HK1234514A1 - Exchange of crisis-related information amongst multiple individuals and multiple organizations - Google Patents

Abstract

A crisis information exchange manages the exchange of crisis-related information among multiple individual users and organizations. A safety communications service (SCS) manages information flow between users and organizations without compromising the security of the private networks of organizations protected by firewalls. The SCS manages subscription data for controlling what information is received by particular users and organizations, providing subscription services including automated subscriptions services based on configurable business rules. User-initiated communications are routed to multiple organizations and/or other users based on configurable business rules. Organization-initiated communications are routed to multiple individual users and/or organizations based on configurable business rules. In one embodiment, the system automatically generates follow-up communications related to the acknowledgement of receipt of communications and/or prompts users for additional information if an expected communication was not received in a timely manner or is not fully responsive to prior communications, based on configurable business rules.

Description

Exchange of crisis-related information between multiple individuals and multiple organizations

Background

The subject matter described herein relates to management of the exchange of crisis-related information, and in particular, to the dissemination of information with individuals associated with multiple formal and informal organizations.

A common means currently available for individuals to report an emergency is to call 911 and be connected to local police, fire or emergency medical services. In addition, individuals often communicate with related groups of people, such as their family, work colleagues, teammates, classmates, and the like. This communication is sequential and unstructured, often with prioritization based on factors not optimized for rapid crisis solutions, potentially increasing risk to this or others.

Existing standards and systems do not enable individuals to communicate structured crisis-related information between multiple organizations and/or groups of individuals. Thus, during crisis, individuals often use a variety of unstructured communication means (e.g., telephone calls, social media, and text messaging) to communicate to all of their intended audience. This results in ineffective crisis management, endangering life and property.

Existing standards and systems do not enable organizations to engage in two-way communication of crisis-related information with multiple individuals or groups of individuals without prearranged exclusive access to computing devices and/or networks corresponding to those individuals or groups of individuals. Thus, organizations must use a variety of communication means to reach their intended audience, such as emergency alert systems, media, and one-way mass notification systems.

Typically, organizations use one-way mass notification systems to convey crisis-related information only to their own personnel (if any). Other organizations provide their intended audience with proprietary two-way communication means, such as a dedicated application running on a smartphone or tablet, or provide individuals with call center access to report emergency situations. Other organizations may use unidirectional public safety broadcast channels, such as Emergency Alert Systems (EAS) and Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA) to announce crisis conditions.

One challenge of crisis communication management is providing the ability to accurately target the crisis-related audience for emergency communications. The following example provides a scenario illustrating this challenge.

Accidents occur and affect multiple individuals, including casualties, observers, emergency personnel, and emergency management personnel. These individuals are typically unrelated to each other and each individual is associated with multiple groups, which may include, but are not limited to, their homes, communities, workplaces, businesses, and educational institutions. The affected individuals are those who happen to be in the vicinity of the accident, those who work nearby, members of various law enforcement organizations, emergency medical personnel, and the like.

Throughout the evolution of an accident event, individuals need to communicate with the various groups and organizations they are in. For example, accident victims need to report (if they can) their location and the status of the victim to their family and emergency personnel. Observers of an event can contribute to the situational awareness of emergency services by sending text, image or video reports to the relevant Public Safety Access Point (PSAP) while informing their family and workplace that they are safe. Emergency personnel and command authorities may need to instruct the public to remain sheltered or avoid certain areas, depending on the accident situation. PSAP and command authorities may need to solicit help from various emergency personnel and emergency medical resources, which may or may not be under their direct control.

Using current technology, each component described in this example will attempt to reach its intended audience using multiple communication mechanisms and channels. The accident victim can dial 911 to report their location and status. In addition, they may call their family, informing them of their location and status. The observer will also attempt to dial 911 to report their observations verbally. People who happen to be near the accident site may call their workplace, informing the workplace of their own location, status, and/or accident details. The command authority may use a mass notification system to notify its subscribers of the incident and the desired action. The PSAP will use its proprietary communication system to reach emergency personnel under its direct control and use other communication mechanisms (e.g., telephone calls) to seek assistance from resources not under its direct control. Members of the public may tune to news media or receive detailed information of events using social networks, and may also receive information that is not authoritative, inaccurate, incomplete, and/or misleading, which may lead to large-scale confusion. Such confusion may even lead to a risk of physical injury to otherwise safe individuals.

These various communication mechanisms and channels are not related to each other and therefore must be used individually and sequentially by each transmitter and receiver of the communication. These conditions inevitably lead to delays and may lead to errors in communication, endangering life and property.

Existing organization and community notification systems are unable to target individuals unrelated to the organization or community. The availability of these individuals may be critical to the resolution of crisis by virtue of their skills, physical availability and location. Because these individuals are associated with other organizations, the managers of critical situations cannot directly access or direct them when using existing notification systems.

