That has been the big question since Apple announced plans to build the biggest data center in the world here in Catawba County.  Apple has stated that it will deliver iTunes out of the center but industry analysts say that Apple does not need that large of a facility to just deliver iTunes.

Well maybe they do if iTunes becomes more than the music market that has made it so successful.  Rumors have it that Apple wants to deliver your favorite TV shows through iTunes.  If so, Apple could change or let’s say, revolutionize how we purchase entertainment services.  The service, which is expected to be via a-la-carte, would allow subscribers to pick the programs they wanted to view and pay accordingly.  The price is expected to be about $30 per month and serve as many as 65 million users via iTunes.

Success of the project requires Apple to get buy in from broadcast and cable TV programmers.  Industry experts say that changing the model will be difficult but acknowledge that Apple changed the model with iTunes and made  that industry profitable. 

Getting the first network will be the toughest but Apple may have an advantage here.  Industry executives believe the first to sign with Apple will be Disney.  Not hard to imagine since Steve Jobs is Disney’s largest single shareholder.  Jobs received the stock when Disney acquired Pixar animation studio in 2006.

Apple is very secretive with their plans so the future of Apple’s data center is still to be revealed.  However, changing the way something is delivered, simplifying the experience, and marketing at a price point that is beneficial to both the customer and Apple is what makes the company strong.  Delivering TV over iTunes follows that pattern, so could that be the plans for the data center?  We will be eagerly watching as the center goes up.

For more information about Apple’s iTunes rumor check out these postings:

All things Digital and Fast Company:

Last week it was my pleasure to meet with a group of citizens at the Sherrills Ford-Terrell Fire Rescue base.  We were discussing 911 and emergency calls when one question came up.  “It is sort of hard to get to my house, could you find me?”  In today’s world of GPS’ and Google maps, that question sounds trivial.  However, if you look at the map of the Sherrills Ford area from Google, you can see all the little fingers of land and coves that attract people to live on the lake.  Finding some of these are difficult and add the fact that many GPS providers only update their map once every few years, the concern becomes very real.

So how do we find you?  Each EMS unit and Law Enforcement unit is equipped with GPS tracking and AVL (Automated Vehicle Location).  Just like the GPS in your car, the onboard GPS keeps constant track of the vehicle location.  Information from the unit, for example  location and speed, is sent back to a central data network.  How is this different from the GPS in your car?  Back at the central database, the GPS is integrated with the county’s GIS and complete up-to-date maps.  If a new road is added it will be available to our units in a few days.  New developments and new homes are added from the building services database.  Maps and data in the EMS and Law Enforcement units is constantly being updated.  At the same time, the location of each unit is being sent back to shift supervisors and to the 911 Center.

So how do we find you?  Let’s walk through the entire process.  You have just called 911 and stated that someone in your house is having chest pains.  Time is critical.  The 911 telecommunicator dispatches EMS to your location.  When you called, your phone number and address were displayed on the CAD (Computer Aided Dispatch) screen.  The 911 telecommunicator will always verify with you that this is correct.  When the call is dispatched, the 911 telecommunicator will call the EMS unit by radio.  At the same time, the information is being sent to a computer in the EMS unit.  The computer in the EMS unit displays the address and the emergency details  for the responders.  It also displays a map with the location of the EMS unit and the location of the emergency.  The responding unit can then choose to map to the location and the best route will be displayed on the computer screen.  As the unit travels to the location of the emergency, icons on the screen track progress.  Once at the scene, if  transport to a hospital is necessary, the system will map the best route to the hospital.

So how do we find you?  Thanks to GPS and AVL integrated with GIS, our units have up-to-date maps and routing information to save precious seconds when responding to your emergency.  So whether you live on a beautiful hard to reach cove on Lake Norman or small farm down a country road, relax, we should be able to find you.

I think everyone in Catawba County is proud that Apple is coming or should I say that Apple is here.  Apple began breaking ground and working on their new data center almost immediately after the paperwork was completed and their project is moving forward at record speed.

