Amy Sebring: Welcome to the EIIP Virtual Forum! Our session today is an introduction and tour of DisasterHelp.gov. But first for the benefit of any newcomers amongst us ... Amy Sebring: we will be using several 'slides' today, so if you see a blue hyperlink, please click on it and it should open in another browser window. If it covers your chat window, then you will need to bring your chat window back to the top after viewing. Amy Sebring: Subsequent slides may not come to the top automatically so you may need to locate it and bring it to the top to view. Since we have so much to cover, we may go through them somewhat quickly, but you can refer back and look at them more closely once the transcript is posted. Amy Sebring: Here is a practice slide http://www.emforum.org/varena/dh/slide01.htm Amy Sebring: Please do not send private messages to our presenters as they will be quite busy. If you need assistance, you may send a private message to Avagene Moore. Amy Sebring: We will begin with a presentation and then we will invite your questions. I will provide further instructions just before we begin the Q&A section, but you may wish to jot your questions down as we go through the presentation. Amy Sebring: In addition to our two presenters, we also have online with us today Sumeet Luthra, and Brandi Miller with Dave Epperson in the background, all knowledgable individuals from FEMA, who will help us with responding to your questions later on. Amy Sebring: As I mentioned, we are going to be covering quite a bit of material today and Margie Dickerson from Appian Corporation has prepared a tour, not only of the parts you may have already looked at, but also some parts you may not have seen yet. Amy Sebring: But first, Art Slavinski with formerly CMI-Services, now Disaster Management Interoperability Services will begin with a few words about the project purpose and background. Art, welcome back to the Forum, and will you start us off please. Art Slavinski: Thanks Amy. As mentioned in the announcement for this program today, Disasterhelp.gov was fielded to the Nation on 25 November 2002. Art Slavinski: This portal was established under the President's Management Agenda where he states, "I will expand the use of the Internet to empower citizens, Art Slavinski: allowing them to request customized information from Washington when they need it...not just when Washington wants to give it to them. Art Slavinski: FEMA was assigned this project by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), who is leading the charge to expand e-government. Art Slavinski: portal. This portal will ultimately provide support disaster Art Slavinski: assistance and crisis response. The site will also provide citizens with a single location for obtaining all publicly available information Art Slavinski: on disaster preparedness and response, make this service available via multiple access channels, and will minimize the impacts of disaster-inflicted damage. Art Slavinski: Disasterhelp.gov will also maximize the availability of information to responding agencies by aggregating their disaster management operations and Art Slavinski: simplifying access to services offered, ease the strain of content management ...disseminate "best practices" information for managing Government Art Slavinski: IT assets and establish cost containment measures for future system improvements. There are two elements to the disasterhelp.gov site -- a public Art Slavinski: portal and a government portal. In our tour this afternoon, you will see examples of both aspects. I would now like to introduce our 'tour guide' Art Slavinski: Ms. Margie Dickenson of Appian Corporation. Appian Corporation specializes in building massively scalable systems quickly and has previously built Art Slavinski: the Army Knowledge Online and Navy Knowledge Online portals. Please take over Margie. Margie Dickerson: Thanks Art. Today I will focus on the following three areas: (1) An overview of the portal's major features (2) Customization capability within the portal and (3) Community page creation and maintenance Margie Dickerson: Before I dive into my discussion, I want to briefly touch on the definition of a portal. A web portal is meant to serve as a gateway to information and other applications. It should be a one-stop location where you can obtain any and all resources out there pertaining to disaster help. Margie Dickerson: A portal is also a place where you can go to collaborate with other users on topics of interest to you and your community. As you will see in the following demonstration, the DisasterHelp.gov portal provides both a place to go for information ... Margie Dickerson: and a place to join forces with other users across the country to share ideas and resources. Margie Dickerson: DisasterHelp.gov will allow you to: * Gather information relevant to you into a single source * Communicate directly with other members of the DisasterHelp and Emergency Responders community