Dematerialising Share Purchase

Qantas and the Commonwealth Bank have offered existing shareholders the purchase of additional shares. With the offer comes a paper form to fill in and return. The obvious way to "dematerialise" this process would be to offer an electronic form which could be sent via the Internet. But if you pay electronically using Bpay, the process is even simpler: send the money and send no form at all. Because a client reference number is provided with each share offer and this number is sent as part of the payment, the sender can be identified and no separate form is required. Apart from the complexity of processing the form, this removed the worry of security of the information over the Internet (the payment transaction goes via the banking system). This process could be used for many more transactions.

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

Greening ICT towards Sustainability, Victoria, 15 May 2009

At the conference "Greening ICT towards Sustainability" (Victoria, may 15-16 2009) I will be facilitating a workshop on the Carbon Footprint and conducting a Professional Development on lowering costs and carbon emissions with ICT. And of course I will promoting my Green ICT book and the ACS Green ICT course (registration for semester two is now open).

1.30pm 15 May 2009: Symposium Workshops

Topic 1: The Carbon Footprint

Topics may include but are not limited to;
GHG emissions from:

• the office,
• manufacturing,
• distribution,
• ICT (2% worldwide: same as airlines)!

Resolutions:

• strategies,
• immediate plans

1.30 pm 16 May 2009: Professional Development Streams

Learning to lower costs and carbon emissions with ICT

The first globally accredited Green ICT course for computer professionals was commenced on 18 January 2009. ICT professionals can now enhance their career prospects by skilling up to meet the carbon emissions requirements the federal government is imposing on private and public sector organisations. Higher energy costs will require new skills to assess new aspects of computer procurement and also create new opportunities to help business re-engineer its operations and scope to expand the ICT function into new technology areas.

See how to:

• Estimate the carbon footprint of the ICT operations of an organisation
• Assess ways to reduce the carbon footprint of an organisation, by changes to policies for procurement of ICT, changes to the ICT operations and revising business processes

Broadband for a sustainable environment

The winning papers in the Eckermann-TJA 2009 sustainability challenge are now available: Broadband and the sustainable use of water resources (Saleem, Wicks and Dassanayake ) , Vehicle to grid using broadband communications (Dennis and Thompson ), Leveraging advances in mobile broadband technology to improve environmental sustainability (Claussen, Ho and Pivit). This is an annual award for the best papers on how to use telecommunications for environmental benefit. The papers are published by the Australian Computer Society.

Broadband and the sustainable use of water resources

Syed K Saleem, Byron Wicks, Kithsiri B Dassanayake
DOI: 10.2104/tja09002

Agriculture accounts for more than seventy percent of total fresh water consumption. Water use efficiency in the industry is often less than fifty percent. A changing climate and increasing competition for fresh water are stressing water supplies globally and limiting the scope for further expansion of agriculture to meet growing food production requirements. This situation is threatening the economic viability of many agricultural regions both in Australia and around the globe. It is a national imperative to develop solutions that will sustain this vital industry in the future.

Improving water use efficiency through better irrigation practices is one method for coping with these challenges. Costs associated with capital outlays and engineering complexity are barriers to widespread adoption of efficient irrigation technologies. This paper presents a platform that leverages broadband communication networks to reduce these barriers to technology adoption and thereby vastly improve water use efficiency in agriculture. Results from recent field trials are presented that demonstrate increases in water productivity in dairy pasture and horticultural production.

Vehicle to grid using broadband communications

Mike Dennis, Bethany Thompson
DOI: 10.2104/tja09003

The impending mass electrification of road transport, driven by concerns for climate change and sustainability, enables an opportunity to substantially reduce greenhouse emissions from passenger vehicles and to simultaneously provide services to the electricity grid. Electricity grids are characterised by a lack of storage capacity, which can be provided by grid connected electric vehicles charging and discharging their batteries under centralised control. This paper argues that the Vehicle to Grid (V2G) methodology offers operational, financial and sustainability synergies between vehicles and electricity grids. Broadband communications is an essential service to facilitate the aggregation, distributed control and metering of V2G services.

Leveraging advances in mobile broadband technology to improve environmental sustainability

Holger Claussen, Lester T. W. Ho, Florian Pivit
DOI: 10.2104/tja09004

Advances in mobile access broadband technology have a high potential to improve environmental sustainability both directly by enabling novel network deployment concepts and indirectly by changing the way people live and work. In this paper, improvements of the network topology enabled by ubiquitous broadband access are investigated. It is shown that a joint deployment of macro- and publicly accessible residential picocells can reduce the total energy consumption by up to 70% in urban areas. In addition the high potential of indirect effects of improving telecommunication networks, such as enabling teleworking and replacing business travel through video conferencing, is demonstrated and compared with the direct effects.

From: Telecommunications Journal of Australia, Volume 59, No. 1, February 2009

ps: The Eckermann-TJA award was set up by my colleague Robin Eckermann, Principal, Eckermann & Associates and Adjunct Professor, School of Information Sciences and Engineering, University of Canberra.