As soon as the announcement was made and the size of the facility was publicized, technology blogs, Twitter, and news sites were a-buzz wondering what Apple is up to now.  Apple’s new data center will be one of the largest centers in the world and capable of delivering huge amounts of information.   Everyone is still wondering what Apple plans for the future but those of us in the tech world know how secretive Apple is when it comes to unveiling new products and services.

The big news now is the notoriety of having two of the most recognized names in technology ( Apple and Google)locate in our area .  The big question now is, “What does the area offer that Apple and Google were attracted to?”  We are in the spotlight and this is a prime time to attract other technology companies to area.

That is exactly what Scott Millar, president of  Catawba County’s Economic Development Corporation hoped would happen.  The EDC is working with other counties to attract more data centers to this area.  Building on the momentum of Apple and Google locating here, it is hoped that our region  will become a data center corridor.  More data centers would, of course, bring  more jobs to the area; and those jobs would  have a higher than average salary.

For more information about the data center corridor, check out yesterday’s article in the Hickory Daily Record at http://www2.hickoryrecord.com/content/2009/oct/28/5-counties-promote-data-center-corridor/news/ .

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In a meeting today, I was having a discussion with one of our young staff members.  The optimum word being young. Interpret - Gen Y.  We were discussing how to make a website easier for users to find and I told her type in “Search Engine Optimization” in Google.  The discussion them turned to Google and how easy it is to get answers.  She then made the statement, “I wonder what it would be like if we couldn’t get answers in 5 minutes?”

For those of us that remember, Before Google, this question is shocking but we know the answer to that question.  Before Google we spent hours, days, even months researching projects and trying to find answers to questions.  Often finding only one or two solutions because of limited books and resources at hand.  Sometimes we found all the information needed, sometimes we made decisions on the information we had only to find we didn’t have all the facts.  Doing research and getting answers to questions could be a painful process.

With Google and a host of other search engines, getting answers to questions is fast and easy.  Type in anything and you will get something back.  Find out about people, restaurants, building permits, definitions, maps that you can drive the route, anything you want to know.  And the 5 minutes in the question, if you have access to the information, you can get it from anywhere in the world in 8 seconds or less.

Those who hate change would say that this rapid access to information is bad.  Others would say that the information in cyberspace contains a lot of misinformation.  But to me the question represents an exciting time in our lives.

With the information available and the ease of access, people today have the tools to be more informed, the resources to make better decisions, and the power to challenge the status quo.  Research can be completed in a shorter period of time with more detail than we even thought to be possible Before Google.  Projects can be completed faster and one can build upon the knowledge gained from similar project information all over the world.  This feeds the change engine and leads to faster growth and innovation.

So “What would it be like if we couldn’t get answers in 5 minutes?”  I know the answer to that question, lived it, survived it but I wouldn’t want to go back.  I like having instant access to information and believe that it is making the world a more informed, better place to live.

So to my young colleague, take this powerful tool and change the world……

Do you turn your computer and peripherals off when you leave for the day?   If everyone would turn his or her computer and peripherals off when they leave, it could save a significant amount of money and, at the same time, help make this a greener world by reducing our carbon footprint.

Catawba County urges employees to shut their computer down when they leave for the day, unless the computer is tied to other crucial services or needs to stay on for maintenance purposes. This is an expectation of all employees.  We encourage you to adopt the same practice.

While our employees shut their computer down every day, Catawba County will be participating in the National Association of Counties, “Power IT Down Day” on August 27, 2009.  NACo, along with its partners, is asking that counties participate in this nationwide initiative.  More information is included below about the savings that could be realized when this is done on a nationwide basis.

So what do you need to do if you would like to participate?  If you shut your computer and peripherals down every day, you just need to sign up for the program at the Power IT Down Day  web site and continue shutting down as normal.  If you have not been shutting your computer down every day, please make this part of your daily routine and visit the Power IT Down Day web site to sign up to participate on August 27th.

Thank you for helping Catawba County save energy and the environment.

The National Association of Counties is sponsoring “Power IT Down Day” on August 27, 2009

On a single day this summer, county governments across the country could dramatically slash energy consumption costs with the flick of a switch.

