CHICAGO – Michael Byrne, former member of the New York City Fire Department, started out the discussion about how technology can save money with a bold statement: “Web 2.0 is biggest shift in how we communicate since the introduction of the telegraph.” At an afternoon break-out session at the National Conference on Emergency Communications, he backed up this statement by explaining that social networking capabilities have replaced traditional one-way communications with dialogue. “It’s a dialogue that’s taking place that makes it faster to get input from the constituents then ever before,” he stated.

Speed is not the only benefit of Web 2.0 technologies. Byrne pointed out that most services are free. “Twitter hasn’t figured out how to make money yet, but it’s not costing the user anything, nor are any of the social media sites,” he stated.

Web 2.0 capabilities also are more pervasive today than they were even a year ago. This represents a dramatic shift, he stated. For example, Earth has an estimated population of 6 billion, and the latest estimate is that, as of last year, 3.75 billion people own a cell phone, and many of the devices are used for more than voice communications. “That’s an accessibility shift that is breaking the boundaries,” Byrne stated.

Like many social networking advocates, Byrne is an aficionado of “The Wisdom of Crowds,” a book written by James Surowiecki that proposes that better solutions result from many people participating in a discussion. One example of this was the aftermath of the shootings at Virginia Tech. Students immediately accessed Facebook to let their families know that they were all right. Public safety officials were able to access this data to help determine the number of injured and killed. And, most importantly, when inaccurate information was posted, it was corrected by another Facebook participant quickly. “This is an example of self-generated and self-correcting information,” he stated.

Byrne shared another fascinating fact about social networking Web sites: more usage is occurring in older generations. Last year, the fastest growing group was the 35- to 50-year-olds; the second largest growing group was age 50 and above.

Unfortunately, the bad news about social networking capabilities is that adversaries use it too. For example, in the Mumbai attacks, terrorists used Web 2.0 technologies like Google Earth and Twitter to plan and execute the attack.

Despite the chance of malfeasance and errors, Byrne is a staunch advocate for Web 2.0 use by public safety personnel. “Let’s not let perfect be the enemy of good here. If we open up ourselves to these technologies, we’ll make better decisions,” he stated.

John Sendejar, external relations manager, Corpus Christi Digital Community Development Corporation, explained how his city is ensuring that Web 2.0 technologies can be used throughout the city. The City Wireless Network Project is the second largest wireless meshed network worldwide.

Discussions to bring Wi-Fi to the entire city began with a proof of concept in 2004, and by August 2006 the first automated utility meter-reading program was implemented. Sendejar explained that most cities will discover that utility services are the most likely candidates for initial usage of meshed networks because the capability enhances business.

Corpus Christi currently has 1248 Tropos 5210 canopy radios disbursed throughout the city, and several city facilities are hot spots

Although the citywide network started as in the utility sector, Sendejar predicted that there will be many other uses for the infrastructure, including public safety, restaurant inspections, fire inspections, animal control and building inspectionss. In addition, the mesh network enables law enforcement personnel to conduct covert surveillance when warranted, he pointed out.

CHICAGO – National Conference on Emergency Communications attendees interested in grants to fund local programs heard about recent changes to the program during a Thursday session titled “Show Me the Money: Understanding the Grants Process.” The Honorable W. Ross Ashley III, FEMA Grant Programs Directorate, DHS, pointed out that partnership is not only the key theme for this conference but also for his directorate.

In testifying in front of Congress, Ashley and Chris Essid, director, Office of Emergency Communications, DHS, have been asked why so much money dedicated to emergency preparedness is still sitting in the federal treasury. Nearly $1 billion was allocated by the Senate to the U.S. Department of Commerce for the Public Safety Interoperable Communications Grant Program. Through a memorandum of understanding, DHS was assigned to manage this Commerce Department money for emergency preparedness programs. However, to date, the majority of the money in this account has not been been spent, Ashley stated.

“On September 30, 2010, if that money is not drawn down, it goes away. The federal government is working with local communities to help them draw that money down. Many states do not understand that once a contract is signed and the commitment made to purchase a capability or service, they can–if state laws allow–draw that money out of the Federal Reserve. Don’t wait until the end of the fiscal year to request that money,” he advised.