Dispute Over Publishing Standards in Australia

Standards Australia and SAI Global have entered into arbitration over the publishing and distribution rights for Australian Standards written by autonomously accredited Standards Development Organisations (SDOs). To avoid such issues, when asked to help draft a standard, I now first check that the standard will be available open access online. If the standard is not going to be free online, then I decline to take part in the development. Organisations such as W3C, IETF and OASIS make their standards freely available. Versions of these standards may later be made into ISO and Standards Australia standards which are not free online, but the original free version is still available.

The relationship between Standards Australia and SAI Global is governed by contractual arrangements including a Publishing Licence Agreement (PLA) dated 11 November 2003.

Standards Australia and SAI Global have entered into an arbitration concerning the PLA following the failure to resolve differences over the publishing and distribution rights for Australian Standards written by autonomously accredited Standards Development Organisations (SDOs).

Further details about the dispute are set out in our public statement dated 22 July 2008. While it was originally anticipated that the hearing of the arbitration would occur in the week starting 2 March 2009, the hearing has recently been rescheduled to take place from 6 to 8 May 2009. Further relevant developments will be advised via our website www.standards.org.au.

From: Communications, Information Technology and e-Commerce Services, Sector Updates, The Standards Australia, February 2009

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

Lack of an Australian emergency warning systems risking lives and wasting money

The Attorney-General and the Minister for Broadband have announced legislation to enable states to implement telephone-based emergency warning systems. This ad-hoc arrangement is no substitute for a nationally coordinated system. The decision by the federal government not to build a national system risks lives and wastes resources. Any ICT professional involved in policy, planning or implementation of such systems needs to consider if they are acting ethically and lawfully. The "Nuremberg Defense" has limited applicability to professionals, who are required to act in the public interest, regardless of the instructions they are given by their superiors.

Joint Media Release

Attorney-General
The Hon Robert McClelland MP

Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy
Senator the Hon Stephen Conroy

23 February 2009

RUDD GOVERNMENT IMPLEMENTS COAG AGREEMENT ON TELEPHONE-BASED EMERGENCY WARNING SYSTEMS

The Rudd Government will today introduce into Parliament amendments to the Telecommunications Act 1997 to enable access to the Integrated Public Number Database (IPND) for telephone-based emergency warning systems established by the States and Territories.

Access to the IPND will be provided through a new secure database which provides real-time access to up-to-date telephone numbers while protecting the identity of individuals. The Government will provide $11.3 million for this purpose. A request for tender to build the database will be issued shortly.

Telephone-based emergency warning systems have been the subject of discussions between the Commonwealth, States and Territories since 2004. Until 2008, no agreement was reached.

In 2008, the Rudd Government placed the issue on the COAG agenda. COAG agreed it was a priority and commissioned the work necessary to reach agreement by the end of 2008. This work was completed, and agreement was achieved in November 2008.

This agreement was necessary to address important concerns such as ensuring telephone-based emergency warning systems do not overload and disable the telecommunications network (including access to the 000 emergency hotline) and the security of individuals’ personal information.

In accordance with the agreement, the Government immediately commenced drafting legislation to authorise access to the IPND. The necessary legislation and database the Government is putting in place will enable the States and Territories to access the data needed to develop their own warning systems as soon as possible.

The historical advice to the Commonwealth has been that any plan to allow the States and Territories access to the IPND as part of any emergency warning system would be best secured by a legislative amendment. Nevertheless, in light of the bushfire emergency in Victoria the Government has also sought advice from the Solicitor-General on an interim measure to allow access.

Based on this advice, the Government will today also make a regulation under the Telecommunications Act 1997 enabling interim access to the IPND.

This will enable immediate access to the IPND by individual States and Territories who wish to implement a more limited system as soon as possible. It should be emphasized that this is not a long-term solution and not a substitute for amendments to the Telecommunications Act 1997 and the planned future access arrangements for the IPND.

Under the COAG agreement, States and Territories retain autonomy about the warning systems they choose to implement.

The Commonwealth has today written to the States and Territories advising that if they are able to agree to a national system at the next possible COAG meeting the Commonwealth will make a further financial contribution to establish such a system, to be owned and operated by the States and Territories.

Whether or not a national system is established, there remain technological challenges to overcome to enable any system to communicate with all telephones in a threatened area. Advice to the Government is that current technology is limited to communicating with fixed landlines, and mobile telephones on the basis of billing address only (rather than the location of the handset). This can mean individuals in a threatened area do not receive a warning on their phones, and individuals outside a threatened area receive irrelevant warnings.

To help address this gap, at the next COAG meeting the Commonwealth will offer the States and Territories financial assistance for them to conduct collaborative research on the viability of a location-based emergency warning system.

