Perspectives from the Technologies for Critical Incident Preparedness (TCIP) Conference and Expo in Philly

The 2010 TCIP Conference was a whirlwind week of catching up with old friends, meeting new ones and advancing life saving emergency response technologies.  The theme for this year’s conference was critical connections and the dual purpose of that theme was not lost on this crowd. The sessions focused on connecting emergency responders with technology while the hallways were filled with practitioners, government officials, and members of industry connecting with each other for a multitude of collaboration opportunities.  It was great to have so many smart focused people at the same event working together to address the needs of the public safety community. The discussions in the sessions overflowed into the hallways – the GIS panel alone could have been a full day session, but alas the presentations and subsequent questions had to fit into an hour and a half.  It was very interesting to see which breakouts drew the biggest crowds: the GIS, open source, and federal resources panels all generated a lot of interest.  Planning for the TCIP 2011 agenda has already begun and we are looking for your ideas on which topics to cover. Let us know and we will be sure to convey them.

by Neil Canfield

The 2010 Technologies for Critical Incident Preparedness Conference (TCIP) offered a packed program.  After attending sessions scattered throughout the three day schedule, I walked away from Philadelphia with a notebook full of interesting initiatives.  As Bob mentions below, the initiative that drew the most attention from the attendees at TCIP was Virtual USA (vUSA).  The information sharing possibilities and “critical connections” that vUSA presents the first responder community was definitely the core theme of the conference.  In fact, one of the breakout sessions I attended highlighted how the vUSA model can change and revolutionize the way that technology solutions are utilized by first responders during a critical incident.  While listening to the speakers in the Breaking Down Stovepipes: Using Open Source Tools for Emergency Response Personnel panel, it was exciting to think about the benefits that open technology solutions can provide.  The panel gave an example of how open source tools can quickly and efficiently connect people, organizations, requests, and assistance through highlighting the Haiti 2010 Sahana Disaster Response Portal.  The Sahana Foundation built the site to assist in the response and recovery of the Haiti Earthquake, and as is true of open source solutions, it is specifically targeted to the need.  It was amazing to witness how technology innovations can help to transform the way that information sharing during disaster response is undertaken.  I am looking forward to the initiatives that will be undertaken using open source technology; they may be the next big thing highlighted at TCIP 2011.

by Bob Greenberg

To me this year’s TCIP conference was the best of all the 11 I’ve been involved with – and for one reason – there was a core thematic – Virtual USA (vUSA).  While not every panel addressed it – because there were plenty of other critical issues to talk about – vUSA provided a framework for numerous discussions  in the hallways, restaurants and bars about the dramatic transformations that can take place in the way public safety does their job through the use of Web 2.0 and related technologies.  By demonstrating to the audience in the opening session, followed by a powerful endorsement by White House Deputy Chief Technology Officer Scott Deutchman the following day, how these new technologies are already working to transform emergency management and response – it served as an inspiration and guide for the rest of the conference.  As a result the Philadelphia Marriott was “abuzz” with conversations between technologists and practitioners on the application of social media to day-to-day operations;  the use of open source technologies and methods; linking advanced simulation and modeling to the visualization platforms used in vUSA; and even looking to the next phase – what is called the semantic web or  “linkeddata”  which will enable completely seamless – and almost effortless – sharing of information.  In fact, I was involved in one discussion with someone from MIT on this that had my head spinning with the art – and science – of the possible.

It all culminated in the Technology Roundtable that was hosted by Dr. David Boyd from DHS S&T – and the leader of the vUSA initiative – that brought together practitioners, technologists and academics for a “team” meeting on how all this needs to work.  The group – which was packed in like sardines in one of the rooms – had a spirited dialogue on how the private sector needs to work more closely with practitioners up front to avoid the tendency to create technology solutions in search of a problem and instead create solutions to solve practitioners’ problems. One of the core parts of the discussion was the need to create new business models so that the technologies being offered are not too expensive to deploy or don’t hamper interoperability due to their proprietary nature. This was the first in a series of such dialogues that will be coordinated between DHS and the TechNet Crisis Response Working Group. (E-mail KVernon@Technet.org for more info) While at times the dialogue was testy, at the end everyone understood that they were one team and had to act that way for the public good. It left me truly believing that the future is now!