/charitable organizations (i.e., Red Cross) ... 12:25:46 PM Rod Volz:The above groups may also sponsor other users such as essential utility services. 12:27:13 PM Rod Volz:....again, our key user population if the Federal, State, and local Governments ... 12:27:30 PM Rod Volz:To apply for an account, register online at: http://www.erlink.com 12:28:07 PM Rod Volz:John will speak to our future plans.... 12:28:19 PM John OConnor:Future plans include ... 12:28:27 PM John OConnor:Continue to expand the user population ... 12:28:40 PM John OConnor:Integrate the primary and back-up ERLink webservers into a single network environment for improved redundancy ... 12:29:05 PM John OConnor:In addition to event specific data, add more regular features such as weather and operational reports ... 12:29:24 PM John OConnor:Finally, the ERLink program office will continue to work with the response community to improve functionality and operational utility. We solicit your feedback. 12:30:06 PM John OConnor:More information about ERLink and an account application form can be found at http://www.erlink.com 12:30:24 PM John OConnor:Additional information about the National Communications System is available at http://www.ncs.gov 12:30:39 PM John OConnor:Now we'll turn it back to the moderator for questions and answers .. 12:30:49 PM Avagene Moore:Thanks for the information on ERLink, John and Rod ... 12:31:00 PM Avagene Moore:We would like to take a moment here to review how we will handle the Q&A so that we have an orderly session. ... 12:31:10 PM Avagene Moore:We ask that you indicate that you have a question by typing just a question mark (?). ... 12:31:20 PM Rod Volz:You are welcome 12:31:25 PM Avagene Moore:hen you can prepare your question, but PLEASE HOLD (don't hit end or send) your question until ... 12:31:35 PM Avagene Moore:you are recognized. 12:31:40 PM Randall Duncan:? 12:31:47 PM Avagene Moore:Yes, Randy. 12:32:16 PM Randall Duncan:I'd like some clarification -- Rod and John mention law enforcement and fire. Are stand alond emergency management agencies able to register, too? 12:32:49 PM John OConnor:Yes we are open to the response community... 12:33:17 PM John OConnor:Randy could you provide a description of a stand-alone emergency management agency? 12:33:57 PM Randall Duncan:Certainly. Some local emergency management agencies report directly to local chief elected official, and are not part of law enforcement or fire. My agency is an example of that. 12:34:44 PM John OConnor:We can support to that level. Simply make the application request... 12:35:32 PM John OConnor:we have tried to follow a chain of command with the state agencies sponsoring county level and so forth down the structure .. 12:35:50 PM John OConnor:but if that is cumbersome just come directly to us. 12:35:56 PM Randall Duncan:Wonderful! Thank you for your support and making this available. I'm really excited about participating. I firmly believe that the sharing of information is a primary emergency management function. 12:36:01 PM Isabel McCurdy:? 12:36:20 PM chip hines:Go ahead Isabel... 12:36:23 PM Isabel McCurdy:Does ERLink have International applications? 12:37:05 PM Rod Volz:Isabel - that is a great question! We have given a lot of thought to this application... 12:37:42 PM Rod Volz:Currently, however, our plans are focusing on the immediate needs of the domestic emergency management communinity... 12:38:09 PM Rod Volz:Once we feel like we have accomplished our goals in this arena, then we'll set our sights on the International community... 12:38:28 PM Rod Volz:We believe there is a significant opportunity there to enable information sharing as well. 12:39:12 PM Avagene Moore:Other questions, please. 12:39:29 PM Isabel McCurdy:? 12:39:55 PM chip hines:The floor is yours Isabel... 12:40:03 PM Isabel McCurdy:Is there a cost associated with opening an account? 12:40:29 PM John OConnor:No cost is associated with opening an account... 12:40:48 PM John OConnor:the user does need to provide their own connection to the Internet ... 12:41:23 PM John OConnor:and a web browser (which are free). 12:41:39 PM John OConnor:The NCS picks up the tab for cost and maintenance of the servers. 12:42:24 PM Avagene Moore:? 12:42:39 PM chip hines:go ahead Avagene 12:42:41 PM Avagene Moore:How many users do you currently have? 12:43:00 PM John OConnor:Currently we have over 500 accounts created ... 12:43:19 PM John OConnor:most of these are on an individual basis ... 12:44:01 PM John OConnor:some, however, are group accounts since multiple people will be staffing an operations desk during an actual event. 