It should also be remembered that telephone-based emergency warning systems are only a supplement to, and not a replacement for, the range of measures currently used to warn the public of emergencies, such as television and radio, public address systems, doorknocking, sirens, signage and the internet.

The steps announced by the Rudd Government today will help make telephone-based emergency warning systems one part of Australia’s disaster response capability. ...

What to do about CO2, Canberra,

Emeritus Professor Stephen Kaneff will talk on "What to do about CO2", 11 March 2009 at the ANU in Canberra:

CSES SEMINAR SERIES

What to do about CO2
Emeritus Professor Stephen Kaneff

DATE: 2009-03-11
TIME: 12:30:00 - 13:30:00
LOCATION: Ian Ross Seminar Room

ABSTRACT:
Human activity over the past three centuries is causing increasing impact on aspects of our environment, which has been relatively quasi-stable for the past few thousand years. During this short time, much infrastructure has been established by human effort and currently appears increasingly in jeopardy. Agriculture and other aspects which maintain livelihood also appear problematic.

Many means for ameliorating environmental changes due to human activity are basically known and technologically available, but few are being implemented or proposed for implementation. On the other hand, some potentially more complex and less promising, involving the collection and sequestration of CO2 by means yet to be developed and validated, are receiving attention and resources

This presentation outlines an array of practical means for handling the problems of CO2 by recourse to various disciplines both in concert and individually, with some emphasis on the employment of renewable energies. CO2 is a valuable material in itself and, while its generation can be avoided in the production of our energy needs, when it exists it can be used as a raw material in other processes and products, avoiding its introduction to the biosphere

Applying known science and technology for processing CO2, and employing, as appropriate, approaches for avoiding its production, given the determination and resources of amounts already expended in existing industries, it is apparent that the emission of CO2 to the biosphere by human activity could be brought into balance within less than 30 years (ie. no nett emissions) and thereafter an actual reduction of existing atmospheric CO2 could be achieved.



BIO:
Emeritus Professor Stephen Kaneff, B.E., PhD.

Main interests: Energy conversion and applications, especially in relation to the collection, concentration, transport, storage and utilisation of solar energy - directed to the realisation of systems for providing a solar driven chemistry (environmentally more-benign than currently provided by fossil-driven chemical systems), as well as the provision of readily accessible products such as electricity, fresh water and more-direct uses of process heat.

Established R & D within the Department of Engineering Physics, Research School of Physical Sciences, ANU, in December 1970. Significant advances have included the first commercial solar power station (providing energy to the township of White Cliffs); a community power station successfully operated at Albuquerque (NM, USA); and the SG3 grid-connected large dish collector system at Sullivan's Creek. Other large collectors have also been developed.

These technologies, in conjunction with other renewable energy approaches and means stemming from other disciplines, have pointed to the application of solar-derived energy to constitute one of the very few practical opportunities for ameliorating present problems stemming from the increase in greenhouse gases caused by human activity. This has formed a basis for work over the past 3 years, resulting in the identification of concomitant problems and their magnitude and investigation and development of practical large-scale approaches for not only countering increases in environmental degradation, but, by applying existing resources, actually reducing existing degradation.

Benign approaches have been identified and could, given decision and determination, be implemented to increasing, even timely extent. Many other approaches await adequate R & D.

Virtual Reality for Commanding the Australian Defence Force

The Australian Department of Defence has issued a Request for Tender for a "Headquarters Joint Operations Command (HQJOC) Telepresence System" providing virtual reality meeting rooms. There is a 94 page document available, but only a couple of pages addresses the requirement in very general terms. This seems a good opportunity for those with advanced systems to offer products beyond ordinary video conferencing. One limitation will be compatibility with systems such as those I observed personnel using on the USS Blue Ridge.

The Department of Defence (Defence) requires solutions for a virtual reality meeting capability between two Defence locations in and near Canberra, ACT, Australia.

Defence is seeking a Respondent's proposed solution that will:

a. provide Defence with visibility of Respondents products, indicative costs and options for a virtual reality meeting solution;

b. meet Defence's current and future defence capability requirements;

c. provide Defence with a value-for-money solution;

d. provide significant and sustainable benefits to Defence, defence industry and the Respondent who is ultimately successful in the process; and

e. provide long-term cost benefits and risk reduction to other forms of personnel communications over short, medium and long distances. ...

From: "Headquarters Joint Operations Command (HQJOC) Telepresence System, AZ4477, Defence Support Group of the, Department of Defence, 23-Feb-2009

Emerging technologies for education

The Department of Education Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR) has tasked the Strategic ICT Advisory Service (SICTAS) to report on the policy implications of emerging technologies for education. Submissions have been invited from education and training bodies by April 10, 2009.

The key investigations are:

1. Collaboration in Teaching and Learning
2. Education Workplace capability
3. e-portfolios
4. National software infrastructure
   

SICTAS is convening a national forum and a symposium:

1. three online Tankettes
2. national Symposium
   

They also have a project blog.

