Whole of Australian Government Mobile Tender

The Department of Finance and Deregulation has issued a Request for Tender for mobile phones, smartphones, wireless broadband modems and services for all of the Australian Government. There is a 1.4 Mbyte document available with the details.

The RFT covers:

• Mobile Carriage;
• Mobile Devices: including mobile handsets, smartphones and mobile broadband modems;
• Mobile Accessories; and
• Associated Services.

There is a requirement for one or more service providers to provide Telecommunication Commodities, Carriage and Associated Services to the Commonwealth. It is expected that the outcome of this RFT will be a panel accessible by all Agencies.

The Commonwealth aims to establish an arrangement that is flexible, efficient and responsive to changing technology and business requirements. ...
Timeframe for Delivery 3 years plus 2 separate options to extend for 12 months on each occasion. ...

From: Request for Tender for a Whole of Australian Government Panel of Telecommunications Commodities, Carriage and Associated Services, FIN10/AGI002, Department of Finance and Deregulation, 25-Mar-2010

Rugged Mobile Phones

Rugged mobile phones, which are water, vibration and dust proof are useful for people who work outdoors and appeal to those who like the outdoors look. Current models available in Australia include: Nokia 3720 Classic, Samsung B2700, Sonim XP3 Quest, Telstra Tough T90. The Sonim is at the extreme end of ruggedness, claiming to meet the IP-67 rating ("dust tight", "powerful water jets") and MIL-810F for vibration. The Nokia model looks most like a normal mobile phone, but still claims a IP-54 rating ("dust protected", "splashing water").

However, with a rugged phone you ten to end up with a unit which is more expensive, larger, heavier and has fewer features. As an example the rtugged unit may only be a GSM phone (not 3G). These phones tend to also have smaller screens.

Also keep in mind that the dust and water resistance ratings depend on little rubber plugs covering the USB, earphone and charging socket. If you change your phone every day or transfer from a car kit, theses rubber plugs tend to get broken or lost. Genuine military specification equipment comes with sockets which do not need covers to keep the water tight or with plugs which are firmly tethered by short chains. While marketing for rugged mobile refers to military specifications, real military users tend to use ordinary mobile phones, kept in waterproof cases, rather than ruggedised units.

As an alternative you can add a soft rubber sleeve or hard case to the more popular models of smart phones. As an example the OtterBox Defender Case series for Nokia E71, Blackberry and Apple iPhones. These hard cases are not necessary water proof. Also they are not available for the lower cost phones, but the combination of a higher cost smart phone and case may still be less than a specialised rugged model phone.

Keep in mind the rugged phones are designed for making phone calls, not web access or GPS navigation. Also these phone depend on the terrestrial phone network. If you are going to make calls from out of the way places.

Hugh Fisher will give a free talk about Programming the iPhone, 4pm, 25 June 2009 at the ANU in Canberra:

DCS SEMINAR SERIES

Programming the iPhone

Hugh Fisher (Computer Science, ANU)

DATE: 2009-06-25
TIME: 16:00:00 - 17:00:00
LOCATION: CSIT Seminar Room, N101

ABSTRACT:
This seminar will give an introduction to the Apple iPhone (and iPod Touch) as a programming platform. Topics covered will include the hardware and OS capabilities, programming environment, the new styles of user interaction, and the restrictions on development and distribution. Don't expect any impressive demos or in-depth benchmarking: the target audience is people who've never programmed an iPhone but are curious about what is involved.

BIO:
Hugh Fisher is a long time owner and programmer of Apple computers, and also interested in human-computer interaction. (He is also a long time member of the Compter Science Dept.)

Twitter-like applications for humanitarian relief operations

In "Humanitarian Twittermifan" (May 26th 2009) the Sahana Disaster Management System blog discusses the use of Twitter-like microblogs for humanitarian relief. The particular application mentioned is for the World Food Program internal communication. This is implemented using open source microblogging package Laconica for the server and Twhirl for the client.

ps: In "National Bushfire Warning System: Micro-blogging for emergencies" I suggested the use of Twitter-like systems for use in bushfires.

Masterclass on National Bushfire Warning System

Apart from "Green ITSM" I have offered draft material on how to build a National Bushfire Warning System for Australia as part of a masterclass. on technical writing at ANU. So I need to write something on the topic. As a starting point, I have the abstract in the seminar announcement , a conference talk on "Community Warning Systems" and an "Australian Community Warning System Proposal" submitted to the Council of Australian Governments. Since then I have looked at "Obligation for Australian broadcasters to provide emergency warnings ", "Fault in Pacific Tsunami Warning System", "Mobile beep for emergency Cell Broadcast" and "Australian Emergency Alert System". My conclusion from this is:

1. SMS is not suitable for large scale use in a community warning system. SMS is too slow (taking around an hour to send 1M messages) and addressing information is lacking.
   
2. Cell Broadcast (SMS-CB) is technically suitable (able to send millions of messages in a few seconds to all mobile phones in a specific location), but not currently sufficiently supported by the mobile phone industry to be usable for warnings to the general public.
3. SMS and Cell Broadcast would be suitable as part of a system for relaying emergency messages from emergency services to the public via the broadcast media. This would improve on current methods using faxes and phone calls.
   
4. Short text messages could reference detailed web based information.
5. Standardised, efficient formats are required for web based emergency information. Accessibility and mobile guidelines can be used for designing an efficient readable format, as well as specialised guidelines for emergency information.
   

