BeSafe Technologies Inc.

Living with Open Source: Liferay Developer Training

2009-07-24T13:41:38Z

This past April BeSafe provided the opportunity for me to attend a 3 day Liferay training course for Java developers. The class was administered by Rivit Logic in its Reston, Virginia, offices. Rivit Logic is a Liferay Service Partner. The course content is developed by and copyrighted by Liferay.

Liferay Standard Edition provides a really incredible set of capabilities. Because of this very richness, it can be an incredibly complex development platform. This is after all, a Java Servlet and Portlet based application built on top of several open source projects. Complexity just comes with this territory. Fortunately Liferay, in partnership with their training partners, offers these classes to help get you up to speed.

I'm not an experienced Java programer, and I expected that much of the material covered would be over my head, and it was. But the class is structured such that clear examples are provided for each topic covered, and even though I may not have understood all the details I was able to follow the topics and gain an understanding of the Liferay way of doing things, which was my main goal in attending. All the course presentations, example code, and tools used, (Eclipse and some third party Java libraries) are provided to you electronically. These materials allow you to review the class topics at your own pace and have been a great help.

I think the course could easily be expanded to 4 days given the broad range of topics covered, or even 5 with the addition of some portal administration topics. I have no problem at all recommending this class as a very good overview of developing applications (portlets and themes) for the Liferay portal.

National Preparedness Month 2009

2009-06-22T16:13:56Z

September is National Preparedness Month (NPM), a nationwide effort sponsored by the Federal Emergency Management Agency's Ready Campaign in partnership with Citizen Corps.

This year, NPM focus on changing perceptions about emergency preparedness and will help Americans understand what it truly means to be Ready. Preparedness goes beyond fire alarms, smoke detectors, deadbolt locks, etc. It means having an emergency supply kit in your home, office, and car; making and practicing a family, community, and business emergency plan; keeping informed about emergencies and potential emergencies in your area; and getting involved in community efforts.

There are a few simple steps everyone should take to become better prepared.

Read the pamphlet
Prepare and practice a Family Emergency Plan
Maintain Emergency Supply Kits at locations where you spend a lot of time
Visit www.ready.gov to learn more.

BeSafe is pleased to be a National Preparedness Month 2009 Coalition Member and is happy to assist in distributing these materials.

Living with Open Source: Liferay Portal

2009-04-27T15:25:46Z

www.besafe.net is built on several open source software projects. Most of these are packaged and integrated in the Liferay Portal. The Liferay portal provides BeSafe Technologies a solid base on which we are building our online services. We looked at several different options before finally settling on Liferay. At the outset of the project I would not have given a Java application server good odds of getting selected. My past experience with other enterprise J2EE platforms had frankly left me with the opinion that J2EE, while having incredible potential, comes with just too high a price to unlock that potential.

The Liferay Portal changed that by providing; i) a version of the product that does not have a license fee, ii) includes the source, and iii) including several portlets that can be either used out of the box or serve as a base for customization. These features saved us several thousand dollars in software license and development costs. It's important to note that it took the combination of all three to make Liferay a go for us. Free software with no way to update/modify the code is no good. We have made several changes to the Liferay code post launch in late 2008. Having the Liferay source is critical given that we don't have a support contract. It's a bonus that Liferay includes a method of extending/modifying the core functionality.

We are taking advantage of some of the Liferay non-free training classes and plan to have someone at the Liferay East Coast Users Conference this year if workload allows. We are watching the development of the Liferay Enterprise Edition and may (will) move to that version at some point.

Ten Years After Columbine

2009-04-20T14:37:21Z

At 11:10 a.m. on Tuesday, April 20, 1999, ten years ago today, two students at Columbine High School, in the heartland of our nation, changed the way the world looked at school safety. Since that day legislation has passed mandating schools maintain emergency preparedness plans (view example), review plans on a regular basis, and better coordinate with first responders.