Margie Dickerson: * Download and Upload files from the DisasterHelp Enterprise Collaboration Center * View news and headlines from multiple sources * Chat and meet online with other DisasterHelp users Margie Dickerson: Another definition of importance is that of a channel. Channels act as windows to different information within the portal. They are displayed as smaller sections of a portal page. Margie Dickerson: A good example of this is the National Threat Level Channel that is on the home page of the portal. Amy, slide 2 please. Amy Sebring: http://www.emforum.org/varena/dh/slide02.htm Margie Dickerson: Finally, you need to understand the four levels of access that are available. First, an unregistered user will have access to all site content with the exception of the customization and collaboration tools, which we will discuss later. Margie Dickerson: Second, when a user submits the registration information through the site, he/she will then gain access to the personalization features which we will also be viewing later. Margie Dickerson: Third, when a registered user is validated, he/she will then gain additional access to the collaboration tools, including instant messenging and knowledge centers. And finally ... Margie Dickerson: an Administrator has all of the above, as well as privileges to create and maintain community pages. Regarding the latter two designations, validated user and administrator, ... Margie Dickerson: we are still working out the exact mechanism by which these privileges may be requested. In the meantime, you can send your request to be a full validated user and/or administrator to me at dickerson@appiancorp.com Margie Dickerson: Overview of Portal's Major Features - Search: DisasterHelp has three main ways by which to search related content and documents throughout the Internet. Margie Dickerson: 1. The Portal Search on the left side bar of the home page opens up to a Links Search that has the capability to pull back thousands of results. In addition to using a search term, you can refine your search based on disaster type, location, role, and disaster phase. Amy, slide 3 please. Amy Sebring: Margie, for some reason our slides are loading exceptionally slowly today ... Amy Sebring: I apologize, it may be a higher than usual load on the server ... Amy Sebring: so we will try to wait a little longer. Amy Sebring: http://www.emforum.org/varena/dh/slide03.htm Margie Dickerson: 2. The Advanced Search on the left side bar of the home page opens up to a search capable of searching by keywords in links, documents, author name, and other metadata. Amy, slide 4 please. Amy Sebring: http://www.emforum.org/varena/dh/slide04.htm Margie Dickerson: 3. And finally, the Quick Links Search on the left side bar of the home page allows you to submit searches based on an intricate set of topics that have been constructed based on users most searched subjects. Amy, slide 5 please. Amy Sebring: http://www.emforum.org/varena/dh/slide05.htm Margie Dickerson: News: DisasterHelp pulls news headlines from a variety of sources. You are also able to create your own news channels to pull headlines from a designated news source on any key words you wish. Amy, slide 6 please. Amy Sebring: http://www.emforum.org/varena/dh/slide06.htm Margie Dickerson: The Disaster Headlines on the front page and the home page are pulled dynamically from the FEMA website. The Active National Disasters channel on the front page and home page is another live feed of news. Lloyd Colston: ? Margie Dickerson: This area of DisasterHelp allows you to choose any current Active National Disaster and see up to the minute information from FEMA. Amy, slide 7 please. Amy Sebring: http://www.emforum.org/varena/dh/slide07.htm Margie Dickerson: Communities: Communities are the true content of DisasterHelp. Each community has an unlimited amount of space on DisasterHelp, with which they have endless opportunities. We will cover this further in the community administration portion of the discussion. Margie Dickerson: As a quick overview, community pages are pages where communities can post content they want to share with the entire DisasterHelp user base. The communities are located on the left side bar as you travel throughout the portal. Margie Dickerson: Currently, the community pages are divided into four sections: Disasters, Regions, Responders, and Partners. We expect the list of communities and subcommunities to expand rapidly. Amy, slide 8 please. Amy Sebring: http://www.emforum.org/varena/dh/slide08.htm Margie Dickerson: Instant Messenger and Chat: DisasterHelp Instant Messaging (IM) and Chat draws the Disaster Management community closer together, allowing simple, real-time communication in an industry that relies on rapid response. Margie Dickerson: DisasterHelp IM connects Verified Users with one another for a one-on-one chat session, making it easy to share knowledge in an efficient manner. DisasterHelp Chat allows multiple users to converse