Given I now have my conclusion, I need to find some references to support it. ;-)

More seriously, the problem is to define the topic sufficiently to be able to find relevant work. Emergency management is a very wide topic, and even communication for emergencies has a large literature. One good place to start is the recent work on XML based formats for emergency messages, being pioneered by the OASIS Emergency Management Adoption Technical Committee and members such as Renato Iannella at at NICTA.

CSS 3 on the way for mobile and gaming web

John Allsopp gave an impassioned talk about CSS 3 at the March Canberra WSG meeting at the National Library of Australia. This talk, the approach John suggests and the technology it was about , could change the way the Australian Government does web pages and save lives.

This was impromptu talk due to the unavailability of the planned speaker. It had never occurred to me that anyone could be that passionate about Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), a highly complex and frustrating piece of web technology (the CSS standards are much bigger than the HTML one). CSS 3 is the newest and least supported of the CSS standards. Until this talk I had dismissed CSS 3 as something which would be good to have, but so little supported by web browsers that it was not worth looking at, and may never be supported.

John argued that new versions of browsers, particularly Firefox, Safari and Opera, had some useful CSS 3 features. The not so subtle subtext of his presentation was that web designers should give up trying to make web pages look identical on every web browser. Even if this were possible on desktop versions of browsers, it will make less and less sense as the web is accessed on hand held devices (such as the iPhone and Google Andriod smart phones) and games machines (such as the Wii). New devices will have very different size screens and user interfaces, so the desktop metaphor will not suit these.

John argued for designing web sites which will use advanced features on advanced browsers but still be compatible with old browsers. He argued that with new CSS features this can be done without lots of Javascript and CSS hacks, as used in the past.

All of that would have made an interesting academic argument, with a little more passion than usual, but hardly significant for day to day web design. However, John then went on to demonstrate some CSS features available now on newer browsers which can be used to create very elegant Apple Mac and iPhone type effects. The point he emphasised was these techniques were available now, did not require a large amount of code and were backward compatible.

What particularly struck me was how these features could be used for efficient hand held appliciaitons. CSS can be used to create elegantly shaded and curved buttons, without the use of any images. Such buttons will suit smart phones, without the need for large image downloads. Also animation techniques where the item selected changes size and colour can make maximum use of a small screen. At the same time the application will still be compatible with a desktop computer.

A few days ago I criticised the ABC for launching their "ABC Mobile" service with an interface which did not meet accessibility standards. Chris Winter, from ABC Innovation, responded to say they had fixed that problem. The ABC might like to direct their innovation at using some of these new CSS features. It should be kept in mind that the ABC provides information, not just entertainment and in particular the ABC provides emergency information during natural disasters. The techniques John was showing with CSS3 promise a way to provide visually appealing interfaces which are efficient and so would suit web pages designed for emergencies. I will be talking about this at a seminar on a "National Bushfire Warning System" in Canberra, 16 April 2009.

Mobile beep for emergency Cell Broadcast

Can you set a mobile phone to beep when an emergency "Cell Broadcast" is received? I will be presenting a seminar on a "National Bushfire Warning System" in Canberra, 16 April 2009. One option I discuss in this will be to use "Cell Broadcast" to mobile phones for an Australian Community Warning System. This would have the advantage that a short text message could be set to all the phones in a small area or the whole country in a few seconds.

Last week the Victorian Government tried to send an SMS message about bush-fires to all mobile phone users in the state. The message was sent 2 Mar 2009 14:30:10. It took approximately one hour to send. Also some people in Victoria did not get the message and some not in Victoria did.

Cell Broadcast is designed for simultaneous delivery of messages to multiple users in a specified area. It is more formally known as "Short Message Service - Cell Broadcast" (SMS-CB) to distinguish it from the popular SMS, more formally: Short Message Service - Point to Point (SMS-PP). Use of cell broadcast would overcome the problem of the speed of dispatch of messages and misdirection. Cell Broadcast messages are designed to send to all handsets in one or more cells at once. This speeds up transmission and removes the need to have a list of the phones to send to.

However, one problem with Cell Broadcasts is that mobile phones usually have the alert (tone or vibration) turned off. Some phones may have no way to turn on alert for Cell Broadcasts and others may have no way to turn it on just for emergency messages. Does anyone have experience with using Cell Broadcast with particular model phones?

The details of cell broadcast for emergencies is discussed in "Support for Cell Broadcast as Global Emergency Alert System" by Karin Axelsson and Cynthia Novak (Linköpings University, 2007). The authors point out that different phones handle Cell Broadcast differently and the phone makers call the service by different names.

The Cell Broadcast Forum have a Handset Requirements Specification (October 2006). This has a section on "Requirements on Handling of Emergency Messages" which requires the phone to alert for an emergency message, even if the user has switched off alerts for messages. However, this requirement does not seem to be followed by manufacturers:

2.10 Requirements on Handling of Emergency Messages

This section deals with the handling by the ME when an emergency warning message is received. This section does not so much provide the Cell Broadcast forum’s view on handling of Emergency Warning Messages, but the requirements of the Dutch government, that may become applicable throughout the EU in due time.

2.10.1 Mandatory Requirements

58. Factory setting: In a country where a public warning service over Cell Broadcast is operational, the government, or the operators may require that the default Factory Setting be set to active, i.e. CB messages can be received and the Message Identifier that has been assigned to the public warning service be selected.

59. Reception tone: The ME shall indicate the reception of an
emergency message by playing a ring tone that is specific for
emergency messages and cannot be allocated to other services on the ME. This ringtone shall be activated even if the ME setting is set to silent mode, meeting mode, buzzing mode, etc., and also regardless of the Display Mode (Normal or Direct).