On August 27, 2009, the most trusted names in green IT will join together for the second year to make a change for the better with “Power IT Down Day.” Citrix, along with Hewlett-Packard, Intel and Microsoft, has committed to switching off personal computers and peripherals when leaving the office for the evening on August 27 and have challenged all levels of government to do the same.

Last year, over 2,800 government and industry employees pledged to power down their computers, printers and monitors on Power IT Down Day - a one-day savings of over 37,000 kilowatt-hours.

If only one percent of county governments’ 2.9 million employees (source: 2007 Census) participated in Power IT Down Day, more than 380,000 kilowatt-hours could be saved. That comes to an energy cost-savings of more than $38,000 in a single night.

Power IT Down Day encourages government to embrace responsible energy usage at the individual level. And, inspired by the cost-savings generated by Power IT Down Day, Citrix and our green IT partners plan to donate more than $20,000 to the Wounded Warrior Project.

 As a practice and as part of our Green Initiatives, Catawba County recommends that all computers and peripherals that are not performing a function be shut down when the employee leaves for the day. We will use “Power IT Down Day” to remind our staff that their computers should be shut down every day when they leave work or are going to be away from their desk for an extended period of time.

 To sign up and learn more about green IT in government, staff will be encouraged to visit the Power IT Down Day Web site.

This  is the last article in a series of blogs related to 911 and what it should look like in the future.  Over the last few weeks, a series of questions that were posed to different groups for input were summarized and reveal the concepts that we feel make up the Next Generation of 911.  This last section talks about regional vs local models.

Should 911 Move to Regional Center verses the Current Local Model?

As 911 moves to NG911, it is important to look at regional verses local models.  How can data be passed ? What is the cost? How do you provide backup resources? And most important, how can the people best be served?

Some of the advantages of having regional 911 centers would be:

• regional centers would make it easier to set consistent standards across the state
• Regional centers could better facilitate resource sharing by acting as backups for each other and by load balancing in times of high demand.
• Larger staffs at regional centers could be specially trained and dedicated to certain types of calls.

Some of the advantages of having local 911 centers would be:

• Local centers are more familiar with the needs of the community they serve
• Local centers are more familiar with the area and may have better GIS and mapping data available for the area
• Local centers could back each other up and load balance using NG911 standards.
• Having more local 911 centers reduces the security risks posed by having a few regional centers.

In discussing regional verses local, several questions come up.  Would regional 911 centers be call taking and dispatch or would they only be call taking and leave dispatch to local agencies?  Acting as call taking and dispatch makes the assumption that communication is fully interoperable and that 911 is one coherent system from the call taking process to the response in the field.  If regional centers are acting as call taking only and passing dispatch to local agencies, one has to make the assumption that local centers are capable of receiving all the data from the regional center and able to passing it on to responders.

Regional verses local is one area that will have to be studied in depth to determine the best delivery system.  This will be a balancing act between most efficient delivery of services, cost of delivery, and the emotional, political aspects of the delivery of service.

The mind maps created in the brainstorming session can be viewed at:

IT Governance Committee:  http://mind42.com/pub/mindmap?mid=df3eda39-6c8a-4f82-a3af-9a857803dee4 

Public Safety Information Committee: http://mind42.com/pub/mindmap?mid=6cc1eafb-c9e2-4a1e-ac12-683a5e6936cc

Regional 911 Administrators:  http://mind42.com/pub/mindmap?mid=a24ff7c5-07bb-46c2-85fb-5cbbe4913c00

Mind maps created using Mind42.

This  is the fourth article in a series of blogs related to 911 and what it should look like in the future.  Over the next few weeks, a series of questions that were posed to different groups for input will be summarized and reveal the concepts that we feel make up the Next Generation of 911.

What are the standards for 911?

Standards are going to be very important for 911 in the future.  In order to collect data, exchange data and pass data to responders, data must be in a format that is universally recognizable.  Data standards need to be defined at the national level to ensure that data can flow between centers at a local, regional and state level, as well as, exchange data with federal agencies.