“Our partnerships are key to helping us reach out to stakeholders, find out what the priorities are, and make sure we can fund interoperability coordinators at the state level,” he added.

Ashley revealed that there are 19 different preparedness grants, all but one or two of them touch on interoperability. “It’s the number one target capability,” he stated. FEMA and the grant programs direct between $7 billion and $10 billion annually, all for preparedness.

Referring specifically to interoperability and the technology connection, Ashley noted that in the 1997 timeframe, the question was “When lives are at stake, why can’t we talk?” At that time, inadequate technology was the problem, he said. “We no longer have technology as an excuse. The technology is there. Any number of companies out there have solutions, and there are all kinds of excuses for not using it, but the number one reason is planning and people.”

Because $3.2 billion has been spent on interoperability from 2004 to 2008, Congress is asking what has been done with all that money when interoperability problems continue. “We’re buying a lot of equipment, but we’re not investing enough time with the planning of what we do with the stuff. That’s where we need to invest money today,” Ashley maintained. An organization’s ability to work with state administrative agent is important, he added, because most of the grant money goes through the state administrative agent.

Metrics for success have become very important in grant program assessments. In the past, the federal government asked for information about upcoming plans, and states provided massive amounts of information. “We ended up with a breadth of information, but it was not very deep,” Ashley explained. This process has now been turned on its head to disperse grant money more effectively. Now, states are notified about how much money they will receive—taking into consideration current economic challenges—and they will be able to prioritize their purchases based on that amount. “Now the information is not very wide, but it will be deeper because you will be able to tell us how you will spend the money that you know you’re going to get. Rather than a lot of information on the front end, we want to know what you’ve accomplished,” he stated.

CHICAGO – Juliette Kayyem, assistant secretary for intergovernmental programs, DHS, led off Thursday afternoon’s interactions at the National Conference on Emergency Communications. Kayyem came to the federal government from her position with the Commonwealth of Massachusetts where she was the governor’s go-to person for homeland security.

Kayyem began her presentation talking about Janet Napolitano, DHS secretary, and the benefit of having a former governor in that leadership position. “Napolitano began with a directive to determine how to integrate state and federal policies,” she said. This helped Kayyem and the department understand what everyone needs and does. Demanding that states go through the DHS to get work done will not work, Kayyem added. The issue, however, is if the people and the resources spent within the states and localities are being helpful.

“The culture of integration has to be institutionalized within the department [DHS],” Kayyem said. Help is needed from the public safety community to make sure the DHS is on track with this goal, she stated.

The emergency response community is large and disparate, Kayyem noted, and this is a challenge. The second challenge, however, is the fiscal crisis individual agencies are experiencing; localities will have very little tolerance of instructions from the federal level that does not include financial support, and the DHS has to be sympathetic to this.

Strategically, federal, state and local planning requires meetings such as this conference, Kayyem noted, and this interaction needs to be modeled throughout the DHS because discussions promote understanding. “It’s hard to be sympathetic about the crash if you haven’t been invited to the take-off,” Kayyem said.

She emphasized that public safety entities may not think of themselves as political, but they actually are part of political entities. This often leads to miscommunication because political leaders do not understand what the public safety sector needs. DHS needs to determikne how it can empower these organizations, she said.

Referring to her experience at the state level, Kayyem stated, “After a while, my interaction with [public safety] groups made me realize that if I couldn’t tell a story about how we would spend a certain amount of money, the project would fail terribly. Although there were a lot of nice pieces of the state interoperability plan, it was not clear if there was a story to explain it adequately to the governor,” she stated. This narrative is necessary for everyone to understand the common mission and common capability.

“We need to make interoperability a primary issue and get it up front. We’ve talked about it for a long time, and we know that the problems are 10 percent or 20 percent technology. Now we’re working on the governance, which will make the job of bringing attention to interoperability easier,” she said.

CHICAGO – Day two of the National Conference on Emergency Communications demonstrated that, as hoped, networking is the norm for this event. The chatter from first responder organization representatives from throughout the United States before the morning break-out sessions was nearly deafening.