Google Android Phones for Australian MPs

Yesterday Senator Lundy talked about her experience trying a Blackberry smartphone as part of a trial for members of the Australian Parliament. She commented that this worked better than earlier phones issued but still had limitations. I suggested they look at the new Google Android phones, such as the HTC Magic . Vodafone will be initially selling it in Europe (not yet available in Australia, but I asked HTC for a test unit).

The Senator mentioned that with a workable smartphone she has much less need to turn on her laptop. One possibility is to run the same Android software on the laptop and the phone. Apart from the convenience of the user being able to use the same interface and applications, it would allow for very low power, low cost netbook and nettop computers to be used (under $300).

Digital Road to Recovery

In her presentation "The Need for eGovernment Policies to Build a Smart Economy" (at "Greening ICT to address Global Downturn and Global Warming"), Judy Anderson, Government Programs, IBM Australia Ltd, just mentioned "The Digital Road to Recovery: A Stimulus Plan to Create Jobs, Boost Productivity and Revitalize America" By Robert Atkinson, Daniel Castro and Stephen Ezell
January 07, 2009. As well as the report, presentation slides, audio and video are available.

As Congress considers a substantial stimulus package to get the economy moving, investing in new economy digital infrastructures will provide significant opportunities not just for short-term stimulus and job creation, but also longer term economic and social benefits. In the report, “The Digital Road to Recovery: A Stimulus Plan to Create Jobs, Boost Productivity and Revitalize America,” ITIF provides a detailed analysis and estimate of the short-term jobs impacts of spurring investment in three critical digital networks: broadband networks, the smart grid (making the electric distribution system intelligent) and health IT, and outlines policy steps to spur this investment.

ITIF finds that investments in America’s digital infrastructure will spur significant job creation in the short run. Specifically, ITIF estimates that spurring an additional investment of $30 billion in America’s IT network infrastructure in 2009 will create approximately 949,000 U.S. jobs. ...

Greening ICT & Global Downturn Symposium

Greetings from the Greening ICT & Global Downturn Symposium now on the the famous room N101 at the Australian National University. Senator Lundy is just doing the introduction. Later she will demonstrate her smart phone.

A free half day event bringing together people from academia, industry and government who are interested in sustainable uses of ICT to address Global Economic Turmoil and Global Warming challenges through effective organizational policy, reliability, availability, and efficient operations.

e-Learning and Social Networking to Lower carbon emissions

A draft of my presentation "Learning to lower carbon emissions e-Learning and Social Networking" for the Greening ICT to address Global Downturn and Global Warming Symposium, ANU, Canberra, 19 February 2009 is available for comment.

"The first globally accredited Green ICT course for computer professionals commenced on 18 January 2009. This demonstrates that e-learning can be used to both teach energy reduction management skills to ICT professionals but also how to use online management. Students can then apply those skills to social networking based decision making in their companies and government agencies."

Learning e-learning

During the Green ICT Symposium today I demonstrated the ANU's new Wattle e-learning system. This uses Moodle and I was able to show courseware using Senator Lundy's Blackberry smartphone.

An odd little quirk I have discovered that the ANU's "Policy: Determination of Systems and Consultation on Assessment" requires the proposed assessment system for each course to be made available to prospective and enrolled students: "... both in hard copy and in electronic form". It seems a little odd if the student is enrolled in an online course, which they can do from the other side of the world, that the ANU insists on providing them a sheet of paper about the assessment. It would seem to make more sense to use the same electronic means as used to deliver the course.

There is no legal obligation to provide the material printed on paper (the High Court recognised that electronic documents are legal some years ago). So I have suggested the ANU Registrar have this deleted from the policy.

Future of Technology

Kate Carruthers talked on "Future Technology" at the Australian Computer Society Canberra Branch last night. She is repeating the talk in Hobart tonight, and around Australian in the coming weeks. Kate explained she was discussing trends, not making predictions. Even so she gave some very clear views as to where she sees the future of ICT and how this will challenge ICT professionals and organisations.

The first part of the talk was taken up with a discussion of social networking and its impact on organisations. Kate made the point that younger staff will see tools such as Facebook as a normal part of everyday and will not understand if these are banned from the workplace. Organisations need to put in place procedures which allow for their personal use without adversely impacting the workplace. Organisations also need to work these tools into their operations, making use of them for business.

As Kate explained at the beginning, in retrospect technological trends seem obvious and inevitable. Even so I thought the description of social networking to be obvious and was disappointed that Kate did not go on to detail how organisations should deal with them. I kept thinking "Will this scale to be usable by the average office worker? Can it be made secure in the corporate environment?". However, this may turn out to be as significant as the ACS meetings I attended about 15 years ago where we were introduced to the wonders of the Internet and the web.

Along with other ACS members I helped bring the Internet and the web to the Australian Government.One job was writing the Defence Department's guidelines on the use of the Internet in the workplace and later the guidelines for the web. These were not abstract tasks as shortly after drafting the guidelines, I had a call from the military police saying that solders had been caught with Internet pornography and what should they do?