in the same chat room ... Margie Dickerson: making DisasterHelp Chat capabilities ideal for group meetings on important, time-sensitive issues. Amy, slide 9 please. Amy Sebring: http://www.emforum.org/varena/dh/slide09.htm Margie Dickerson: Collaboration Center: The Enterprise Collaboration Center (ECC) is a powerful tool that allows you to share documents with members of your community and other communities. Margie Dickerson: The ECC acts as a central repository for the knowledge of your community, making these documents easy to view and making it easy to set access permissions for sensitive documents. Amy, slide 19 please. Amy Sebring: http://www.emforum.org/varena/dh/slide19.htm Margie Dickerson: Individual users have their own area of the ECC to which they can upload private files. They can also create their own Knowledge Centers where they can upload files to be shared with a team or group. Amy, slide 10 please. Amy Sebring: http://www.emforum.org/varena/dh/slide10.htm rickeng.49: whats up everyone Margie Dickerson: Community administrators have an unlimited amount of space they can use to upload files and create Knowledge Centers. Amy, slide 11 please. Amy Sebring: http://www.emforum.org/varena/dh/slide11.htm Amy Sebring: Again, if you are having difficulty with loading slides, please review later when we have them posted. Margie Dickerson: There is a wide range of security that can be applied to the Knowledge Centers and subfolders to restrict access to documents. Margie Dickerson: Security ranges from locking down the Knowledge Center to only a set number of people that the administrator lists, to allowing any registered DisasterHelp user access to the documents. Amy, slide 20 please. Amy Sebring: http://www.emforum.org/varena/dh/slide20.htm Margie Dickerson: Customization Capability within the Portal: Users have the ability to create their own customized pages and channels at DisasterHelp.gov. With a customized personal page you can place all of the information that you care about in a single location. Margie Dickerson: Each time you log on and view your personal page you will see all of the channels that you have placed there, giving you quick and easy access to information that is important to you. Margie Dickerson: Registering and creating a customized personal page allows you to see what you want with only one click. All of the functionality discussed below is accessible by clicking on the "Customize" tab within DisasterHelp. Margie Dickerson: Creating a Personal Page: STEP 1: Enter the name of your new page and click the submit button. Amy, slide 12 please. Amy Sebring: http://www.emforum.org/varena/dh/slide12.htm Margie Dickerson: STEP 2: Check your new Personal Page in the portal - After you create your Personal Page, your portal view will reload, and your new Personal Page will appear as the last tab along the top. If you click on the tab, your new page will load but will be empty. Margie Dickerson: STEP 3: Add channels to your Personal Page - To add content to your new Personal Page, click on the link to "Personal Page Content" in the Customization menu. You will then be redirected to "Personal Page Content," where you can select your channels and modify the layout of your Personal Page. Amy, slide 13 please. Amy Sebring: http://www.emforum.org/varena/dh/slide13.htm Margie Dickerson: Adding Content to your Personal Page: STEP 1: Select a Channel Category - Channels are organized into common categories to help you find them quickly. Select the channel category option that best suits your needs Margie Dickerson: STEP 2: Select a Channel - After selecting a Channel Category to view, the available channels in that category appear under Step 2. You will then be able to find the channel you want and add it to your Personal Page using the "Add to Left" or "Add to Right" button. Margie Dickerson: STEP 3: Organize Your Page - After you have added a channel to your Personal Page in Step 2, the channel will then appear in Step 3 in the column you specified. You can then choose to move it up or down relative to the other channels in your Personal Page, or delete it entirely by clicking on the channel. Margie Dickerson: Be sure to click "Save Changes" once you have finished editing the layout of your page. After you have clicked "Save Changes," your Personal Page will automatically reload in your portal view with your changes reflected. Margie Dickerson: Creating Custom Channels: In addition to selecting from the common list of DHelp channels, you have the option of creating Custom Channels to add to your Personal Page. Margie Dickerson: The "Custom Channels" option allows you to create channels using one of two standard channel templates: Headline or Webpage. You can also delete any Custom Channels you create. Amy, slide 14 please. Amy Sebring: http://www.emforum.org/varena/dh/slide14.htm Margie Dickerson: STEP 1: Select New Channel Template: Headline Channel - Displays news headlines available on the