 To begin addressing this, the question of what 911 means surfaces again.  In that question, callers to 911 expect to be connected to a trained professional.  That implies that training for telecommunicators must be the same across the state. At a minimum, telecommunicators in all North Carolina 911 centers should be EMD certified and the 911 center should be using the EMD protocol.  It also means that there should be levels of staffing adequate to ensure that callers never get a busy signal.  There may be some room for staffing standards to be employed throughout the state.  At this time, there are not good standards available to determining the number of telecommunicators needed in a center.  Further, the lack of standards makes it difficult for 911 Center managers to justify staffing needs to city/county managers and elected officials.

This  is the third article in a series of blogs related to 911 and what it should look like in the future.  Over the next few weeks, a series of questions that were posed to different groups for input will be summarized and reveal the concepts that we feel make up the Next Generation of 911.

What data should 911 be able to process?

The original question asked in the discussion was “What should 911 look like in 2020?”  This takes us in the direction of Next Generation 911 and all of its potential to move and analyze data.  So what are the data implications for 911 in the future?

Currently, 911 calls come in on voice lines and are dispatched over the radio.  The data that comes in with these calls is ANI/ALI (Automatic Number Identification/Automatic Location Identification).  This includes the telephone number and the location of the number.  With older cell phones, the location may be the cell tower the call originated from. New cell phones give the GPS location of the caller.  Other data is gathered directly from the caller by a telecommunicator and is usually specific to the caller and the call at that moment.

Now consider what is possible if information could come in from virtually any source.  If the caller had a new cell phone, data could be sent in the form of text messages, email or voice.  The caller could also send pictures and perhaps video.  All of this information, whether transmitted by voice or data would be beneficial to the responders.  For example, a picture of a car crash could help determine the appropriate response.  In other scenarios, text messages could be sent silently protecting the location of the caller or provide a hearing impaired person a readily available method of contacting 911.

Data would not be limited to coming from phones. New model cars are being equipped with ACN(Automatic Crash Notification).  One familiar service is OnStar. Data from ACN can be passed directly to 911 and relayed to responders.  Depending on the system, ACN data can include vehicle speed, force of impact, areas of damage and is tied with GPS.  Some systems include sensors to detect body vitals such as heartbeat and temperature.

Another source of data is video.  Video can be passed from cell phones, surveillance cameras, news feeds, car cameras in law enforcement units, and  all types of web cams including traffic cams. These could be triggered to send information based on data from crash systems, traffic flow sensors, signal sensors, etc.  Having good video data during a response ensures that appropriate resources are sent and that there is not an over or under response to an incident.

Monitoring services have the potential to send very valuable data to 911.  Services like home security companies could have sensors on doors, window and rooms of a house including basement and attic areas to monitor everything from intrusion, fire, water and other dangerous things like carbon monoxide levels.  Most of these companies create a floor plan when installing the system so that they will know where a sensor is triggered.  Although all of this useful data is available today, a monitoring service is still forced to manually call a 911 Center and give information via voice communication.   With NG911 technology, monitoring services could pass any of this data directly to 911 and 911 could pass it to responding agencies.  Consider how useful it would be for law enforcement responding to a break in if they could see movement of the burglars on a diagram of the house and know which door the burglars are likely to exit.

Monitoring services are big users of sensors but in today’s security conscious world, sensors are being used by many agencies.  Sensors are being placed along major interstates to detect things like radiation, chemicals, and biological traces.  Other sensors detect more mundane things like roads that may be flooded or just reduced traffic flow.  Whatever the sensor is being used for, the data collected from it has the potential to be processed and passed through 911 to aid in emergency response.

Another form of security entering the market from the video surveillance arena is video detection.  This technology comes in many forms.  Some common to public safety are license plate recognition (LPR), facial recognition, and incident recognition.  LPR is used to detect stolen vehicles or vehicles wanted for some reason.  Facial recognition is being used for security at public buildings and at special events to detect security threats.  Incident recognition can be programmed to detect just about any action out of the norm.  For example, it could detect a slower traffic pattern on the highway while in a mall parking lot it could detect someone being abducted.  While this is a growing market area that may not be in use everywhere, 911 through NG911 should be able to process and pass this data to appropriate entities.