12:44:34 PM annwillis:? 12:44:34 PM Avagene Moore:? 12:44:55 PM chip hines:Ann.. 12:45:13 PM annwillis:How many concurent users can your site handle during an incident? 12:46:00 PM John OConnor:The equipment in place can quite easily handle the current account load ... 12:46:28 PM John OConnor:based on average file transaction of approx. 50Kb ... 12:47:11 PM John OConnor:since it is a website users are usually on and off the system not camping on the server and tying up server resources. 12:47:23 PM chip hines:Avagene, please ask your question... 12:47:25 PM Avagene Moore:Can you track the amount of traffic on any given day in the system? 12:47:44 PM John OConnor:We can track those statistics ... 12:48:11 PM John OConnor:in general since most of the traffic is event driven it can vary wildly. 12:48:27 PM John OConnor:oops widely. 12:48:57 PM John OConnor:We are currently building the user base and that .. 12:49:22 PM chip hines:John, do you prefer that an organization has individual accounts or one group? 12:49:39 PM John OConnor:requires publishing and marketing the capability. 12:49:57 PM John OConnor:Chip, prefer individual accounts ... 12:50:17 PM John OConnor:to facilitate the accountability of information published to the server. 12:50:41 PM chip hines:Thanks, John. We have time for a few more questions... 12:51:23 PM Randall Duncan:? 12:51:25 PM annwillis:? 12:51:34 PM chip hines:go ahead randy 12:51:37 PM Randall Duncan:How is ERLink promoted, or is it right now? 12:51:52 PM John OConnor:A number of ways ... 12:52:16 PM Rod Volz:....for example, the demo site (www.erlink.com)... 12:52:39 PM John OConnor:participating in users forums such as the Technology partnership conference last week... 12:52:57 PM Rod Volz:...and particip...and of course, participation in EIIP! 12:53:16 PM John OConnor:Word of mouth has been very successful as well. 12:53:57 PM chip hines:And speaking of the Conference, thanks to NCS for their support to last weeks forum! Ann, go ahead with your question. 12:54:01 PM Rod Volz:....from our perspective, it's not about growing our user base...it's about fulfilling a need in the EM community... 12:54:11 PM annwillis:Have you looked at an intelligent push capability? See what information a specific account is accessing and then send updates automatically as they arrive. 12:54:29 PM John OConnor:Rod go ahead and finish your thought. 12:55:09 PM Rod Volz:... in that sense, we are reaching out to the EM community to solicit ideas, feedback, and recommendations for how we can make ERLink as effective as possible. 12:55:51 PM John OConnor:Ann, we are exploring technologies that are more proactive in notifiying the user ... 12:56:17 PM John OConnor:"push" is a great tool but you still need to develop the dissemination list and .. 12:56:40 PM John OConnor:you need to capture the information from whatever source, agency, organization so ... 12:57:17 PM John OConnor:that there is content that is meaningful and useful. Open for any suggestions regarding push you might have. 12:57:21 PM chip hines:I think we're about out of time for this outstanding presentation. Avagene, do you have some closing remarks? 12:57:46 PM Avagene Moore:Thanks Chip. Thanks to our speakers, of course ... 12:57:51 PM Avagene Moore:Join us Thursday evening at 8 PM EDT for our informal open Mutual Aid discussion --- any emergency management- related topic is welcome. ... 12:58:13 PM Avagene Moore:Next week is a biggie... 12:58:24 PM Avagene Moore: join us for the Round Table on Tuesday, 1:00 PM EDT, August 4th. ... 12:58:40 PM Avagene Moore:Wednesday, August 5, 12:00 Noon EDT, is our 1st Anniversary Celebration in the Virtual Forum. Don't miss that! ... 12:58:55 PM Avagene Moore:Our keynote speaker is Philippe Boulle, Director of the UN International Decade for Natural Hazard Reduction (IDNDR). Mr Boulle will speak to us from Geneva, Palais de Nations. ... 12:59:08 PM Avagene Moore:We will also honor our 100+ presenters of the year, including the speakers today, John O'Connor and Rod Volz. ... 12:59:36 PM Avagene Moore:An exciting time ... 12:59:49 PM Avagene Moore:we appreciate everyone's support and encouragement this year. Please come to the gala event ... 01:00:01 PM Avagene Moore:Happy Birthday to the Virtual Forum!!! ... 01:00:20 PM Avagene Moore:Thanks Chip for helping us today ... back to you, Chip. 01:01:03 PM chip hines:Thank you audience, and since our time is up, we will close down the Tech Arena for today, but we will be in the Virtual Forum room for a few minutes longer, and you are welcome to join us there for open discussion. Thank you for your cooperation.