60. Storage: Emergency messages shall always be stored, unless or until the user decides to delete the message.

2.10.2 Other Requirements

61. The WARN Act that was effectuated in the US in October 2006 states that it shall be impossible to opt-out of a presidential level message. Further recommendations or legislation were not available at the time of writing of this section and will be included at a later stage (2007). ...

From: Handset Requirements Specification , The Cell Broadcast Forum, October 2006

David Crowe gives a good overview of Cell Broadcast for Emergency Alerts in Wireless Telecom Magazine Q3‘2006. He points out limitations, including messages being even shorter than SMS (in 88 character segments), no verification a message was received and no standard categories to identify emergency messages and standard no user interface. One issue he raises is the detrimental impact of cell broadcast on battery life. However, Axelsson and Novak's research indicates this is not a problem. As Crowenotes, a conservative approach would be to use this for single segment (88 characters) short messages, as was used with SMS in Victoria. The message would just advise of the emergency andto check with other services, such as ABC Radio.

Nokia's Extended User Guide for the N85 phone gives Cell broadcast settings. It is likely that newer large screen "smart phones" will better support cell broadcast. As an example Blackberry provide details on how to Turn on cell broadcasting. It should also be possible to add this feature to later model phones with a software upgrade over the air.

National Bushfire Warning System, Seminar, Canberra, 16 April 2009

I will be presenting a seminar on a "National Bushfire Warning System" at The Australian National University in Canberra on 16 April 2009. In this I will expand on my talk at the APCO 2009 Conference on "Community Warning Systems" and an "Australian Community Warning System Proposal" submitted to the Council of Australian Governments. All welcome, no need to book, just turn up.

Seminar Announcement
School of Computer Science, CECS
The Australian National University

Date: Thursday, 16 April 2009
Time: 4:00 pm to 5:00 pm
Venue: Room N101, CSIT Building [108], North Road, Canberra

Speaker: Tom Worthington
Title: National Bushfire Warning System

Abstract:

Recent bushfires in Victoria and floods in Queensland have brought the issue of warning systems for the public to prominence. Modern digital communications, the Internet and web, have a useful role in emergency communications. However,some technologies such as VoIP may make Australia more vulnerable. An alternative national system using Cell Broadcast technology via mobile phones is proposed. The potential for Social Networking to be used for emergencies will also be discussed.

Biography:

Tom Worthington is an IT consultant and Adjunct Senior Lecturer in Computer Science at the Australian National University, where he teaches the design on Internet, web and mobile phone systems, including for emergency management.

He is a former IT adviser at Headquarters Australian Defence Force. Tom is a member of the Project Management Committee of Sahana open source disaster management system, used for the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. He was elected a Fellow of the ACS for his work on Internet policy for Australia.

URL: http://cs.anu.edu.au/lib/seminars/seminars09/dept20090416
Seminars homepage: http://cs.anu.edu.au/seminars/

Australian Emergency Alert System

The proposal that Australian governments build a national community warning system to be ready for the 2009/2010 bush-fire season appears to have been reasonably well received. Several people pointed out similar proposals and the difficulties they faced with inter-state rivalry. These problems can be addressed by quickly building a small simple and cheap system, which states can interface to. Those states with existing sophisticated systems can interface to the national system simply. Those states which lack an effective system of their own can use the national system directly, with no need to buy any additional equipment.

The system could be named the Australian Emergency Alert System (AEAS) and modelled on the USA's Emergency Alert System (EAS). The AEAS would be conceptually similar to the EAS but take advantage of advances in digital technology to deliver a more functional system at a lower cost.

US Emergency Alert System

The US Emergency Alert System (EAS) is a national warning system introduced in 1994, as an upgrade of a cold war era emergency broadcast system. The system was designed to enable the US President to address the nation with 10 minutes warning, but that function has never been used. Commercial broadcast radio and TV services, as well pay cable and satellite services are required to interface to the EAS. While interfacing to TV, the EAS is designed to only deliver a spoken message, with no graphics. Newer devices, such as weather radios can detect a more advanced digital signal using Specific Area Message Encoding (SAME), which allows for filtering messages for specific regions and types. The system is used for tsunami and warnings.

Common Alerting Protocol

The EAS is essentially analog technology to which some digital enhancements have been added (such as SAME). The USA is considering upgrading parts of the system with the Common Alerting Protocol (CAP), an XML-based data format for exchanging public warnings and emergency information. CAP is a web based technology which is therefore much simpler to implement on digital devices.

Australian Implementation of CAP for a National Warning System

Australia has no EAS infrastructure to upgrade and no stock of weather radios to maintain compatibility with, so it can implement CAP more simply and directly than the using a network of purely digital devices. In addition, as Australia has a national, government owned broadcaster, with a national digital infrastructure, CAP can be interfaced to national radio and TV networks simply and at low cost. In addition the availability of the Internet and the web allows for much more detailed information to be provided to supplement the short emergency messages.

Levels of Detail of Information

One flaw in the design of proposed Australian emergency warning systems is a lack of depth in the information provided. Emergency messages for the community are brief. However, there needs to be more detailed information made available through other channels, typically standard information prepared in advance, not specific to the current emergency. It can be difficult for the public to obtain this information and also for the media to find it to provide to the public. The result can be that while the public may get the brief emergency message they have little idea what to do in response.