The smartphone is also something Kate sees as being big in the future, pointing out the average phone has more processing power than desktop computers of a few years ago. Unfortunately as with social networking, she did not go on to say what this would do to organisations.

RFID tags and cloud computing also got a mention. At this point the audience was probably suffering technology overload and perhaps some of this material could be dropped from future talks.

Improvements I would suggest for later talks are:

1. Address the organisation: Canberra is a government town and like many in the audience I was wondering how what was being presented applied to large traditional government organisations. The same question would arise with large companies.
2. Use Local Examples: Kate gave some examples of organisations using these new technologies, but the examples were US based. At question time I asked about Australian examples and Kate gave several which could be usefully incorporated in the presentation.
   
3. Use the technology: While Kate was talking about highly interactive technologies, she was using a very static non-interactive PowerPoint style presentation to do it. I suggest some demonstrations would help get the dynamic nature of these technologies across the the audience.
   
   Recently I attended a training course by Mark Drechsler of Netspot, who are supporting the new ANU Learning Management System. He was teaching us to use Moodle and as this is a web based tool he was not surprisingly had a web page open on a big screen for most of the course. What I found surprising was that photos of people kept popping up in the bottom corner of the screen, with short text messages. After a time I worked out these must be Mark's work colleagues, arriving at work, posting general queries to each other and leaving.
   
   It was a little distracting to have these people popping up every few minutes and I was getting a little annoyed. At this point Mark explained these were his colleagues and typed a query one of the students had asked into the system and got an answer from one of his colleagues. At this point I realised that these people were mostly in Netspot's headquarters in Adelaide and others around the world. This was the equivalent of staff popping their head into the training course to introduce themselves. These were people we would be working with at ANU to implement the new system, so it was useful to get to know who we would be working with, even if we never see them in person or talk to them face-to-face.
   
   Kate could similarly demonstrate the use pf some of the technologies, to show that these are not just abstract concepts to be discussed, but real and practical tools for the workplace.

Social networking in the workplace is a topic the ACS is indirectly dealing with via its Computer Professional Education Program. The students use online tools for their courses which are similar to social networking. The primary method of learning is by the students interacitng online, discussing, adding information to forums; the tutors are there to help the students learn how to work this way, not to teach them. A byproduct of this procvess is that these students will be well equipped to use these techniques in their workplace. One of the interesting tools the ACS is using is the open source e-portfolio software "Mahara", from New Zealand, which interfaces to Moodle.

ps: Senator Lundy is talking about how she uses a smart phone to help run the Australian Government, in Canberra on Thursday.

Life Cycle Assessment

The European Commission's Joint Research Centre, Institute for Environment and Sustainability, is looking for independent experts to reviewer reports and papers on Life Cycle Assessment. They pay €450 a day. You can register online. This might be one for people with an academic background.

Federal Court Guidelines on e-Discovery

The Federal Court of Australia issued "The use of technology in the management of discovery and the conduct of litigation" 29 January 2009 (Practice Note No 17). Justice Teague might also consider these of use for his royal commission into the Victorian brushfires. The guidelines set out the use of electronic documents in court proceedings. This is intended to be used a significant number of the documents in a case are electronic (usually 200 or more) and so handling them electronically will speed up the process and lower costs.

The Practice Note cites document provided on the court web site for:

1. Default Document Management Protocol for 200 to 5,000 e-documents,
2. Advanced Document Management Protocol for more that 5,000 documents,
3. Pre-Discovery Conference Checklist
4. Pre-Trial Checklist
   
5. Glossary
   

ACT Solar Power Station Industry Consultation

The ACT Government has invited Industry Consultation ACT Solar Power Facility (a proposed solar power station in Canberra). A Solar Power Plant Pre-feasibility Study was released September 2008. PricewaterhouseCoopers are assisting the ACT Government with the next phase of the process. Documents were to be provided online by Monday 17 February 2009 (sic) but are not yet available.

Tender Number: T09130
Description: Industry Consultation ACT Solar Power Facility
Opening Date: 14 Feb 2009 10:00am
Closing Date: 10 Mar 2009 2:00pm ...
Additional Information: Documents will be available on Monday 17 February 2009 for download.
Project No: 2009.0195
Special Requirement/Notes: The ACT Government is seeking feedback on an intended call for Expressions of Interest (EOI) for the planning, design, construction, ownership, financial management and facility management of an ACT solar power facility. The closing date for any feedback is 2:00PM Tuesday 10 March 2009. The EOI is scheduled to be advertised on 28 March 2009.

Exhibition Room ACT Legislative Assembly Civic Square, London Circuit Canberra ACT 2600

The Industry Consultation Session will be facilitated by PricewaterhouseCoopers, who are assisting the ACT Government with the EOI. The Industry Consultation Session will present an overview of the project and seek feedback from potential EOI respondents for the development of a solar power facility in the ACT. ...

