Call for Papers: Virtual States:  Papers on the Proliferation of Geospatial Intelligence as Visualized Information Streams into the Emergency Response Sector

Google Earth Enterprise Case Study: Virtual Alabama

Motivation

We are seeking papers on the current efforts to set up virtual states and other approaches to the sharing of all data in a locality, state, or region that are applicable for any stage or phase of emergency preparedness and management from planning and mitigation through response and recovery.  The use of Web as defacto standard for the exchange and sharing of data across all the agencies, groups, teams, utilities, medical facilities, and volunteer organizations involved provide a very significant improvement in solving an important aspect of the interoperability problem.  

Related Websites:

11/6/09 blog post, "Officials from Across Goverment Laud vUSA at Regional Pilot Demonstration"
DHS Fact Sheet, "Virtual USA: Advancing Interoperability at All Levels"
DHS Fact Sheet, "Southeast Regional Operations Platform Pilot" 
Federal Computer Week article, "Officials Eye a Geospatial Virtual USA"
Virginia Interoperability Picture for Emergency Response (VIPER)
Virtual Alabama

Suggested Topics - Any related topic not listed below is welcome.

·   Common operational picture for emergency personnel
·   IP level granularity – the common language for emergency management and response solutions.
·   Open source solutions for emergency management and response.
·   Return on investment calculations for Web 2.0 emergency management and     response solutions.
·   Situational awareness
·   Critical Infrastructure mapping
·   Identification of assets and vulnerabilities
·   Dynamic visualization of current risks

 

Contact Person:  Connie White, connie.m.white@gmail.com

Type of contribution:

·        Academic Papers: we invite researchers from academia or research labs to present their completed work in full research papers. Such papers should be of about 5000 words length; no more than 10 pages when in the ISCRAM template including figures. These papers will be subject to a full refereeing process

·        Work in progress:  we invite researchers to present their early planning and results on a piece of work so that discussion may help shape it and provide feedback.  Such presentations may be particularly attractive to early career researchers and students.  Such papers should be of about 2500 words in length; no more than 5 pages when in the ISCRAM template including figures. They will be subject to lighter refereeing process. 

·        Practitioner Session: we invite practitioners to present their practice or experiences in information systems development, use or needs. Prospective presenters submit a short practitioner paper or a Powerpoint presentation along with an abstract.  Such papers should be of about 2500 words in length; no more than 5 pages when in the ISCRAM template including figures.

 

Important Notice:

• All submissions must be formatted according to the ISCRAM 2010 formatting guidelines. Templates and instructions are published on www.iscram.org.
• The official language of the conference is English
• All submissions must be submitted through the ISCRAM 2010 conference paper submission web page at www.conftool.com/iscram2010. Instructions for the ConfTool system can be found on www.iscram.org.
• All papers and presentations will go through a double-blind review process, leading to a decision of (conditional) acceptance or rejection.  This process will be applied more lightly if the paper is a work in progress or a practitioner presentation.
• Accepted papers will be included in the ISCRAM 2010 program and published in the official proceedings if and only if

(1) the paper is formatted according to the instructions,

(2) the authors sign the copyright transfer form and

(3) one of the authors registers for the conference and pays the registration fee before the cut-off date for early registration.

• Note that the proceedings will indicate for each paper whether it is a full paper, a work in progress or a practitioner paper/presentation.
• Authors who have multiple papers accepted can only register for and present one paper at the conference; co-authors need to register separately.

Session Chairs:

	Chris Johnson, chrisj@gstac.org Vice President of Geospatial Training and Application Center (GTAC) at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center.
	Joel Aud, joel.aud@gmail.com Border Security Operations Center, Senior Analyst, Governor’s Division of Emergency Management, TX, USA
	Connie White, connie.m.white@gmail.com Institute of Emergency Preparedness, Jacksonville State University, USA

Committee Bios

Chair: Chris Johnson is Vice President of Geospatial Training and Application Center (GTAC) at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center and is responsible for management and operations associated with GTAC and the Geospatial Technology programs.  She has served as Principal Investigator for U.S. Department of Agriculture, NASA, Department of the Army, and Department of Homeland Security grant programs.  Ms. Johnson is the Program Manager for the Virtual Alabama Program which currently provides situational awareness and operational support to over 5,000 users representing over 1,450 government agencies.  Currently, Ms. Johnson is working with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to develop a concept of operations for Virtual USA to enhance interstate situational awareness and information sharing. Under Ms. Johnson’s direction, the Virtual Alabama program was awarded 5 National Awards for technology innovation in the 2008. Ms. Johnson has over 18 years of experience in systems design; systems development and testing: Geographic Information Systems (GIS) development; Relational database systems development; Network engineering; Global Positioning Systems (GPS) development, Remote Sensing (RS) and communications.  She has served as a consultant to the Department of Defense, Department of the Army, Defense Intelligence Agency, Space and Missile Defense Command, NASA, USDA, National Guard Bureau Counter Drug, Criminal Justice Information Center, Homeland Security, and state and local agencies on issues related to system development and the use of GPS, GIS, Remote Sensing and communication systems.  Further, Ms. Johnson is a member of the National Guard Bureau Counter Drug Technology Consortium.

Co-Chair: Joel Aud, As ALIS’ Chief Scientist, Joel Aud provides commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) and open source solutions for border law enforcement needs through the Texas Department of Public Safety agency, Border Security Operations Center. He recently designed and managed the development of a modular, next generation, geospatially aware system for the State of Texas. The system develops common operating picture sets to support law enforcement on the border and support real-time multi-agency cooperation during an emergency event. Mr. Aud has more than 28 years of experience in the information / automation design / development industry, has published multiple software titles and software manuals, holds multiple patents, and has developed significant hardware/software solutions for commercial, government, and education clients. He holds a Masters in Ethics with emphasis on decision processes, and a Masters in Cyber Security.

Co-Chair: Connie White is a doctoral candidate in Information Systems at the New Jersey Institute of Technology.  She presently holds a position with the Institute of Emergency Preparedness at Jacksonville State University.  Her current work explores how FOSS and Web 2.0 technologies can be leveraged in the emergency domain.  Other interest include Homeland Security Science and Technology Issues.  Her dissertation,A Dynamic Delphi System to Support Decision Making by Large Groups of Crisis Management Experts, focuses on the creation of a crisis management system that is used by large groups dispersed geographically where decisions must be made under uncertainty and among domain driven subgroups.  Her research interests include Social Media, Decision Making, Scales, Sahana, Thurstone’s Law of Comparative Judgment, Artificial Intelligence and Emergency Management. Homepage:http://sites.google.com/site/conniemwhite/