web on a topic that you choose, or Webpage Channel - Creates a channel that displays a separate website directly in the portal. Margie Dickerson: STEP 2: Fill in the necessary information: Headline Channel - Keywords that you would like the news source to produce stories about or Webpage Channel - The exact URL that you would like to appear in the window Margie Dickerson: After creating a custom channel, you must go back to the Page Layout area of your personal page and add the channel to your page. Margie Dickerson: Changing Dhelp Appearance: Portal channels are divided into four parts, each of which you can modify as to background color, font or font color. You can set your preferences by selecting Appearance from the Customize page. Margie Dickerson: As you select each of these colors and fonts, you can preview the results of your selections in the Channel Preview window. Be sure to click "Save Changes" once you are finished selecting your Appearance options. Please note that your changes will not take effect until you have clicked "Save Changes". Margie Dickerson: Change Password and User Profile: The final piece of customization within DisasterHelp is your ability to update your User Profile and password by selecting User Profile from the Customize page. User Profile information is not made public, and is never provided to any outside source. Margie Dickerson: I have created a personal page with news Headlines, a Webpage channel of www.google.com, and some other channels of interest. Amy, slide 15 please. Amy Sebring: http://www.emforum.org/varena/dh/slide15.htm Margie Dickerson: Community Page Creation and Maintenance: As mentioned earlier, communities have an unlimited amount of space within DisasterHelp. Communities can create as many pages and subpages as they wish. Communities also have unlimited space within the ECC. They can create as many Knowledge Centers as they wish. Margie Dickerson: Communities within DisasterHelp are currently organized into 54 top-level communities. These top-level communities are on the left side bar of the portal. They include Tornado, Fire Personnel, Region I, and USDA as some examples. Margie Dickerson: These 54 communities can now have as many subcommunities as they wish. For example, Region I might want a subcommunity for each of the states in the Region. Then each of those states might want a subcommunity for each of its major cities. The possibilities are endless. Margie Dickerson: All of the following functionality is accessible by clicking on the Admin tab within DisasterHelp. We will now briefly cover community page administration although we do not have time today to go into much detail. Please note the Admin Console Help option when we display the Admin tab slide in a moment. Margie Dickerson: Creating a Community Page: There are two ways to create a community page. An administrator can create a community page from scratch', or they can create a "template" of a page that automatically populates the page with some default content'. Margie Dickerson: With any community page, 4 channels are automatically generated: Leader Message Channel, Group Message Channel, Links Channel and Calendar Channel. Here is the view of Create a Page Lite where instructions are provided. Amy, slide 16 please. Amy Sebring: http://www.emforum.org/varena/dh/slide16.htm Margie Dickerson: Editing a Community Page: Once your page is created, editing a community page is very similar to adding and removing channels from your own personal page. Once you have selected your page, you will get a page layout screen almost identical to the one in the personalize area. Amy, slide 17 please. Amy Sebring: http://www.emforum.org/varena/dh/slide17.htm Margie Dickerson: Creating and Editing Community Channels: Communities have seven different types of channels that they can create and edit. Amy, slide 18 please. Amy Sebring: http://www.emforum.org/varena/dh/slide18.htm Margie Dickerson: 1) Leader Message Channel - encapsulates information about a community's top leader. This channel typically displays four pieces of information: A picture of the leader; The leader's name and position; A statement or quote from the leader; A link to a web site containing more biographical information about the leader. Margie Dickerson: 2) Group Message Channel - The Group Message Channel, also known as the Community Announcement Channel, is used to provide updates to the community like a 'news flash'. The Group Message Channel displays a series of these messages in chronological order. Margie Dickerson: 3) Links Channel - A Links Channel is a channel that contains a list of links to outside web sites. Margie Dickerson: 4) Web Page Channel - A Web Page Channel is a way of pulling an external web page into a small window. Each Web Page Channel also offers the option to click on a link, which will open the enclosed web site in a full- sized browser. Margie Dickerson: 5) Calendar Channel - A Calendar Channel may be used to