The current practice in Australia is to ask the public to tune to local ABC Radio. This can now be supplemented by asking them, where Internet access is available, to read a specific web page. Templates of information can be prepared in advance, so only the details of the current event needed be added. The web pages can be carefully designed using well established principles for efficient and rapid communication of information. The web pages can be made compatible with assistive technology for the disabled, with mobile phones and with TV screens, so the media can relay the information.

The AEAS can provide brief messages, suitable for transmission to mobile phones as a text message, displayed on a TV screen and read out on radio. Those messages can then refer to more detailed information available via the web. Broadcasters can read the web pages and convey the information to the public via audio and visual means.

Web Interface for the AEAS

The assumption in the US and current Australian warning systems is that after the brief emergency warning is issued, some other system will be used to send detailed information. No coordinated system exists in Australia to relay such information to the public. During the Canberra 2003 and Victorian 2008 brush fires, web based systems of the state governments were unable to provide effective information due to poor design of the web sites and a lack of planning.

It is proposed that the AEAS include a national emergency web site, to provide coordinated information to the public. Links to specific national and state systems can be made from here. The web site will also provide an interface for officials at the national, state and local levels to issue AEAS information, where those officials do not have access to specialised CAP interfaces. The officials will be able to upload a bulletin about the emergency as well as the brief text message.

Emergency agencies which have preformed templates for emergency bulletins will be able to use these with the AEAS. Agencies which have automated systems to fill in the templates will be able to use these to speed the process. While messages would normally be originated from a national and state emergency headquaters, the system would allow an authorised fire-fighter, using a smart phone, to issue a warning for their local area from the field.

Australian Community Warning System Proposal

My talk on Community Warning Systems at the APCO Communications Conference was reasonably well received. So I have proposed Australian Governments build such a national CSW system before the next fire season:

To: Council of Australian Governments (c/o COAG Secretariat, COAG Unit, Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet)

This is to propose that Australian governments build a national community warning system. Such a system can be in place for the 2009/2010 bush-fire season at a cost of less than $10M. The system would be used for fires, tsunami, terrorist incidents and other emergencies. It would be capable of delivering a warning message in less than a minute to most of the Australian population, or a specific geographic area.

At the APCOA emergency communications conference today, I gave a brief outline of problems with the current proposals for the use of telephone based warnings and SMS messages. The alternative proposed is the use of "Cell Broadcast" text messages for alerts. The Internet, with specially designed web pages, can be used to provide preparatory information to the community before an emergency and information to help with recovery afterwards.

The technology for issuing text warnings is built into the mobile telephone network in Australia. A small amount of work will be required to make this system available for emergency personnel to issue warnings. The more difficult task is to educate the emergency personnel and the public as to what the system is for and how to use it.

See: Community Warning Systems - Balancing Technology and Reliability, Tom Worthington FACS HLM, for the APCO Australasia Annual Conference, Australian Technology Park, Sydney, 10am, 3 March 2009.

Public Safety Communications Conference Program

Tuesday I will talking on "Community Warning Systems - Balancing Technology and Reliability" at the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials Australia 2009 Conference in Sydney. The conference topics have been changed at short notice to address some early lessons learnt from the recent and ongoing Victorian bushfires. The Conference & Exhibition program was supplied in hard to read PDF, so here it is converted to HTML:

2009 Conference Workshops

Leadership in Public Safety

“when every second counts”

Time	CONFERENCE FORUM/WORKSHOPS SUMMARY
Sunday 1 March 2009 1400 - 1600	International - Global Alliance Location: Star City Casino, Sydney
Monday 2 March 2009 0930 - 1230	National Fleet Forum Location: VIP Room - Level 1, Australian Technology Park
Tuesday 3 March 2009 1100 - 1330	Expert Advisory Panel Location: VIP Room - Level 1, Australian Technology Park
Tuesday 3 March 2009 1430 - 1700	Future Surveillance and Intelligence Gathering Forum Location: VIP Room - Level 1, Australian Technology Park
Wednesday 4 March 2009 1130 - 1320	Chief Information Officers Forum Location: VIP Room - Level 1, Australian Technology Park
Wednesday 4 March 2009 1430 - 1700	Local Government Emergency Response & Enforcement Forum Location: VIP Room - Level 1, Australian Technology Park
Wednesday 4 March 2009 1600 - 1700	Commercial Advisory Group Location: VIP Room - Level 1, Australian Technology Park
TBA	Transitions in Leadership: New Heights - New Challenges - See Registration desk for details

For enquiries regarding any of the forums or workshops please call APCO Australasia on 1300 796 668.

By Invitation Only

By Invitation Only

Booking Essential

Booking Essential

Booking Essential

It may be necessary for reasons beyond the control of the organisers to alter the content of the programme schedule - Please see Information & Registration for further details.

Transportation buses will be provided to and from selected hotels at specified times

2009 Programme Schedule

Leadership in Public Safety

“when every second counts”

Monday 2 March 2009

Time

National Fleet Workshop

0800 0930 - 1230

For Today’s Conference Forums and Workshops, Please refer to page 1 of the Conference Programme Schedule Registration & Information Booth Open (situated outside entrance to Exhibition Area) National Fleet Managers’ Vehicle Technology & Safety Workshop (Session 1) - Bookings Essential (Meeting Rooms 1 & 2): Click Here for further details Opening Address: Deputy Chief Charles Beck — Los Angeles Police Department