Jeffrey Cohen, acting deputy chief, Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau, FCC, led one of five break-out sessions, “Industry Partners: Working Effectively with Industry Partners in Operational Response.” Cohen, along with Robert Desiato, director, network disaster recovery, AT&T, and Jerry McConnell, operations manager, Motorola, described the processes and technologies their respective organizations have put into place for disaster response.

Cohen spoke about the FCC’s Project Roll Call, a vehicle-mounted spectrum analyzer that assesses the number of communications licensees in an area prior to a disaster. The vehicle then returns to the area after the event to determine who is missing so communications can be restored. In addition, the FCC is reaching out to a variety of organizations in the private sector, such as emergency operations centers, broadcasters and trauma centers, to determine what they need to prepare for emergencies. Also, the FCC has created the Disaster Information Reporting System, which is a voluntary Web-based program that collects information from communications providers.

The 700 megahertz spectrum was a topic of great interest to many in the audience. Of the newly available spectrum, which is the result of the television analog-to-digital conversion, 36 megahertz will be allocated to the private sector and 24 megahertz to public safety support.

Desiato explained that AT&T carries more than 17,000 terabytes of data daily. Reliability is based on survivability, so the equipment and its emergency vehicles are stored in six unmarked warehouses, five in the U.S. and one in Europe. Exercises and training take place four to five times annually; one exercise is scheduled to take place in the Washington, D.C., area in mid July.

One of the lessons AT&T learned on September 11, 2001, was a need for a hazardous material (HAZMAT) capability. As a result, the company created its own HAZMAT teams that are trained along and with local emergency responders. The terrorists attacks also revealed the company’s need for “meet points.” When air travel was not possible immediately following September 11, many AT&T personnel drove their own vehicles across the country to the terrorist attack sites. Now, they congregate at central points then caravan into the disaster area. “Every time we go through an event, we learn something,” Desiato said.

McConnell explained that Motorola has ramped up its emergency response capabilities during the past five years. In the case of a catastrophe, Motorola will respond to the needs of customers and noncustomers alike, he stated.

To improve its disaster response processes, the company brought together its business managers to develop plans. The processes were then turned over to the personnel responsible for executing the plan for further development. Response processes to restore communications or improve communications now have been documented and practice continues.

All three presenters talked about how cooperation between the private and public sectors can be improved. Desiato related the need for standard procedures to gain access to disaster areas. For example, AT&T may have federal permission to enter an area, but local authorities, who are unaware that permission has been granted, stop the technicians from entering an area. McConnell noted that both large and small government agencies are disjointed in their processes and programs. Coordination in this area is needed, he stated. Cohen explained that on a regular basis the FCC is examining how to improve communications with vendors.

CHICAGO – Two case studies were the topic of discussion during the final presentation of the first day of the National Conference on Emergency Communications. The discussions centered around two large-scale multijurisdictional responses: one unplanned and one planned.

Scott Wiggins, director, division of emergency communication networks, Minnesota Department of Public Safety, described the details about the I-35W bridge collapse in Minneapolis in 2007. The bridge collapsed because of a design flaw and the additional weight on the bridge caused by the equipment needed for ongoing construction.

Wiggins explained that the event involved a number of variables: water rescues, fires and an unknown substance leak. In total 176 agencies responded to the event. A number of different communications systems were employed, including 27,000 push-to-talk devices. Although a multitude of systems were used, the longest period of connection wait-times was 95 seconds. By the following morning, only 1 percent of the push-to-talk devices received a busy signal.

Demetrios “Jim” Vlassopoulos, deputy fire chief, Washington, D.C., Fire and Emergency Management Services Department, shared his experiences during preparations for the 2009 presidential inauguration. He explained the number of challenges the event posed, including communications coordination for more than 70 federal, city and regional agencies. Vlassopoulos’ organization was primarily responsible for emergency transport during the event. He pointed out that many of the thousands of people who showed up for the event arrived extremely early, before the emergency medical tents were set up. This put extra stress on the local 9-11 service.

The Secret Service was the lead agency in charge of the National Special Security Event. Many of the emergency personnel attended meetings up to five months prior to the January 2009 event, and these were extremely beneficial, Vlassopoulos said. A communications plan was coordinated during this time that involved additional meetings with local representatives; the final communications systems were provided by a contractor.

