NICS, WICS, & Raven 2004-2015
Origin
The development of the NICS-Raven web application has its roots in an advanced technology program on commander collaboration from 1999-2004 called the Command Post of the Future (CPOF), a program at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). In 2005 this project was shown to key fire officials in San Diego, and while the concept was viewed as innovative, the implementing technology base was not judged suitable for first responders, and the project was tabled.
In 2007, at the advice of the CPOF team leadership, MIT Lincoln Laboratory, a Federally Funded Research & Development Center (FFRDC), became involved in a related study on commander collaboration and, with guidance from first responders, emergency managers, and other operators in California, investigated how new technology might benefit emergency response operations. When scientists and engineers from the Laboratory saw large-scale fire suppression operations at the Harris and Witch Creek Fires in October 2007, they launched a formal program at the Laboratory and decided to fund the initial investigation from 2007 to 2010. Initially the project was called DMIT (Disaster Management Innovation Testbed), then LADDERS (Lincoln Distributed Disaster Response System), and then NICS (Next-Generation Incident Command System).
Results from the Laboratory were initially evaluated by the Riverside County Fire Department/Riverside Unit of CAL FIRE since nearly all the vehicles in their fleet were equipped with mobile data computers (MDC) and automatic vehicle location (AVL) technology.
In December 2010, NICS was used on its first emergency event, flooding in Riverside County.
DHS S&T
Around this time the potential of this initiative was recognized by the Science and Technology Directorate of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS S&T) which took over funding of the project from MIT LL and continued funding through 2014, with some sustainment through November 2015. Some of that funding was earmarked for technical development of NICS subsystems and components, and some of the funding allowed MIT LL to perform daily technical maintenance and support of NICS for the Emergency Response Community.
San Diego Supercomputer Center
In late 2012, the NICS web operating software was moved from MIT LL to the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) on the campus of the University of California at San Diego in order to provide a more stable platform than the R&D configuration at MIT LL. The hosting costs for this installation have been borne by the San Diego County Board of Supervisors.
All accesses to NICS from locations worldwide have been through this site. This amounts to a few tens of thousand of accesses from 2012 to the present.
WICS
Beginning in 2013, DHS and MIT LL encouraged members of the NICS Users' Group to form an organization that could take over daily technical & operational support tasks and fund the continuation of the project, essentially moving NICS from an R&D project to a fully sustainable, resilient, secure, and properly supported operational platform. Such an organization was formed in May 2014 and incorporated in the State of California as a California Nonprofit Public Benefit Corporation. It was named the Worldwide Incident Command Services Corporation (WICS).
Under the California State Law for Nonprofit Public Benefit Corporations, WICS is strictly constrained in what it can and cannot do:
o It cannot be organized for the private gain of any individual or group
o It is governed by a board of directors who volunteer their time without compensation
o The compensation of all other personnel who are employed by the organization is strictly reviewed and must meet specific IRS standards for nonprofit organizations.
o Upon dissolution, all assets of the nonprofit have to be transferred to another nonprofit. No vendor can acquire any assets. There is no concept of equity.
NICS Evolves Into Raven
In April 2015 DHS S&T announced via a public press release that WICS had been selected as the official Technology Transition Partner for transitioning NICS.
On or about July 1, 2015, WICS will start performing the following minimum services:
a. Re-host the NICS code to the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Cloud. The name chosen for this re-hosted, WICS-controlled Cloud version of NICS is “Raven.”
b. Provide 24x7x365 operational and technical support to the NICS and Raven User Communities to guarantee user support during actual emergency events.
c. Provide user registration services and new user orientation training for Raven. This includes the preparation and updating of training materials.
In May, 2015, agencies in the State of California announced their intention to fully transfer the SDSC version of NICS to State control. This transfer will also be completed on or about July 1, 2015. Organizations located outside of California will no longer have access to the SDSC version of NICS once this transfer is completed.
This allows WICS to concentrate on developing Raven as a significantly advanced version of NICS, and service the non-California community keeping with the “worldwide” emphasis of WICS. That work is underway.
Additional Information on NICS and its Advanced Offspring Raven
NICS and Raven are mobile, web-based command & control systems for dynamically escalating incidents, from first response to extreme-scale (all-scale), that enable collaboration across Federal, Tribal, Military, State, County, Local/Municipal, and Utility levels of Preparedness, Planning, Response, and Recovery, for all-risk/all-hazard events.
Raven is a mix of tools, technologies and concepts of operation (CONOPS), augmented by user services from the WICS team, designed to develop and nurture situational awareness, particularly for those at the point of the sword looking directly at the threat and who have to make timely decisions under extreme pressure.
Raven Desktop (desktops, laptops) and Raven Mobile (smart phones, tablets) are web-based clients and mobile devices which support some offline capabilities for remote areas with degraded or limited communications. As such, they are services via their web-based clients rather than applications each user would normally have to load onto their computer. As long as a user has a web browser, access to the Internet, and a user account with password, they have access.
To date, NICS has been provided to the emergency response community as a part of R&D funding from the sponsor, DHS S&T, and since 2010 has been provided to all emergency responders at no cost. This will change as DHS funding comes to its planned conclusion.
In the near future, that service will be provided by organizations such as WICS, and departments and agencies will subscribe to Raven or other variations of the NICS code in various ways as they do with other services, in some cases at no cost.
Agencies will decide if they wish to acquire these services for their organizations, as they do for other services they provide. They can request tailoring of these services to meet their own needs, and they can establish rules of use for their own personnel. WICS is composed of operational experts who are available to assist organizations with Raven implementation using the Incident Command System (ICS) and National Incident Management System (NIMS), including on-scene support during emergency events. One of the reasons for creating WICS as a nonprofit public benefit organization was to provide these services at the lowest cost possible.
Additional Information About MIT Lincoln Laboratory (MIT LL)
NICS was conceived, envisioned, and functionally specified by experienced first responders, many from the California emergency response community, and developed by scientists and engineers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Lincoln Laboratory (MIT LL), a Federally Funded Research & Development Center (FFRDC).
FFRDCs typically assist government agencies with scientific research and analysis, systems development, and systems acquisition. As they are funded by the government, they can be thought of as government laboratories. Currently there are 39 in the United States.
MIT LL has its primary research facilities at Hanscom Air Force Base in Bedford, Massachusetts, 20 miles outside of Boston. Its staff includes 3,500 scientists and engineers.
Additional Information About the NICS Users’ Group
The development of NICS can best be described as a bottom up, community-driven and community-managed project. From its inception, the features and characteristics of the user interface have been specified by the operational community which organized itself as the “NICS Users’ Group.”
The Users’ Group is composed of many members that have been working on NICS for over 10 years, including Jack Thorpe (Acting Director, NICS Users’ Group), Bob Toups, Bill Clayton, and others.