OFFICIAL CONFERENCE OPENING CEREMONY & KEYNOTE PRESENTATIONS - ATP Theatre

1400 1500 - 1700

Welcome to the 2009 APCO Australasia Conference: - Event MC - Mr Peter Morris Welcome address: Des Bahr - Chief Executive Officer, APCO Australasia Gary Starr - Managing Director - Government & Public Safety, Motorola Australia (2009 Event Partner) Official Opening of Conference: Tony Pearce, Director General - Emergency Management Australia Keynote Panel Presentation – Australia’s Worst Natural Disaster A Panel presentation about Australia’s multi-agency response to the worst Natural Disaster in Australia’s history - Victoria’s Bushfires 2009 Those who were there give a first hand account of how they managed this unparalleled firestorm. Senior Emergency Services experts will take an in-depth look at these unprecedented events. Panel members include; Tony Pearce, Director General, Emergency Management Australia Superintendent Rod Collins, State Emergency Planning & Response Division, Victoria Police Chief Superintendent Grant Pitman, Past District Disaster Coordinator, QLD Police Service Craig Lapsley, Director Emergency Management Branch, Department of Human Services Trevor White, Director – Operations, SES Victoria Paul Holman, Operations Manager - Emergency Management, Ambulance Victoria Geoff Conway, Deputy Chief Officer, CFA Operations Directorate Kevin Brame, Deputy Fire Chief, City of North Las Vegas Jessica Block, Research Associate, San Diego State University

EXHIBITION OPENING / VIP RECEPTION - Main Exhibition Hall

1700 1730 2000

Exhibition Viewing area open VIP Reception and Official Opening of the Exhibition Welcome Address: Des Bahr - Chief Executive Officer, APCO Australasia Barry Borzillo - CEO, Tenix Solutions - 2009 VIP Reception Sponsor Official Opening of Exhibition: Commissioner Andrew Scipione APM - NSW Police Force Exhibition Viewing & Reception area closed

It may be necessary for reasons beyond the control of the organisers to alter the content of the programme schedule - Please see Information & Registration for further details.

Transportation buses will be provided to and from selected hotels at specified times

Tuesday 3 March 2009

Time
0730 0830	For Today’s Conference Forums and Workshops, Please refer to page 1 of the Conference Programme Schedule Registration & Information Booth Open Exhibition Area Open
0830 - 0930	Keynote Presentation - New skills required for today’s policing Detective Chief Superintendent Michael Hallowes — Head of Strategic Operations, UK Police

Hall 1	Hall 2	Hall 3	Workshops/Forums
0930 - 1000	The use of technology to assist Bush Fire Management, including GIO Spatial Visualization (Emergency Management) Jessica Block, Research Associate - San Diego State University	Command Support Approach - Achieving a common operational picture across single / Multi Agencies (Information Management) Jeremy Azis, Managing Director - Vector Command / Roy Thompson - Commander, Metropolitan Fire Service South Australia	The 2007 Surrey Fire, Canada - Dynamic resource relocations for balancing emergency coverage throughout service area. (Emergency Management) Chief Eric Dutton (Ret.)
1000 - 1030	Field testing Police Technology for the future (Critical Infrastructure) Grant Pitman (Acting Chief Superintendent), QLD Police Service	Intergrated Command & Control Communications System (Information Management) Ranjan Bhagat — General Manager - Zetron	Emergency Warning Systems – Balancing technology with Practicality (Emergency Management) Tom Worthington - Adjunct Senior Lecture, Australian National University

1030 - 1100	Morning Tea (Served in Exhibition area)
1100 - 1130	National approaches to information sharing solutions for law enforcement agencies, for a safer Australia (Information Management) Ben McDevitt — Chief Executive Officer, CrimTrac	Connecting first responders - Satellite Technology - East Coast launch (Telecommunications) Michael Butler - President, Inmarsat	Ensuring Reliability and Accuracy of Technology used by Police (Information Management) Inspector Ron Phillips — NZ Police Callibration Services	Expert Advisory Panel By Invitation Only Time - 1100 - 1330 Location - VIP Room - Level 1, Australian Technology Park Note - Lunch Provided
1130 - 1200	Towards a National Emergency Warning Framework (Future Technologies) Dr Renato Iannella , Principal Scientist, National ICT Australia (NICTA)	Communication, Localisation and Risk Management Systems for Mining and Remote Operations - A Resource for Emergency Response (Mining) Dr Eleonora Widzyk-Capehart - CSIRO	Making First Responder Interoperability a Priority (Interoperability) Inspector Lance Valcour — Canadian Police Research Centre

It may be necessary for reasons beyond the control of the organisers to alter the content of the programme schedule - Please see Information & Registration for further details.

Transportation buses will be provided to and from selected hotels at specified times

Tuesday 3 March 2009

For Today’s Conference Forums and Workshops, Please refer to page 1 of the Conference Programme Schedule
Time	Hall 1		Hall 2	Hall 3		Workshops/Forums
1200 - 1230	Resourcing volunteers - is technology a help or hindrance ? (Essential Services) Trevor White - Director - Operations, Victoria State Emergency Service		Bush / forest fire fighting – international research project in germany (Future Technologies) Steffen Minolts - GSW- Consulting	2006 Australian Police Deployment to East Timor (Interoperability) Inspector Ged Griffin - Victoria Police		Continued- Expert Advisory Panel By Invitation Only Time - 1100 - 1330 Location - VIP Room - Level 1, Australian Technology Park Note - Lunch Provided
1230 - 1320		Lunch (Served in Exhibition area)
1320 - 1400	Keynote Presentation - The Next Generation Wireless Broadband Network and its application to Public Safety in Australia Mike Wright — Executive Director - Wireless Engineering & Operations, Telstra Corporation

1400 - 1430

Strategic direction of NSW Fire Brigades (Emergency Management) Commissioner Greg Mullins — New South Wales Fire Brigades