Private and public networks were used that provided data, text messaging, video and voice communications; various infrastructures were melded to achieve interoperability. Extensive testing in addition to tabletop exercises took place prior to the event so problems could be mitigated, he explained. Washington, D.C., emergency personnel took advantage of federal and state resources, many of which also are available to other jurisdictions.

The Council of Governments was instrumental in coordinating activities before the event, Vlassopoulos added. He added that the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, actually were not the impetus for this level of coordination. Instead, the aircraft crash into the 14th Street bridge, which occurred in the 1980s, started the ball rolling for metropolitan coordination, he pointed out.

CHICAGO – Both federal and local emergency response leaders opened the first formal session of the National Conference on Emergency Communications by inviting attendees to share openly their success stories as well as the challenges they face. More than 450 representatives from emergency response organizations are attending the conference, including personnel from the military as well as large and small U.S. communities and Guam, Hawaii, the United Kingdom and Canada.

Although technology was on everyone’s mind, Raymond Orozco, director, Chicago Office of Emergency Management, emphasized that interoperability is about more than radios and computer systems. “We need to make sure that operations drive the technology and not the other way around,” Orozco said. Theodore O’Keefe, deputy superintendent, Chicago Police Department, added that “sometimes interoperability can present daunting challenges for us, challenges that we face every day.”

The primary focus of the two-hour afternoon session was the National Emergency Communications Plan (NECP). The plan was released in July 2008, and includes three goals for communications improvements during the next three years. The goals focus on establishing response-level communications within hours of an incident. According to Chris Essid, director, Office of Emergency Communications, DHS, implementation of the plan is going well. Of the 93 milestones that comprise the plan, nearly 20 already have been met.

Essid also emphasized that the NECP is not a federal plan but rather one that includes the input and ideas from first responder organizations throughout the United States and its territories. Consequently, it is up to all of these organizations to make the plan work, he said. Most importantly, the goal is to make the NECP more than just a document; it is meant to be a roadmap for the future and remain viable and current.

“The NECP will help us focus on priorities. These are not all of the priorities. I like to think of it as the first five to 10 miles of a marathon. You can’t complete a marathon without the first five to 10 miles,” Essid said. In addition, he emphasized, the activities outlined in the plan must be completed; the NECP is not just a book to put on the shelf.

Both DHS and the OEC are well aware of the economic challenges that cities and regions face; however, because missions must still be completed, they will simply have to be done more efficiently and effectively, Essid said. Grant programs have been restructured to meet some of these needs, he noted. Using social media tools also can help facilitate communications, he added.

After the initial presentations, Chris McGoff, discussion facilitator, stressed that the conference belongs to the attendees, made sure that everyone had a copy of the NECP and directed audience members at eight-person tables to discuss the plan. After introductions, they were to dig right in and converse about the plan, ask each other questions and determine if someone at the table had the answers. Those questions that the team could not answer were then answered “by the most knowledgeable person in the room” rather than designated panelists.

Attendees were invited to e-mail their questions to oec@hq.dhs.gov, and the e-mailed were then read aloud; many of the answers were provided by OEC leaders. Questions can continue to be sent to this e-mail address by conference attendees as well as emergency personnel unable to attend the event throughout the conference.

CHICAGO – The first National Conference on Emergency Communications opened today with the goal of creating a national forum for emergency responders. In addition, the conference has been designed to clarify roles and initiatives the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Office of Emergency Communications (OEC) and its partner programs are leading.

Representatives from the federal government will be listening to conference attendees from state, local and regional organizations to improve their understanding of the challenges they face as well as the successes they have achieved. In a pre-conference conversation, Taylor Heard, deputy director, OEC, DHS, emphasized the importance of events such as these that allow key emergency response personnel not only to discover interoperability challenges but also meet each other face to face.

Establishing a forum for peer mentoring and feedback on topics critical to the evolution of emergency communications capabilities across the United States is one of the outcomes the OEC hopes to achieve during this event. Another objective is identifying OEC as the focal point within the federal government for support to the emergency response community. Through presentations and break-out sessions, attendees will learn about the DHS’ common vision for coordinating communications at the federal, state, local and tribal levels. Implementation of the National Emergency Communications Plan is central to discussions that will take place.