Update 12-28-2009

Ok we had the first successful week of Metro wide video teleconferencing testing. We had Glendale, Ferguson, Monarch, Pacific, Eureaka, Spanish Lake, Creve Coeur, Richmond Heights, Pattonville, Olivette, Fenton and Florissant all attend. We did have several IT issues with different departments but for the most part we got them worked out and they were expected.

We proved the system works. We shared documents. We delivered training power points, We proved this can be an effective training delivery medium. Look for more to come form the training cordinates. We have just begun. Thanks Robb

Dec 2009 Update

OK so here is the update as of 12-11-2009. The rough draft of the paper is complete. I am in the editing phase and expect to defend in early February. The Video Teleconferencing project is going very well. We are getting ready to have our first regional class next week. I am looking forward to the opportunity to make our training better and more collaborative. Adapt overcome and improvise.

St. Charles FD is nearly finished with the transition to training via the web. The modification to the stations is complete with the exception of a few minor items. We still struggle with getting station 4 completed but we will get there. All station will soon have wireless keyboards and mice connected to their second computers that run thru their flat screen TV’s. These are located in the day rooms of the fire stations. So far it seems to be working well. MS Live Meeting has proven to be a solid training tool. Any issues seem to stem from my lack of understanding on how the system was supposed to work. MS Live Meeting support has been very good to work with. I will have a new Power Point up soon as well as my thesis for your review. Thanks .. Robb

Update

OK, we are moving forward on using Microsoft Live Meeting for training. The meetings are still going well. We have to change the computer placements in the stations in order for everyone at the station to be able to attend. We are currently set up in the offices at the stations. However we can not ask to have everyone pack into the small office to view the training. We also do not have any place for them to sit in the offices. So we are moving to the living areas. We are placing new computers, network drops and additional web cams near the big screens at the stations. We are running the computers to the big screens and setting the web cams on top of the TV's to face the students. We are hoping to have all of these station classroom set up by Sept 1, 2009.

Once the stations are all set up I am going to begin the process of implementing the "Best Practices" solution I have been researching. Then we are going to move all (lecture based) trainings and meetings to the Video Teleconferencing system. We can have 1250 different computers attend. So once we get St. Charles City system perfected we can expand it.

We have also started doing training officers meetings on the system. The first one was a success. More to follow...

All classes are now done for the degree. Now I just have to write the disertation.

Robb

Video meetings

We have started using Microsoft Livemeeting on a free trail. So far the meetings are going well. The B/C's are setting up the meetings and the Captains are attending from/at the stations. This has improved communication. I am getting good reports from the crews. Everyone seems to like the communication. There are a few dislikes. In Livemeeting it is only possible to see two video images at a time. The videos you see are yours and who ever talked last.

In talking to MS we can fix this with an Office Communications Server (OCS). We have put together a package with E-Sponder to seriously upgrade our video teleconferencing abilities and drastically improve our ability to coordinate emergency response coordination. We are going for a American FireAct Grant (AFG) for roughly 500K. We are going to market this as a best practices model for the fire service and do a proof of concept. Meaning we are going to do a pilot project and then once it is solid and functional offer this up to the Metro region as a model of what can be done. I think this is a huge step. I am very excited by its possibilities.

Just a note I attended a SCFD morning shift meeting from the lobby of my hotel while at FDIC. It works from anywhere. All you need is a laptop, internet connection and a web cam. This going to be a good thing for us all once we get it up and functional. More to follow - Robb

Update 03-09-2009

OK, I am back. Sorry for the delay. Anyway, we now have focus on a thesis topic and have a target acquired. The new thesis topic is: Exploring the Experience of Educational Innovation and Change in Emergency Response in the St. Louis Metropolitan Area. The project remains on track. Although we are reevaluating the delivery method. The Tandberg bid came back at $1,430,000.00. Yes, that’s right 1.43 million and that project was just for St. Charles County. That is only for the hardware. Nothing for curricula development, no staff positions, noddaa…

So on version # 2 we looked at shrinking the project to just the City of St. Charles FD. The hardware budget then shrank to a modest $430,391.95. Well, that seems a little extreme for an organization that has to beg for Fire Trucks when the old ones are worn out. I just can not justify the incredible expense of the hardware based systems. They are just not feasible at this time for us. Especially when we are wanting to make this program available for our brother volunteer organizations who do not have a history of strong funding streams.

So we looked at the Internet based systems. These included e/pop – WebEx – Mega Meeting. Each of them had their ups and downs. All of them require a subscription fee. Most of them are better that I thought they would be. WebEx was $6,000 per year and required a audio (phone based) subscription to go along with it. e/pop and Mega Meeting were good solutions but again each entity needed a subscription service that was $4,000 - $6,000/ per year.

Now we are looking at software based systems. The primary solution that we are getting to test is Microsoft’s Live Meeting. We will start the process this week. We are going on a 30 day free trail. I will let you guys know in two weeks if we are going to purchase the product or not. The cost will be about $2,000 a year for our department. The only draw back that I see is that MS Live does not have the multi party screen. So if you are having a conference you only see one of the participants – not all of them. With Mega Meeting and e/pop you can see up to 9. That would be preferred but I can not argue with the $2,000 MS price tag.

With MS Live meeting we can have up to 1,250 people attend the web meeting. If you are looking at a regional asset how can you beat that for a total of $2,000 a year? The only draw back is the limited video display.

More to follow shortly….