Network Centric Emergency Operations - The Application of Defence Network Centric Warfare Research to Emergency Services (Telecommunications) Craig Phasey - Auspace Business Development Manager

Situation and Threat Assessments & Early Warning Systems (Community Safety) Professor Subash Challa - Melbourne University

1430 - 1500	Ambulance/Pre Hospital response to Australia’s worst natural disaster - Victorian Bushfire ‘09 (Emergency Management) Paul Holman - Operations Manager (Emergency Management), Ambulance Victoria	Sea Piracy - Current trends & issues Dr. Sam Bateman — Maritime Policy Centre, Wollongong University	Enhancing Coverage via Rebroadcast Repeaters (Telecommunications) Leo Doherty — RF Industries	Future Surveillance and Intellegence Gathering Forum Time - 1430 - 1700 Location - VIP Room - Level 1, Australian Technology Park Note - Afternoon Tea Provided
1500 - 1530	Afternoon Tea (Served in Exhibition area)
1530 - 1600	Community Resilience in Health and Recovery Operation during the Victorian 2009 bushfires - Are we prepared for the future? (Emergency Management) Craig Lapsley — Director - Emergency Management Branch, DHS Victoria				The use of Biometrics to assist the fight against crime (Future Technologies) Professor Subash Challa - Melbourne University	Radio over IP: Applications and trends (Telecommunications) John Florenca - CEO, Omnitronics

It may be necessary for reasons beyond the control of the organisers to alter the content of the programme schedule - Please see Information & Registration for further details.

Transportation buses will be provided to and from selected hotels at specified times

Tuesday 3 March 2009

For Today’s Conference Forums and Workshops, Please refer to page 1 of the Conference Programme Schedule

Time	Hall 1	Hall 2	Hall 3	Workshops/Forums
1600 - 1630	Health Emergency Management Communications (Chemical) Dr. John Moloney — Manager, Field Emergency Management Program, DHS Victoria	Real Time Video over narrow band channels - case studies (Information Management) Stephen Ayres — Lockheed Martin	Advances in public safety in-Vehicle computing technology (Telecommunications) Rob Thompkins - Vice President, Data911 - St. Louis USA	Continued - Future Surveillance and Intelligence Gathering Forum Time - 1430 - 1700 Location - VIP Room - Level 1, Australian Technology Park
1630 - 1700	Remote Video Surveillance on 3G, What Works, What’s Promising (Telecommunications) Dan McLeod — President, CrimePoint	Mobile Personal Communications - The State of the Art (Future Technologies) Alan Whitehead — Research In motion	Future integrated communications despatch systems (Emergency Management) Richard Stacey — Gibson Quai (UK)

Time	2009 APCO Australasia Gala Dinner - Grand Harbour Ballroom, Star City
1800 - 1830 1830 - 2330	Pre-Dinner Drinks 2009 APCO Australasia Gala Dinner Located at the Grand Harbour Ballroom, Star City - 80 Pyrmont St, Pyrmont, NSW, Australia Prime Minister Kevin Rudd will be represented at the Gala Dinner by The Hon. Bob Debus, Minister for Home Affairs. Gala Dinner MC - Mr Peter Morris Entertainment - Matt Hollywood - Comedian Magician - Vegas Show

It may be necessary for reasons beyond the control of the organisers to alter the content of the programme schedule - Please see Information & Registration for further details.

Transportation buses will be provided to and from selected hotels at specified times

Wednesday 4 March 2009

For Today’s Conference Forums and Workshops, Please refer to page 1 of the Conference Programme Schedule
Time	Hall 1	Hall 2	Hall 3	Workshops/Forums

0830 - 0900	Operational Command - Major Deployment Exercise (Border Security) Roger Batch — Manager, Operational Readiness - Australian Customs Service	CyberTerrorism & CyberSecurity, Table Top Exercises (Training) James Cavanagh - Knowledge Transfer Agent, The Consulant Registry	The development of an Electronic MECC system to support local government disaster management (Emergency Management) Jan Wandek, Managing Director of Aussoft
0900 - 0930	Terrorism & Counter Terrorism Trends in the Region (Counter Terrorism) Commander Wayne Buchhorn — Australian Federal Police	Spatial industry trends and the im­pact of new CRC research initiatives on ESO’s (Spatial Information) Graeme Kernich — CRC Spatial Info	Remote Area Mass Casualty Incident (Emergency Management) Dr Rob Visser — Royal Flying Doctor Service
0930 - 1000	Italian Interpolice Tetra Project (PIT) (Information Management) Captain Mario Bianco	Use of Location Intelligence by ESOs (Spatial Information) Michelle Martin - Manager Business Development (NSW) - ESRI Australia	Firefighting at the Coalface - CFA response to Morwell Open Cut Fire- September 2008 (Mining) Greg Flynn - Operations Manager, Region 10, Country Fire Authority

1000 - 1030		Morning Tea (Served in Exhibition area)
1030 - 1130	Keynote Presentation - Utilising Technology in LA Policing - The LAPD Strategic Plan Deputy Chief Charles Beck — Los Angeles Police Department
1130 - 1200	Lifelong learning for ESOs (Training) Dep. Fire Chief Kevin Brame — City of North Las Vegas Fire Department (USA)		Global Trends in Public Safety Spectrum Standards (Telecommunications) David Lum - Director, Asia\Pacific Product & Support Operations, Motorola	Hand Held Mobile Satelite Broadband Technology (Spatial Information) Henrik Jacobsen — Managing Director, Applied Satellite Technology Australia	Chief Information Officers Forum By Invitation Only Time - 1130 - 1320 Location - VIP Room - Level 1, Australian Technology Park Note - Lunch Provided
1200 - 1230	Lessons for Australia from Mumbai Terrorist Attack (Counter Terrorism) Dr Greg Barton - Herb Feith Research Professor for the Study of Indonesia, Monash University		Challenges when combating natural disasters, ie floods, storms and tsunami (Emergency Management) Steve Opper - Director, Emergency Risk Management, New South Wales State Emergency Service	Smart Applications for Emergencies (SAFE) strategic project (CCTV) Professor Chris Scott — National ICT Australia (NICTA) Queensland Research Lab.