From: Industry Consultation ACT Solar Power Facility, ACT Procurement Solutions, Shared Services, Territory and Municipal Services, ACT Government, 2009

Sydney CBD Metro

The New South Wales Government has announced that work will commence on the $4.8B Sydney CBD metro. Unfortunately, as with previous metro proposals , this seems to be an ad-hoc one off proposal not part of a plan for Sydney.

The NSW Government released "City of Cities: A Plan for Sydney's Future" in December 2005. It aimed to plan for a population increase of 1.1 million by 2030, balancing economic growth with social and environmental issues. Whatever the plan's flaws, it is better than no plan.

The City of Cities plan included a $8B North West-CBD-South West Rail Link. There3 was no CBD Metro in the plan. However the Strategy for Transport included criteria to assess transport proposals: enhanced liveability, economic competitiveness, fairness, environmental protection and governance. These could be applied to the CBD Meto to see if it would be of value to Sydney. The metro announcement makes no mention of a long term large scale plan, only short term details:

The 7km CBD Metro is the first step towards a metro rail network for Sydney. It will run underground from Central to Rozelle via Town Hall, Martin Place, Barangaroo/Wynyard and Pyrmont. A station will also be safeguarded for future development at White Bay.

The route alignment is subject to further development and some modifications may occur as new information is obtained (particularly information related to major services and building basements).

The platform depth at the stations will range from approximately 20 to 35 metres below street level. The tunnel depths will be further determined as the design progresses.

Objectives of the route

The proposed route has been selected based on the objectives listed below and in consideration of a number of significant constraints, particularly in the CBD.

• Provide for stations to be built at optimal locations
• Take account of operational requirements for customer experience and maintenance
• Minimise impacts on future CBD developments by following road alignments as far as possible
• Minimise impacts on existing structures and basements
• Minimise impacts on existing underground infrastructure
• Utilise the Interim Metropolitan Rail Expansion Pitt corridor through the CBD (as identified in the Infrastructure SEPP) as much as possible
• Safeguard the Interim Metropolitan Rail Expansion West corridor through the CBD (as identified in the Infrastructure SEPP) and other underground infrastructure

From: The Route, Sydney Metro, NSW Government, 2009

Green ICT Book Published

My new book "Green ICT" is now available, printed on demand. This consists of the notes for my Green ICT course so you can read the same content online for free. This is very much an experiment, so comments are welcome.

Green ICT

by Tom Worthington
ISBN: 978-0-9806201-0-8
Publisher: Tomw Communications Pty Ltd
Copyright: © 2009 Tom Worthington Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0
Language: English
Country: Australia
Edition: First Edition
Version: 1


* Paperback book $19.00

Printed: 80 pages, 6" x 9", perfect binding, cream interior paper (60# weight), black and white interior ink, white exterior paper (100# weight), full-color exterior ink

Description:

Green ICT Strategies is about how to use computers and telecommunications in a way which maximises positive environmental benefit, with minimum energy and materials use. This is a book to accompany the online course at: http://www.tomw.net.au/ict_sustainability/
Keywords:

* global warming
* greenhouse effect
* carbon emmissions
* logistics
* smart motor systems
* Dematerialisation
* sustainability
* Carbon Footprint
* energy efficiency
* Energy Star Program
* professional education
* course
* e-learning
* green IT


Listed in:

Computers & Internet

e-learning and e-portfolio workshops around Australia

edna, the government backed network for education and training, are running e-learning and e-portfolio workshops around Australia, March - June 2009, for a modest $66 fee. These might be a bit basic for experienced e-learning designers, but should be a good introduction:

Canberra workshop, Wednesday 8 April 2009
Online registration form

Centre for Teaching and Learning

51 Fremantle Drive, Stirling
http://www.det.act.gov.au/teaching_and_learning/professional_learning/ctl

Parking:

Registration is from 8.30am

* Workshop booking terms and conditions
* Register online
* Download brochure

8:45am Registration
9:00am Session 1: Keynote and sector workshops

* Welcome
* Keynote:
Presenter:
* Sector breakout networking session
Meet with edna support staff and delegates from specific education and training sectors for a tailored overview of edna services and communities of practice.

10:30 - 11:00am Morning tea
11:00 - 12:15pm Session 2

* Finding free stuff
* Cultural bridges
* Hands on me.edu.au

12:15 - 1:00 Lunch
1:00 - 2:15pm Session 3

* e-portfolios
* Integrating ICT in learning
* Moodle basics

2:15 - 3:30pm Session 4

* Local showcase
* edna RSS toolkit
* No walls: web conferencing

3:30 - 4:00pm Close and Questions
Evaluation of session.
Summing up.
Future directions for edna and personal learning action.