To that end, many companies are providing technological solutions to comprehensive districts, independent schools, colleges and universities, and even workplaces, to facilitate in the dissemination of critical information and aid interdisciplinary communication. Any facility frequented by the public should have some plan in place to deal with a potential crisis.

Schools in the Post-Columbine World

2009-04-20T14:01:11Z

As a former school principal, school superintendent and current school committee member I cannot help but reflect on the impact of the tragic events that transpired ten years ago at Columbine.

April 20th 1999 was a day that changed forever the belief that our schools were safe places for students. It was also the day that changed our responsibility as school leaders to be fully prepared for events which, while we may not be able to fully control, we are responsible to prepare for.

Sadly, subsequent events have only added to this reality, and today it is necessary for every school and every school system to have a systematic comprehensive emergency plan in place. These plans must ensure that schools, police, fire and other first responders can be prepared for, mitigate, respond to and recover from a serious event in its schools.

The fact is that ten years and one day ago it was considered acceptable to have a simple plan in place to address possible emergencies. The world has been changed forever and schools must change with it. There is no longer any excuse for complacency. Having a plan in place does not inoculate schools from tragedy, but not having a coordinated accessible system in place is irresponsible at best in a post-Columbine world.

Columbine - 10 years later

2009-04-17T15:40:56Z

It is hard to believe that it has been 10 years since the tragedy at Columbine High School shook the world. Education and public safety as we knew it drastically changed that day. Now students in more and more schools enter in the morning through metal detectors and bag searches. Teachers and students now practice lock-down drills alongside the traditional fire drills. Is this enough though?

Predicting an event such as a school shooting is nearly impossible. Human behavior, regardless of what may be perceived as ‘warnings’, is volatile and unpredictable. In many schools, we have seen increases in various security measures. While they help, they cannot guarantee the safety of staff and students. We all share responsibility to provide a safe and challenging educational opportunity for all students.

Safe schools require a multi-faceted approach, involving school administrators, guidance counselors, local police and fire departments, and regional response teams. We are, for many of us, experiencing unprecedented economic challenges. The loss of a job or home can cause irrational behavior and perhaps a response that typically would remain dormant in less volatile economic times. The result is that we must remain even more diligent and responsible in continuing to examine and implement violence prevention programs and keep our schools safe.

This is becoming more difficult. As state and local resources shrink, many schools are losing their school resource officers as well as other programs designed to keep students and staff safe. These reductions coupled with the potential for violence, require a heightened awareness by all community members. School and workplace safety is not solely the obligation of a principal, teacher, or administrator. It is our collective responsibility to make this happen.

NIMS Compliance

2008-09-05T16:46:38Z

Since joining BeSafe in January 2008, I've read the term "NIMS Compliance" several times while researching safety preparedness services and in some customers RFP.

In no case was the term defined to any degree of detail. In speaking with clients and potential clients I've discovered that I'm not the only one that is not clear on what "NIMS Compliance" means, especially when applied to the types of services that BeSafe provides.

What is NIMS?
The BeSafe community content area has a short overview of what NIMS is. We also provide links to learn more about the program. In a nutshell it is a U.S. federal government program that seeks to define a common framework of procedures, processes, and terminology for preparing for, and responding to, ~~large scale~~ emergency events. NIMS is managed by the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

What is NIMS Compliance?

The FEMA website has the following information on NIMS Compliance.

2008 Compliance Documents:

I can find no mention of NIMS Compliance for software, hardware, or services in any of the 3 documents above. It appears that the term NIMS compliance only has meaning when applied to states, territories, tribal nations, and local governments.

In dealing with any company that claims "NIMS Compliance" for its products or services, my advice is to ask for a detailed description of how they achieved that compliance.

BeSafe Technologies services are NIMS (and therefor REMS) compatable and use of our services can assist organizations meet their requirements for NIMS compliance.