It may be necessary for reasons beyond the control of the organisers to alter the content of the programme schedule - Please see Information & Registration for further details.

Transportation buses will be provided to and from selected hotels at specified times

Wednesday 4 March 2009

For Today’s Conference Forums and Workshops, Please refer to page 1 of the Conference Programme Schedule
Time	Hall 1	Hall 2	Hall 3	Workshops/Forums
1230 - 1320	Lunch (Served in Exhibition area)			Forum Continued - See Above
1320 - 1400	Keynote Presentation - The role of user-centered design in developing technologies for public safety Bruce Claxton - Senior Director, Design Integration, Motorola

1400 - 1430

Using Police Information In the Mobile Environment (Future Technologies) Ian Readhead — Director of Information, ACPO Criminal Records Office (ACRO) - UK Police

National-level Best Practice for Emergency Management (Information Management) Mr Ron Bender - Director of Strategic Solutions - Tyco Electronics Wireless Systems

Fighting Fires with Military Hardware (Future Technologies) Oliver Hanfelder — Airmatic (Germany)

1430 - 1500	Capture and Visualisation of Fire Ground Intelligence in the NSW RFS (Critical Infrastructure) Gareth Carter - Manager GIS, NSW Rural Fire Service	Public Safety Technologies in public transport (Community Safety) Evan Craig - Manager, Control Systems Architecture, Systems & Information Services Division - Department of Transport	Mobile Phone GPS tracking of personnel (Future Technologies) Michael Robson - Managing Director, Mapmates	Local Government Emergency Response & Enforcement Forum Time - 1430 - 1700 Location - VIP Room - Level 1, Australian Technology Park Note - Afternoon Tea Provided
1500 - 1530	Afternoon Tea (Served in Exhibition area)
1530 - 1600	Operational and Planning Challenges during APEC 2007 (Emergency Management) Commander Peter Lennon — New South Wales Police				P25 Encryption Management - Improving radio communications security (Information Management) Simon Britten — Tait Electronics	Early warning systems for Major Climate Events (Emergency Management) John Hadnmer - RMIT
1600 - 1630	Challenge of managing a remote event - Kargaroo Island Fires (Emergency Management) Deputy Fire Chief Andrew Lawson — Country Fire Service, South Australia				The Future Direction of Project 25 (Information Management) Robert Barden — Aeroflex Incorp.	Impact of VoIP on Community Safety (Telecommunications) James Cavanagh — Knowledge Transfer Agent, The Consulant Registry

The speakers, topics and times are correct at the time of publishing and in the event of unforeseen circumstances, Australasia APCO Ltd. reserves the right to alter or delete items from the Conference Programme. All opinions expressed by presenters at the 2009 APCO Australasia Conference & Exhibition are those of the individual, and Australasia APCO Ltd. accepts no liability from any contractual, tortious or other form of liability for loss or damage suffered by the delegate or their later substitute relying on any statement, representative advice or opinion (whether true or otherwise, written or oral).

It may be necessary for reasons beyond the control of the organisers to alter the content of the programme schedule - Please see Information & Registration for further details.

Transportation buses will be provided to and from selected hotels at specified times

2009 Vehicle Displays

Leadership in Public Safety

“when every second counts”

^{A selection of some of the Emergency Vehicles on display}

Holden Commodore - Emergency Services Concept Vehicle (ESCV)

This project was developed based on concerns from ESO’s regarding the effect of heat, power overload and increased equipment levels and their impact on Emergency Services vehicles and occupant comfort/safety. The purpose of SAFE was to gain an understanding of the emergency driver user-interface requirements and safety issues, and develop a standard interface platform for addressing ergonomic design and safety.

Holden Commodore - LAPD Prototype Patrol Vehicle

The National Safety Agency (NSA) with the LAPD’s Deputy Chief Charles Beck will be launching the LAPDs jointly developed high-tech emergency response prototype vehicle of the future.

Holden Commodore - MFB Operational Concept Vehicle

The MFB operational concept vehicle was designed by the National Safety Agency in accordance with research conducted from the ESCV project.

Mitsubishi Pajero - Forward Command Vehicle

With communication in the field so crucial to optimise emergency management & response, NSA teamed up with several vendors to create a concept command vehicle for the Fire and Emergency Services sector. With Mitsubishi as the vehicle sponsor, a Pajero was chosen as the preferred vehicle in this project.

Where possible, NSA works with the vehicle manufacturer to leverage off a lot of the technology already within modern vehicles, including the CANBUS and GPRS to maximise the differentiation of each integration solution; however, to maximise battery life and enable non-vehicle related systems to be operational 24/7 for immediate use, this vehicle was integrated with an environmentally friendly solar power solution.

Technology was utilised from a number of vendors, encompassing areas such as communications, Intelematics, vehicle tracking, lights and warning systems, mobile data and the aforementioned power management.