---

Online status of hospital Emergency Departments

The WA Department of Health is providing a near real time web display of the status of Emergency Departments. This shows: Ambulance diverted, Triage 4 patients average waiting time (minutes), Number of patients waiting to be seen in ED and Total patients in ED for each hospital. Also available Hospital beds are also shown (but from a few days ago). If this information is to be of use, it must be provided reliably. Reports over time are also offered, but when I tried "ED attendances weekly activity" an error message resulted: "There is no row at position 7. at System.Data.RBTree`1.GetNodeByIndex(Int32 userIndex) ...".

Bushfire warning systems

According to media reports the Prime Minister has committed the Australian Government to implementing a bushfire warning system rapidly across Australia. A system using voice messages was trialled in Victoria and SMS messages are used in the Sydney CBD. However, in my view the use of cell broadcast to mobile phones would be the fastest and most reliable to implement. This technology is built into the mobile phone standards and can transmit a message to all phones in an area in a few seconds.

It should be noted that the proposed National Broadband Network also has implications for emergency communicators. It is likely the NBN, if implemented, will accelerate the trend away from use of the public switched telephone network. More people will be using VoIP and its reliability needs to be considered in an emergency. What level of standby power be required in the network and for consumer devices? As I noted in a talk to Turkey's earthquake warning centre in 2008, the Request for Proposals to Roll-out and Operate a National Broadband Network for Australia, asks about provision of battery backup of the equipment and mentions emergency calls, but this is priority 16 out of 18.

Unfortunately building an emergency warning system is not an easy task. The first problem is to have enough information to be able to issue timely warnings and the second to be able to transmit them. The Victorian Government successfully trialled a Community Information and Warning System in 2005. The system calls all phones in an area with a voice message and also makes a not of those phones which received and did not receive the message. There is a 118 page "The Report of the Trial and Evaluation" available from the Victorian Department of Justice (2006).

It should be noted that the NSW government installed an Emergency Warning and Intercommunication System (EWIS), but only for the Sydney CBD. The NSW Government could have chosen to install a less elaborate system covering the whole state at the same cost.

The Sydney CBD also as an opt in SMS emergency service for building managers. Unfortunately SMS systems have problems. In 2007 I discussed the use of SMS with the staff of Turkey's tsunami warning centre.

Executive Summary

The CIWS Trial has been the first opportunity in Victoria to comprehensively evaluate the responses and behaviour of communities to
a public emergency warning system which integrates innovative telecommunication and data transfer technology with the public warning procedures and GIS mapping operations of Victoria’s emergency services.

The findings of the evaluation concluded that for community warning systems such as the CIWS to be effective, the following elements were required:

• Telecommunication and geo-spatial technology needs to be seamlessly integrated within the operations of emergency service organisations and to be incorporated as a component of state and national emergency management arrangements.
• The emergency services’ knowledge of community engagement, culture and demographics and public safety principles needs to be included within their community warning communication procedures and decision making.
• The development and delivery of a public safety awareness campaign must enable individuals and communities to understand the purpose of community warning and information procedures and the means to access emergency and safety information.

This will reinforce the public safety messages advocated by Victoria’ emergency services.

The CIWS Trial – partnerships and process The Offi ce of the Emergency Services Commissioner (OESC), in partnership with Telstra, ABC Radio, DSE, Victoria’s emergency services and the Shires of Yarra Ranges and Northern Grampians and their respective communities, trialled and evaluated the effectiveness of innovative spatial and telecommunications technology.

The trial was designed to incorporate Victoria’s emergency management arrangements and to deliver timely public warning information simultaneously to large numbers of households and businesses.

This spatial and telecommunications technology became known and referred to as the Community Information and Warning System (CIWS).

The CIWS Trial and Evaluation project commenced in October 2004, with the establishment of the steering group and the development of the trial’s parameters and proof of concept technology. As the project gained momentum, the Victorian emergency services including the Country Fire Authority, Victoria State Emergency Service, Metropolitan Fire and
Emergency Services Board and the Department of Human Services were requested by the steering group to form a Data Transfer Sub-Group. This sub-group worked to enable the trial to set-up and test enhanced data transfer capability for downloading images and mapping. It was intended that this data could be transmitted between notional in-field Incident Controllers and an Emergency Operations Centre.

The trial and evaluation developed over the following six months with the project being officially launched in May 2005 and monthly ‘emergency’ telephone messages being delivered to the 664 participating residents of Mount Evelyn, Stawell and Halls Gap, from May through to September 2005.

The evaluation process continued throughout the trial, with all data collected by November 2005.

It is important to note that the CIWS Trial and Evaluation was completed prior to the Mount Lubra wildfi re which occurred in January 2006 and which directly threatened residents from both Halls Gap and Stawell.

CIWS Trial and Evaluation Goals

The key goals for this CIWS Trial and Evaluation were

• to confirm the knowledge about the effectiveness of public warning information technology and its links to public safety and
• to integrate the ABC Radio network as the trial’s major secondary information source in order to exercise Victoria’s ABC Radio and Emergency Services Memorandum of Understanding developed in 2005.

