3Csafe - Collaboration

Collaboration

Collaboration functionality is built into the common operating picture of 3Csafe™ to enable users not only to passively observe events but also to coordinate any actions that have to be carried out. The effectiveness of emergency management largely depends on the effectiveness of coordination and collaboration of the different parties involved. This is not restricted to the actual response phase of emergencies but also during any of the other phases of emergency management, e.g., during vulnerability assessment. Information entered into the system is instantly visible to other users and users can immediately modify and extend information entered by others.

Process simplification

The collaboration features built into 3Csafe™ simplify the process of working together in each of the four phases of emergency management, which helps efficiently planning, coordinating, assigning tasks and executing the various tasks involved in emergency management as a team effort. Collaboration enables multiple people to carry out different tasks, having instant visibility of each other's actions and steps. Information can be exchanged efficiently and enables planners and responders to easily coordinate tasks and work on solutions for problems. During an emergency, physical presence is no longer required and 3Csafe™ allows to exchange richer information than possible with only audio devices like radios or cell phones. Users can exchange pictures of locations and incidents, access and review surveillance video create task list and more. 3Csafe™ role-based access control fully supports the NIMS/ICS command and control hierarchy and structure, e.g. enabling incident commanders to post information that can not be modified by others. Personnel assuming other ICS roles such as safety officer, public information officer, etc. can post relevant information, greatly simplifying synchronization and task assignments during emergencies.

Cost reduction

The web-based architecture allows bringing in experts from remote locations and work with them online. This is particularly useful in a district setting where the ubiquitous accessibility enables a few people with special skills to support a large number of schools by working and collaborating with local school staff online. For example, a single NIMS trained planning expert at the district can guide many individual schools online, e.g., reviewing documents and images of critical infrastructure from a district office without the need to always physically be present at the school to answer individual questions. All the information necessary to assess the situation can be posted online and is available in real-time to all other users. Experts can review and modify content online. 3Csafe™'s pricing model allows creating an arbitrary number of accounts for such purposes, hence this resembles a cost effective way to get expert advice without the financial burden of bringing experts physically on-site every time. In particular, this provides the ability to adequately answer individual questions and provide advice for many aspects of emergency planning online. This aspect of the collaboration feature reduces costs, enhances flexibility and significantly simplifies the emergency planning process, which is of particular importance in times of shrinking budgets for school safety.

Usage example

The picture on the right depicts the common operating picture during a fire in a school building. The aerial view is enhanced with cameras and annotations, marking important locations.

All authorized persons can update the common operating picture from their respective position, reducing the time required to disseminate status updates and information. 3Csafe™ provides all the mechanisms to share relevant information and coordinate effective emergency response during an actual incident.

Using the more and more common wireless broadband technologies many first responders are equipped with, they are able to see the actual status and extend of the fire while on their way to the scene of the emergency. Thus, fire fighters and other responders are prepared upon arrival, saving valuable time otherwise required to assess the situation on site.

NIMS/ICS defines different roles for persons in a way that clearly specify each persons responsibilities but require and foster collaboration among those roles. Supporting these different roles defined in NIMS/ICS and their need for collaboration is a particular strength of 3Csafe™. The aerial view shows the map of the campus, two important locations marked ('Incident Command Post' and 'Staging Area' as per NIMS/ICS terminology) and an annotation is used to track the incident status. The collaboration support in 3Csafe™ enables each user to create and access the relevant information to fulfill their role and share the information with others as well as enhancing information created by others.

In this example, the incident commander initially creates the annotation marking the location of the fire and provides an initial description. Later on, the safety officer adds information to the same annotation that describes the current status of the building. The operations sections chief provides information about the status of the evacuation. After it was authorized by the incident commander, the information in turn is used by the public information officer to inform parents and media.

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