Facing the Challenge of Data Interoperability
By Bill Lent

There is a misconception that interoperability pertains only to voice communications. And certainly, for first responders who are actually on the scene, voice communications interoperability cannot be more critical.

But in our focus on voice interoperability, we often forget that data communications is also critical to successfully resolve most major emergencies or disasters. A great deal of information that should – and could – be available to help is contained in data. However, in many cases, entities not represented on the scene are the ones who hold that data.

One of the lessons we should have learned from Hurricane Katrina is that the same pathways that allow voice communications also allow the exchange of data; both means of communications are critical to success. True data interoperability is the ability for divergent organizations to freely share data that is useful during a disaster or crisis.

Some of the difficulties of the response to, and recovery from, Hurricane Katrina could have been avoided if data communications had been interoperable. For example, if data interoperability had enhanced the interface between the government conducting evacuations, the private voluntary organizations assisting with evacuations and the sheltering facilities, it could have allowed them to more easily match parents with missing children.

But data interoperability brings with it a whole host of issues and problems. How can we overcome those problems and make true data interoperability a reality? Here, we look at some of the challenges of data interoperability, as well as what we are doing to address them.

Why Data Interoperability Matters
Data interoperability doesn’t only impact governments, but private sector entities as well. While most first response is in the hands of government, most of the critical infrastructure in this country is owned by the private sector.

If we lose a portion of the power grid, the utilities have that information, but governments have virtually no way of directly assessing the impact and making adjustments in certain areas such as fire response or a hospital’s ability to continue to operate. True interoperability would provide for an immediate situational awareness at both ends of the problem: The utility that must repair the problem and the government jurisdiction that must make arrangements for such things as medical response, generators for individuals on life support, water and sewage pumping stations and myriad other functions that are the responsibility of local government.

The impact of this process does not only pertain to the United States, but will impact the international community as well. The independent organization should have international ties and membership and the international community should have a place in the standards development process. A good example of the type of benefits we could derive from this process is the improved results we would have gained by the free flow in information on an international basis during the Asian Tsunami in 2004. While the response to that disaster was very good, better data communications could have proven useful in the response and recovery process.

The Challenges of Interoperability
Data interoperability brings with it a number of challenges. If an emergency were to occur today, agencies would contact each other one by one, through voice calls or customized interfaces. This inefficient and time-consuming process causes each agency to absorb its own technology customization costs and results in incompatibility and rapidly outmoded technologies.

The challenges include:

• The inability to exchange data between divergent software platforms – In the late ‘70s and ‘80s, emerging technology was a big issue. There was a FEMA-sponsored organization of emergency management professionals from state and local offices who were beginning this transition to new technology by coordinating it into the profession in a way that benefited both the user community and the supplier community. They standardized data (we only had flat file databases at that time), and made possible the ability to exchange data between jurisdictions using the same application.

But this only solved the problem of exchanging information between organizations that had the same software program. It did not allow organizations to directly import other data on an ongoing basis – not very effective, considering true interoperability is the ability for divergent organizations to freely share data that is useful to solving a problem.

• Security, privacy and access requirements – To add to the problem, the critical data exchange must also meet the security and access requirements of each individual jurisdiction or agency, many of which are required under governance regulations or legislation. These requirements often define who can access what data under what circumstances. And while organizations could change the access allowed during certain events, given the diversity of data and today’s culture of privacy, this becomes even more complex the higher up you climb on the governmental ladder.

• Different methods of software implementation – Finally, consider that a large, multi-jurisdictional region consists of approximately 20 jurisdictions. Each one of those is a separate entity struggling to become an interoperable whole. Many regions are trying to address this issue with various projects designed to provide the infrastructure to allow communications with voice, data and video capabilities. In parallel with this effort is the ongoing analysis of what applications are available to each emergency support function and what are the gaps between what is currently available and a future interoperable system.

But while some of these questions have been investigated, some still remain. Some regions have even implemented this basic premise of a single emergency management system. The problem with this approach is that each major jurisdictional area has adopted a different method of implementing this universal software. While the software technically has the ability to move information into an exchange format and be truly interoperable, this hasn’t been done.

This is a microcosm of the problem we face on a wider scale. While governments controlling budgets can basically dictate which software they want regions to use, the ideal solution is for everyone to use any software that has the ability to use data exchange standards. This is the best solution for data interoperability, as it allows every organization to use the software that best suits its method of operation, but still allows individual entities to freely communicate with each other to solve mutual problems.

Taking the Lead
Since all disasters or emergencies are local, the impetus for change must come from those who must deal with the situations daily and at the local level. If we are to create an interoperability standard, we must coordinate the process on the people who will actually use the communications.

While an interoperable infrastructure is best managed from a governmental point of view, the problem of data interoperability would be best solved through an effort that includes government, but is independent from it. A program that funds an independent non-profit entity to coordinate the development of such a system may be the best solution to gaining the acceptance of all the parties involved. Such an entity could coordinate the efforts and provide a non-threatening and inclusive atmosphere for the incubation of standards that could then be integrated into commercial products. Coordination by an independent entity would assure all the participants that the process was an honest and non-biased effort taking all the concerns of the participants into consideration.

Work has already started. Last November, at the annual meeting of the International Association of Emergency Managers (IAEM), an Interoperability Pavilion demonstrated the effectiveness of the adoption of data exchange standards. Internationally adopted standards will give us the ability to efficiently and effectively provide communications that would not only alert and warn, but could be used to locate and dispatch resources and deliver tasks and messages using those internationally adopted standards.

Through the efforts of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Emergency Interoperability Consortium, the Emergency Management Technical Committee of the OASIS Standards Body, and COMCARE, this effort has already born fruit. We already have in place the Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) Version 1.1, the EDXL data exchange language, the Distribution Envelope Standard and the pending standards involving the HAVE (Hospital Availability) standard and the Resource Messaging Standard.

This standard development process is helping the emergency community achieve true data interoperability. Assuming we follow the typical standard development process, we should be able to achieve a steady progress toward full data interoperability. The key to the process is the partnership between the practitioners, the industry and the standards body.

About the Author
Bill Lent has more than 25 years of emergency management experience in both the public and private sectors. He is co-founder and current member of the Emergency Interoperability Consortium, and is active in the data standards effort.