Importance of Floorplans for Safe Facilities

2008-08-26T18:26:41Z

Legible, easy to understand floorplans in the hands of first responders are a critical part of providing a safe working, living, or learning facility. Below is an example of old, archietectural floorplans:

This bundle of plans encompasses all available plans a school district had prior to hiring BeSafe Technologies, Inc. As part of the BeSafe process, the floorplans were converted to CAD (Computer-Aided Design) format. This allowed BeSafe to quickly update the plans as the schools were renovated. The digital plans can be emailed, printed, and manipulated in ways the paper originals could never be.

Below is a sample of floorplans optimized for a First Responder's use. These schematics are easy to read, use consistient symbology, color-coded, and simplified to show the critical data on each floor without the superfluous details.

Why PDF format?

2008-09-01T20:36:14Z

Why use the Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) as our primary format for delivering client information to first responders? The PDF file format has been around since 1993. Fifteen years is quite old from a technology perspective.

The PDF format has gone through 7 revisions as of August 2008. Each one bringing improvements to the format and additional PDF reader and PDF creator options. The last update, version 1.7 was published by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) on July 1, 2008 as ISO 32000-1:2008, insuring that PDF remains an open standard.
PDF keeping pace with technology and evolving into in open standard are generally good things.

The aspects that make PDF particularly suitable for use by BeSafe are:

Portability. Just about every platform that includes the capability to browse the Internet includes a PDF reader. This includes most smart phones and other mobile devices.
Offline viewing capability. A device doesn't have to be Internet connected in order to view a PDF file. The file can be downloaded to the device and viewed at a later date. This is very useful for situations where the "last mile" problem is especially difficult or costly to solve.
Easily converted to hard copy. The quality and value of a product is not directly related to how simple or how complex the technology used to provide it. The printed form is easily annotated, very portable, and rugged. It requires no power and can be made secure using physical security methods. The PDF format is easily printed for distribution and hand modification.

The major downside to using the PDF format is ensuring that there is a reliable method of publishing updates and informing individuals and organizations that an update has taken place. The BeSafe Portal provides BeSafe clients the tools they need to update, publish, and announce changes to information essential for first responders.

A Typical BeSafe Site Walk Through

2008-08-13T14:38:41Z

Here is a short overview of a typical BeSafe walk through we conduct to gather and verify information about a site and the structures on that site. I hope clients and potential clients find it informative.

We try to be as effective and efficient as possible to reduce the disruption to normal client activities. Kevin Harrington, our COO, has established a standard set of required items we must cover to ensure completeness and quality. Each field technician is allowed to develop their own step by step procedure as long as all the required tasks are completed. I appreciate that BeSafe allows customization to the walk through procedure so that I can get the work done in a way that works out best for me.

I guess I have done more than 250 buildings for BeSafe now and have developed a repeatable set of steps that work for most structure types.

Prepare:

Gather materials and get the field kit together. The factor that determines how successful we are in getting the floor plans and other information right the first time is gathering as much info as we can prior to visiting a site. This includes contact information, general and site information, security procedures, architectural drawings, if available, (often are not), etc. We have a standard field kit that has all the image and data collection items we need. I do a lot of sketching and note taking.

Coordinate:

Establish contact with the client point of contact and schedule a workable time for our field representative and someone from the client to perform visit. Having enough time is the second most important factor. Rushing is not acceptable. Important features may be missed.

Perform:

Upon arriving at a site, the very first thing I do is check in with a main office or front desk and meet the client representative that will assist with the walk through. I try to get the client working on completing the data as soon as possible as finding someone who has the information and getting time from them can be time consuming. Depending on type of structure and its layout, starting at the top floor and working down is a good flow of work. During the actual walk through we use our standard procedure to verify all the pertinent structure details that we include on a floor plans for first responders. We take notes and photographs as needed. After the interior space has been covered I move outside and continue the process.

Close Out:

Before leaving a site, I meet with the client and check over all data sheets and get clarification on questions I may have from the walk through and ensure the job is complete.