schedule any kind of meeting or appointment, commonly called 'events.' Margie Dickerson: 6) Mini Web Site Channel - A Mini Web Page Channel is a way for an administrator to create a page that acts like a full web page. Each Mini Web Page Channel can contain pictures, text, links, and descriptions. Margie Dickerson: 7) Headline Channel - A Headline Channel is a channel that contains a list of headlines, with links to the full story. These links are generated by a keyword that is specified when the channel is created. Margie Dickerson: In closing, DisasterHelp is built on a tested platform currently being used by both the U.S. Navy and Army as internal portals. It will provide users the ability to find a variety of information, and the toolset necessary to share information across the nation. Margie Dickerson: DisasterHelp will succeed when users like you contribute - adding content to community pages, creating custom channels, uploading documents to the knowledge centers, and creating chat rooms. DisasterHelp has feedback available on the left side bar of the site. Please submit your thoughts and ideas as we work to further shape DisasterHelp into a tool that is useful for you. Margie Dickerson: Thanks for your patience in covering all this material today, and now I will turn it back over to Art for a few concluding remarks. Art Slavinski: In closing, disasterhelp.gov will continue to evolve. Future enhancements will consist of new functionality and content.. Art Slavinski: Later phases will incorporate delivery of integrated, cross- agency processes & services to citizens, governments, and NGOs with emphasis on First Responder Art Slavinski: needs. We need you as community to leaders and with your knowledge of those needs to participate in this process, and we invite your feedback. Art Slavinski: I will now turn the session back over to Amy to get us started with responding to your questions and comments. Amy Sebring: Thank you very much Art and Margie and thanks to everyone for your patience. Our protocol for audience questions is to enter a question mark ? to indicate you wish to ask a question or make a comment. Christopher Effgen: ? Amy Sebring: Then go ahead and compose your question or comment to have it ready, but do NOT hit your Enter key or click on the Send button until you are recognized by name. As much as possible, please indicate to whom your question is addressed. Amy Sebring: Please note that there are various help pages included on DisasterHelp with more detailed instructions on how to use the various features that Margie has shown us today. Amy Sebring: We will take questions in the order the question marks are sent to the screen. We are ready to begin now. Amy Sebring: LLoyd had a question mark up there earlier, Lloyd? Sunnie Baldwin: ? Matt Walton: ? Avagene Moore: Lloyd had to leave. He gave me his question. ... Amy Sebring: ok, Ava. Francis James: ? Jeff Covert: ? Avagene Moore: Since a plurality of Net users rely on email-only accounts such as Juno, are there plans to provide notices to customers by email onlyof items of interest to them? Amy Sebring: Brandi do you want to take that one? Brandi Miller: Defer to Sumeet Amy Sebring: Sumeet please? Sumeet Luthra: replying Sumeet Luthra: The product has the ability to send changes. In funture... Sumeet Luthra: we may be implementing funtionality to provide better e-mail access to all users. Amy Sebring: Margie, you would like to add? Margie Dickerson: Yes, thank you..... Margie Dickerson: The portal also has the ability to send out targeted announcements to users based on particular user attributes Margie Dickerson: These are always done in conjunction with community administrators Margie Dickerson: They are never mass emailings etc. Amy Sebring: Christopher next please. Christopher Effgen: Is the site manned 24/7? Will there be a group of people collecting and processing data during disasters? Amy Sebring: Margie and or Art? Margie Dickerson: The site is manned 24 x7, yes. Amy Sebring: thanks, Sunnie next please Sunnie Baldwin: Margie-Will the personal page custom channels accept secure websites the user already has permissions for? Isabel McCurdy: ? Margie Dickerson: Yes, it will... Kevin Kiser: ? Margie Dickerson: The web page channel allows you to place in any url that you desire..... Karen ThompsonIAEM: ? Sunnie Baldwin: Thanks! Margie Dickerson: there are no limits. Amy Sebring: Matt next please. Kevin Kiser: Margie, when will an automated registration process be avail in portal to "validate" users -- giving them access to the collaboration and chat tools?? Matt Walton: Since we have been experiencing a 3 minute per slide download delay off a T1 line, will the chat also be archived for reference later? Amy Sebring: I will take that ... Amy Sebring: yes, very sorry for slide delay ... Amy Sebring: we will have posted later this afternoon and you ... Amy Sebring: should not experience the same lag. Amy Sebring: My fault entirely. Matt Walton: Thanks Amy Sebring: You will be able to access via our homepage. Avagene Moore: ? Amy Sebring: Margie, let's go ahead and take Kevin Margie Dickerson: Ok... Sumeet Luthra: Let me answer Kevin... Margie Dickerson: The policy for registration has been determined. Margie Dickerson: We are hoping to have the technology in place by mid-next week Amy Sebring: Sumeet if you would like to add please. Sumeet Luthra: We are still working on the draft policy... Sumeet Luthra: Once it is approved by the legal department, we will implement automatic registration. Amy Sebring: Francis is next please. Francis James: I m not sure I understand the Partners section, much of the information appears to not be disaster related. Also, is it expected that I know which agency has the information that I need (assuming I know what the acronym means). Amy Sebring: Brandi would you like to take? Brandi Miller: Yes- replying- Brandi Miller: Content will be re-organized based upon user feedback and focus groups, along with partner agency coordination. This is just pilot information. Amy Sebring: Thanks ... Amy Sebring: we will run over about 10 minutes to try to get to everyone ... Amy Sebring: Jeff is next please. Kevin Kiser: Also, Francis, the philosophy behind DHelp is that we are NOT the content managers....the partners themselves will be. Jeff Covert: Who is funding this effort and how long is it funded for? How do we know that it's not going away? Amy Sebring: Sumeet? Sumeet Luthra: Replying... Sumeet Luthra: Disaster Manager partners are funding this effort on the direction of OMB... Jeff Covert: Can you elaborate please? Sumeet Luthra: The effort is one of the three importante-Gov initiatives as identified by the presidents management council. Sumeet Luthra: The exact funding mechanism is still being worked out at high level. Sumeet Luthra: Go to www.egov.gov for details. Amy Sebring: Isabel next please. Christopher Effgen: ? Isabel McCurdy: Is this program strictly setup for Americans, or can Canadians have the same access? Amy Sebring: I suppose that is a policy question, Sumeet? Brandi Miller: This is Dave Epperson - Replying Amy Sebring: Ok, fine thanks. Brandi Miller: That question has come up a couple of times....The answer is for the pilot we are going to handle it on a by name request basis through our External Affairs Amy Sebring: thanks, Kevin please? Amy Sebring: oops, he is gone .. Amy Sebring: Karen next please .. Karen ThompsonIAEM: Please help me understand the definition of sub-community. Will these include actual cities, towns, and/or counties as "sub-communities"? If so, who would sign up as "administrator" of these? Amy Sebring: Margie please. Amy Sebring: We have 2 more questions waiting and then we will wrap up. Margie Dickerson: Sub-communities can be laid out in whatever manner you decide.... Margie Dickerson: As I mentioned, there is an unlimited amount of space for sub- communities.... Margie Dickerson: Because of this, you could have cities/towns, and counties Margie Dickerson: It all depends on how the top level administrators decide they wish to do it...... Margie Dickerson: We are also in the process of drafting some content management policy that will assist administrators in figuring out the best structure to use. Amy Sebring: Ava please. Avagene Moore: Another question on behalf of Lloyd Colston: Is there a process for importing bookmarks or favorites so one can avoid entering one Web page at a time? Lloyd also added "Thanks for the hard work on this project." Amy Sebring: Margie? Margie Dickerson: That is an interesting question.... Margie Dickerson: We have not had that request in the past, but it is a functionality that we could quickly build.... Margie Dickerson: That is what all users should keep in mind with the portal..... Margie Dickerson: it is always expanding, adding new functionality and content..... Margie Dickerson: So I think we can tell Llyod that his idea is a good one and one we could work to build in. Amy Sebring: And final question from Christopher. Christopher Effgen: Will you be using instant tools to perform analysis on data and submitter reliability? Brandi Miller: this is exactly the kind of feedback we were hoping to get....thanks Amy Sebring: I am not sure who wants that final question? Amy Sebring: Sumeet? Sumeet Luthra: Can you clarify - What are instant tools? Christopher Effgen: Tools that process data as it is entered Sumeet Luthra: Replying.. Sumeet Luthra: The content will be submitted by verified partners, government entities and DM will not be in a position to ... Sumeet Luthra: verify any data. Christopher Effgen: They would pick out the message from a reliable source and weigh its importance Amy Sebring: Whew! Thanks to Art, Margie, Sumeet, Brandi and Dave. And thanks to all for hanging in there with us... Amy Sebring: As usual, we will have a transcript posted late this afternoon. Thanks to everyone for participating today and please help me thank our presenters.