To this point, only data coming from outside sources has been discussed thus far.  All of the EMS, law, fire and rescue units in the field are constantly sending data back to 911.  This includes times, status and availability as well as location data from GPS.  So how would or could 911 process this amount of data.  Systems of the future must have some type of command and control built in.  It must be able to look at information coming in from unrelated sources and combine it together in some useful format for the particular incident that it is related to.  Once combined, pertinent data to the incident should be passed to responders.  This is a very difficult piece to put in place but a necessary one for future service to the public.

In the future, there will be a tremendous amount of data coming at 911 and as we talk about NG911, we must provide the capacity to receive it and to process it.   

When you think of this question the answer may seem obvious.  911 is for emergency calls so people who have an emergency should be able to reach 911 in order to get help from Law Enforcement, EMS, Fire and Rescue.  That is true but it hardly touches on who needs to be able to reach 911.

When we say people, this runs the gamut from children to the elderly, from English speaking to non- English speaking , to handicapped, to disoriented, to barely alive.  Each situation poses a new challenge for the 911 center and the 911 telecommunicator.  But the center should be able to take the call and respond to it appropriately.  Some of these calls can only be handled by an experienced telecommunicator.  Others need special things like language lines and the ability to receive text.  The important point here is, people have special needs, they use many different devices to communicate and the 911 center should be able to receive and handle calls from various sources.

Now that we have mentioned the obvious, let’s talk about who else calls 911.  Note that we are still talking about people because the current system only allows for voice communication.  Every day the 911 center receives calls from services like OnStar about vehicle crashes, from alarm companies about break in, fires, and other things, from home monitoring services  of devices for people, and from services that monitor infrastructure like highways, bridges and water ways.  The 911 centers again should be able to receive and handle these calls.

A third group who needs to be able to reach 911 who is not as obvious is the emergency response units in the field.  This group usually uses radio communication and is usually viewed as responding  to calls.  However,  often they call in for additional units or to report incidences that require a response.  For example, a deputy may call in a wreck that needs EMS assistance, a simple fire may reveal illegal activities, or an EMS call may turn dangerous and require law enforcement assistance. Again, the 911 center should be able to handle any situation that arises.

So in summary, who needs to be able to reach 911?  911 should be able to be reached by anyone needing help or relaying information about someone needing help.  This information can come from both outside and internal sources.

The mind maps created in the brainstorming session can be viewed at:

IT Governance Committee:  http://mind42.com/pub/mindmap?mid=df3eda39-6c8a-4f82-a3af-9a857803dee4 

Public Safety Information Committee: http://mind42.com/pub/mindmap?mid=6cc1eafb-c9e2-4a1e-ac12-683a5e6936cc

Regional 911 Administrators:  http://mind42.com/pub/mindmap?mid=a24ff7c5-07bb-46c2-85fb-5cbbe4913c00

Mind maps created using Mind42.

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Catawba County has begun providing a new information service, via Twitter, to let motorists know of the locations of possible traffic delays and tie-ups. 

The County has launched a feed from the Catawba County 911 Center of the information on calls reported in Catawba County regarding traffic incidents.  The feed shows the type of incident reported, such as a vehicle accident, stranded motorist or vehicle fire, and gives the location of the incident.  Only traffic related incidents are reported through this feed. 

We’re providing this information as a service. Many people are using Twitter to communicate and receive information and numerous cell phones have this capability.  Providing traffic information is an effective new way to inform the public of possible hazards and delays along their intended route, and we hope will alert them to take alternate routes or prepare to safely navigate through the area where an incident has occurred.

Anyone who has a Twitter account may simply go to http://twitter.com/catawba911 and select “Follow”.   Those who do not have a Twitter account may sign up for an account, free of charge, at http://twitter.com/.

 For those who prefer not to open a Twitter account, an RSS feed is available with the same traffic incident information at http://twitter.com/statuses/user_timeline/60704763.rss, and may be accessed by most RSS readers.

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