AirServices Australia Aviation Fire Rescue Vehicle

The Ultra Large Fire Vehicles Mk7 are deployed across Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane airports. The Vehicle is a 6x6 wheel drive, fully automatic, 33 tonne foam,water and dry chemical fire rescue tender,holding 10,200lt’s of water 1,300lt’s of foam and 225kg of dry chemical powder discharging its payload at a rate of 4,750lt’s per minute and a throw distance of 75 metres. The Mk 7 is capable of holding a crew of 5.

Holden Commodore - Unmarked Enforcement Vehicle

Developed as an ANPR unmarked enforcement vehicle by the National Safety Agency, this vehicle is currently being tested for traffic enforcement purposes.

A number of additional Emergency Vehicles and First Responders will also be on display in the Exhibition area during this event, including the latest Mining Rescue Vehicle, Parking Enforcement Vehicle, a range of Fire Appliances, Communications and Command Vehicles and a Large Urban Search and Rescue Unit.

It may be necessary for reasons beyond the control of the organisers to alter the content of the programme schedule - Please see Information & Registration for further details.

Transportation buses will be provided to and from selected hotels at specified times

Community Warning Systems - Balancing Technology and Reliability

Next Tuesday I will talking on "Community Warning Systems - Balancing Technology and Reliability" at the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials Australia 2009 Conference in Sydney. The conference topics have been changed at short notice to address some early lessons learnt from the recent and ongoing Victorian bushfires. I was asked today to speak. So my presentation has been prepared in the last three hours. Comments, corrections and suggested additions are welcome:

The Internet and web have a useful role in emergency communications, provided the use is planned. However, VOIP communications and the Government's National Boradband Network will may make Australia more vulnerable, unless the system is built to a higher standard. The an ad-hoc arrangement of state based telephone-based emergency warning systems is no substitute for a nationally coordinated system. Digital technologies such as Cell Broadcast provide a better alternative. Emergency officials need to listen to what the ICT professionals tell them is possible and not just try and build digital versions of old analog and teletype systems. Both professions need to take the public into their confidence and treat the community as partners, not as victims. Current warning formats, such as used by Tsunami Warning Centers, do not make good use of Internet technology and there is the potential for Social Networking to be used for emergencies

Summary from "Community Warning Systems - Balancing Technology and Reliability", Tom Worthington, For the APCO Australasia Annual Conference, Australian Technology Park, Sydney, 10am, 3 March 2009

Are CB Radios Safer to Use While Driving?

Last night's premier of Top Gear Australia (derived from the BBC's "Top Gear" TV car show), had the three presenters Warren Brown, Charlie Cox and Steve Pizzati, driving in the Snowy Mountains while operating hand held CB radios. While this is not necessarily illegal, it is hard to see how talking on a two way radio would be less distracting that a phone. Perhaps this is an area for research.

According to the Roads and Traffic Authority (NSW), CB and two-way radios are not banned for drivers:

300 Use of hand-held mobile phones

(1) The driver of a vehicle (except an emergency vehicle or police vehicle) must not use a hand-held mobile phone while the vehicle is moving, or is stationary but not parked, unless the driver is exempt from this rule under another law of this jurisdiction.

Offence provision.

Note Emergency vehicle, park and police vehicle are defined in the dictionary.

(2) In this rule:
mobile phone does not include a CB radio or any other
two-way radio.

From: Australian Road Rules, RTA, NSW

Research has shown that talking on a phone impairs driving ability. It is not holding the phone in hand that is the problem, but having a conversation. Hands free phones cause similar impairment to hand held telephones. However, having a conversation with someone in the car may cause less impairment and conversing with someone in an adjacent car, as was the case in Top Gear, may be less of a problem.

One area which appears to have not been researched is the impairment from two way radios. Most two way radios are "simplex", that is the radio can only transmit or receive, it cannot do both at once. As a result the two parties have to take turns speaking and there are usually pauses in the conversation between. This makes for a stilted and unnatural conversation, but perhaps this reduces driver distraction.

Hands free kits for mobile phones in cars try to reproduce the free flowing two way conversation of a hand held phone. In practice this is limited by the noise level in the car and positioning of speakers. Less sophisticated kits, and those not well fitted, effectively operate as automatically switched simplex radios, cutting off the audio of the remote party while the driver is speaking. This is normally seen as a problem, but perhaps it increases safety.

Some CB Radios have the option of a tone at the end of a transmission to indicate the other party can now speak (commonly called "Roger Beep"). It may be useful to include this in hands free car kits to indicate to the remote party that the driver has finished speaking.

While the research is not clear on this point, some indicate that conversations with passengers in cars are less impairing as the passenger can see the traffic situation and so know when not to distract the driver. It may therefore be that a videophone showing the traffic, or a phone which detects the driver is busy and sends a synthetic voice or tone to say "driver busy" might help. Such a system might use a tone to indicate to the driver that it is not a good time to talk, or even switch off the microphone to stop them. The phone could detect when there is frequent breaking and use of turn signals, to indicate a high driver workload. Some hand held telephones, such as the iPhone, have accelerometers built in which could be used to to detect when the car is manoeuvring and so it is less safe to talk.

A simpler alternative might be to place a "Push to Talk" button on the car steering wheel. As with a two way radio, this button would need to be held down while the driver was speaking on the telephone. This would have the advantage that the driver would be only able to hold the button down and speak, when the car was proceeding in a uniform heading. As soon as the moved their hands on the wheel to change direction, the button would be released. This should have the effect of training the driver to not talk when manoeuvring.