CIWS evaluation methodology

The research findings from the community components of the evaluation methodology, the semi-structured interviews with the emergency services and the observations of the trial provided a robust base of evidence for the design of a Program Logic Model and the conclusions drawn from the evaluation’s findings. The Program Logic Model has
been an innovative and major output of the project’s evaluation and was developed to map the application of the CIWS technology and to integrate this map with operational response decisions about risk communication and community behaviour.

The conclusions from the evaluation findings discuss public safety decisions and behaviour and the CIWS activation. The findings have identified a combination of elements which are likely to contribute to the effectiveness of a telecommunication system of public warning communication.

The influence of CIWS on public safety

The CIWS evaluation findings concluded that:
• When people have a level of planning and preparedness knowledge about emergency events, combined with a realistic perception of their risk and a multi-faceted communication network, then a telephone emergency warning message is more likely to trigger appropriate decisions and behaviours, the results of which are likely to increase their safety and confirm their self reliance to be prepared.
• If a telephone ‘warning’ message is only partially heard, its value for an informed and prepared community would still be high because it represented only one source of trusted information and planning within that community’s total approach to information and community safety preparedness.
• People with limited understanding and awareness of their emergency risk and community safety, and who had not considered preparation and planning for emergency events, were consequently more likely to be wholly dependent on a telephone emergency warning message to determine their subsequent responses and behaviours.
• Consequently, in these situations, rather than triggering increased self reliance and informed decision making, the telephone message is more likely to become a source of information which could increase their uncertainty, lack of preparedness and reduce their ability to contribute to having a shared responsibility of safety with the emergency service organisations.

The CIWS, IPND and community privacy

The CIWS Proof of Concept model was set up to enable development of the telephone and property database from IPND (Integrated Public Number Database) data. Currently however, the IPND licensing agreement on data security prohibits the implementation of this component and consequently Telstra was not permitted to use the IPND database for the trial. Instead the CIWS Trial sought the participating residents’ permission to use their telephone numbers and property addresses for the development of the CIWS Trial database.

The participating residents’ expectation about the protection of personal information by government and organisations was based on trust and agreed rules about how their personal information would beaccessed and used.

If the CIWS were to operate as a national or statewide system using the IPND rather than asking residents to opt-in to supply their names and addresses, then the development of such a system would require security and privacy protocols, the ability for emergency service agencies to identify
themselves as part of these protocols and the support of a public awareness and education program.


Incorporating the ABC Radio network as the CIWS secondary information source

The ABC Radio network was successfully used as the major secondary information source which participating residents were encouraged to access following delivery of the CIWS trial’s automated telephone messages. The progressive development of public emergency warning information systems and, in particular, the use of Victoria’s ABC Radio and
Emergency Services Memorandum of Understanding will continue to develop the predictability of a communication system which people will expect in order to access emergency information and to make decisions about their safety.

The CIWS and the communication needs
of marginalised communities

The analysis of the information gained from the consultation and workshops with both cultural and linguistically diverse communities (CALD) and hearing impaired people from a Vic Deaf social group provided the CIWS Trial and Evaluation with a set of provisional principles which could be incorporated into the future development and implementation of public warning communication systems.

• The delivery of automated telephone messaging to communities which include hearing impaired and CALD groups must provide for their ability to receive and understand the message communicated by the telephone call.
• The secondary information sources incorporated into a CIWS communication process need to be diverse in order to address the communication requirements of marginalised and special needs sectors of the community.
• The evaluation of the CIWS Trial established the importance of further consultation and research to confirm the communication and information needs of culturally and linguistically diverse communities and of people who have impaired hearing.

The CIWS as a combination of technology organisational and social factors

The CIWS evaluation findings and the conclusions have demonstrated the relationship between the CIWS technology and human factors. The Program Logic Model has highlighted the importance of emergency services’ decision-making processes to activate the CIWS in order to disseminate telephone messages to the public. The introduction of the Program Logic Model has, for the first time, identified the procedures, decisions and context necessary for the design and implementation of a technologically based and integrated public emergency information and warning system.

The evaluation’s conclusions clearly found that the effectiveness (perceptions of increased public safety) of public information and warning system design and delivery is linked to the incorporation of knowledge by emergency services personnel about a community’s culture and their level of risk awareness and preparedness. This knowledge needs to become an essential component within the organisational processes of public risk communication.

The CIWS Trial and Evaluation has made an important contribution to the importance of risk communication, public warning technology design and future decisions about the incorporation of such technology systems into state and national emergency management arrangements.

The rigorous implementation of the CIWS Trial and Evaluation can provide the emergency management sector with the confidence to continue developing integrated public warning systems which incorporate telecommunication technology, public safety and public risk communication procedures. ...

From: "The Report of the Trial and Evaluation", Victorian Department of Justice (2006).