Los Angeles Fire Department
Information is "Mission Critical" in any organization and the Fire Service is no different. One of the problems with information is getting it to the people who need it, another is keeping it current and accessible. We have been able to reduce the time lag for collecting our data to some degree via electronic means, however it presents us with another problem that I'm sure you have all experienced to some degree and can be shown by a few simple examples. Where's my data? Is my data current? Whether it is a scrap of paper from your pocket or a number from your cell/PDA or a file on your personal computer or a web address, at some point you have to do three things:
- 1. Look for the data in whatever forms it may be
- Piece of paper, book, cell phone, PDA, local computer, remote computer
- 2. Determine if it is current...cross-reference with some other source
- Print/View a report, check a book, make a phone call, look up an appointment, find a file on your desktop, or find a file on the web
- 3. Verify the data in some way
- After item number 1 is accomplished, items numbers 2 and 3 are generally easy.
Paper document distribution presents it's own issues. If you reach for the Manual of Operation and look for information, is there a possibility that what you look up is stale data? If, for whatever reason, you were not informed of a change to the Manual of Operation and the information was not updated in the book, you would have bad data. Ever have to look to the index? What next, another volume? When new material becomes available the affected members can print the new document from the work location, thus eliminating the manual sorting, distribution and storage.
Using .PDF for distribution? Adobe has done a good job of making cross-platform documents accessible, however there are some obvious shortcomings. First issue is the size of the files. They are very large compared to the size of the original documents. They contain a very large amount of code which is unnecessary for our purposes. Data transmission takes longer as a result. Why get a bucket of water (large data file....pdf) when all you need is a teaspoon (small amount of data....rendered via php)? Second issue is the file name. With modern Windows operating systems users can use up to 255 characters when naming files, however Windows Explorer and Windows Internet Explorer generally only display the first few characters of a file name when looking at unselected files. The result is that a user must use a mousehover action to see the full file name. In a folder with a lot of documents, file names can be confusing and difficult to read. This issue becomes even more apparent when documents have similar file names. If documents/files are named using a date first naming convention, as with ECOM pdf files, it is very difficult and time consuming to find a particular file.
Take the Manual of Operation as commonly presented by the Fire Department. The Volumes are broken down by Volume number. Try and do a cross document search through the Volumes using the index or Table of Contents with the readily available Adobe Reader. It won't work because there are multiple documents and the software will not do a multi-document search. The format of this site allows for speedier data access and the ability to search the entire Department library from one location. The faster return of the requested data is achieved by only sending the data requested, and formulating the data on the fly. There is an added benefit to presenting data this way. There is a net reduction in network bandwith used to deliver data. Everyone on the network benefits. Try it with this Rules and Regulations link.
The Los Angeles Fire Department has made great strides in the past few years with respect to digital data, however our digital storage and accessibility is still not where it needs to be for future growth as an organization with massive data needs. We do not have one central repository for all of the data available...both sensitive and non-sensitive nor the ability to disseminate the data that we do have using all the methods available.
Imagine if you will, a Firefighter from the Harbor area being able to pull current Fire Prevention data for a Downtown high-rise building so that building systems can be discussed with other members of the crew. Or the Apparatus Operator being able to view Fire Department accident data for intersections in the First-in district. How about getting up to the minute data from a digital Building Inventory? How about companies being able to view pertinent data on a structure and it's surroundings while enroute? How about an Incident Commander being able to view the most recent Incident Action Plan for a particular type of incident from his sedan, while enroute or on scene? How about the Mobile Command post being able to publish information from the helicopter's real time mapping system, or Google Maps, to not only Incident Commanders but to every MDC? How about every MDC being able to pull Google satellite maps through the browser? How about being able to do all of the above with the hardware infrastructure that is already in place? How about doing it with a user interface.. the browser... which is growing in popularity, familiarity and use?
PBow 12:19, May 23, 2006 (PDT)