Data Integration Initiative (DII) Working Group - Update March 2021
Chairs - John Persano, Senior Business Development Manager - 911, AWS
Matt Schreiner, Senior PM
​
How to Join: To apply to participate in this cutting-edge initiative addressing the ongoing needs and future of data integration for use by the public safety community, contact executivedirector@theindustrycouncil.org.
​
Overcoming silos and creating seamless communications across platforms will yield both immediate and long-term benefits for the public, first responders, and iCERT members. Detailed below is the announcement of iCERT’s new Data Integration Initiative – our signature project for 2020 and beyond. Speaking for the Executive Committee and the Board, we are hoping that as we progress every iCERT member will find a way to become involved and contribute to this significant new initiative.
​
Concerted discussion by the Data Integration Working Group (DIWG) has revealed four subject areas for iCERT members/participant concentration:
1) Data Value,
2) Existing Data Integration,
3) Data Integration Enablers, and Roadblocks, and
4) Future Data Integration. iCERT Members are dividing their participation along experience, company-centric, and general interests in joining one or more sub-groups to move each area to a productive outcome. The sub-group descriptions follow:
1) Data Value – identifying which data integrations provide the most value in terms of improving public safety response. What assigns a “value” (what defines “value” is one of the tasks of this group) to each piece of data in any particular system or sub-system, and its associated dataflows and workflows? What outputs a high-value outcome for a particular set of data and specific data integrations and associated workflows? Identifying which data, when “married together” produces the most value in terms of efficiencies. How can such a concept be used to help all stakeholders (product management, vendors, developers, end-users and citizens) choose which integrations provide the biggest "bang for the buck"?
2) Existing Data Integration – what integrations exist today? What are successful examples of data integration (systems, processes, or governance)? What is motivating their development? How do we apply our “formula” to help identify the most valuable solutions? Simply Identify Roles and their associated Dataflows and workflows for incident lifecycle management (Pre-incident, mid-incident, and post-incident). There are potentially thousands of dataflows that can be identified, along with relay points and other items that can be identified as places to streamline the workflow.
3) Data Integration Enablers and Roadblocks – what are the roadblocks that keep the existing data integration from creating the real “value” that data integration can produce? What are the enablers that have provided some level of success and improved public safety response? This sub-group will focus on what can be done to reduce the effects of roadblocks and enhance the effects of enablers. This can include governance, funding models, technology, operational processes, or anything that is keeping data integration from being as innovative and broadly implemented as possible.
4) Future Data Integration – answering questions about what new integrations will be expected as technology advances? How does the IoT figure into Public Safety Data Integration for future systems? How does A.I. affect which data is important? How do we bridge the gap between data integrations of today with data integration of the future?
The sub-groups are selecting leadership and establishing self-directed meeting schedules with goals of producing tangible results in the first half of 2021.