Another challenge of crisis communication management is that effective crisis management requires the participation of multiple organizations and individuals who do not have access to every system involved in managing the crisis event. Such systems typically operate behind firewalls and over private networks that are accessible only to authorized individuals who are members of or associated with an organization. There is currently no such system or exchange mechanism that can securely facilitate the exchange of information between multiple crisis management systems and individuals who are involved in a crisis event but are not authorized to access all such systems.

Drawings

The figures depict various embodiments for purposes of illustration only. One skilled in the art will readily recognize from the following discussion that alternative embodiments of the systems and methods illustrated may be employed without departing from the principles described herein.

Fig. 1 is a high-level diagram conceptually illustrating the exchange of crisis-related information between different entities, according to one embodiment.

Fig. 2 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary deployment of the disclosed system and the interconnection of a Secure Communications Service (SCS) with subscription organizations, information publishers, and individual users via various communications channels, according to one embodiment.

Fig. 3 is a block diagram illustrating one embodiment of the SCS shown in fig. 2.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating various data warehouses included in an SCS according to one embodiment.

Fig. 5 is a diagram illustrating the operational flow of information between the SCS, the organization system, and the mobile device of an individual user, according to one embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating a general case of the disclosed system according to one embodiment.

FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating an exemplary use case of mobile users subscribing to an organization using the dynamic location features of the disclosed system, according to one embodiment.

Figure 8 is a diagram illustrating an exemplary use case in which a subscription organization notifies subscribed users of an emergency situation, according to one embodiment.

Fig. 9 is a diagram illustrating an exemplary use case in which an information issuer issues crisis-related information through an SCS according to one embodiment.

FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating an exemplary use case of a mobile user issuing a duress alert when encountering a crisis situation, according to one embodiment.

11A-11C illustrate a comprehensive exemplary scenario in which a mobile user travels to a location different from his/her home location and experiences a crisis situation, according to one embodiment.

FIG. 12 illustrates one embodiment of components of an example machine capable of reading instructions from a machine-readable medium and executing the instructions in a processor (or controller).

Detailed Description

People's lives involve multiple groups of entities based on various relationships, and people communicate with other members of these groups in different ways, depending to some extent on the nature of the corresponding relationships. These groups include, but are not limited to: home, community, town, state, country of residence, workplace, and educational institution. An individual may also be part of an ad-hoc (ad-hoc) group, such a group being the result of a particular occurrence at a particular location at a particular time, such as a concert, sporting event, or vacation destination.

When a crisis occurs, an individual may need to communicate with some or all of the other members of these groups. For example, when a particular individual observes that a crime is in progress, she (or he) may want to initiate a report to the local police department. She may also want to report her current whereabouts to her family and let them know that she is safe, as well as inform her employer that she is suffering a delay and not arriving at her workplace in a timely manner.

In dealing with crime scenes, the local police may need to establish a secure perimeter (perimeter) and initiate communication to individuals within the perimeter. The police department may instruct these individuals to remain in place and may instruct individuals outside the safe perimeter to leave the crime scene.

Upon receiving a communication from the police, other individuals near the crime scene may want to report their opinions to emergency personnel in order to increase the situational awareness of the emergency personnel and inform their family and work colleagues of their whereabouts and status.

Police dispatchers may also need to dispatch more emergency personnel to the scene from the local police and/or emergency medical services.

This simplified example illustrates how effective crisis communication requires multiple individuals to communicate bi-directionally with multiple organizations and individuals. This communication may take different forms depending on the role of the individual in various groups and organizations related to the crisis.

The drawings and the following description relate to preferred embodiments by way of illustration only. It should be noted that from the following discussion, alternative embodiments of the structures and methods disclosed herein will be readily recognized as viable alternatives that may be employed without departing from the principles claimed.

Reference will now be made in detail to the various embodiments, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings. Note that where feasible, similar or like reference numbers may be used in the figures and may indicate similar or like functionality. The figures depict embodiments of the disclosed system (or method) for purposes of illustration only. One skilled in the art will readily recognize from the following description that alternative embodiments of the structures and methods illustrated herein may be employed without departing from the principles described herein.

Overview of functions

The system disclosed herein relates generally to providing management of the exchange of crisis-related information between a plurality of individual users and a plurality of organizations. This system shall be referred to herein as Crisis Information Exchange (CIE). In at least one embodiment, the system includes a Secure Communications Service (SCS), one or more end-user applications, one or more communications interfaces, and an Application Programming Interface (API).

Structuring crisis-related information enables the use of a consistent data framework to convey information between entities, which improves the efficiency and accuracy of communication. The framework provided by the CIE enables consistent and rule-based communication, which supports predictable workflows, reduces the likelihood of incorrect information being dispersed, and makes the operation of the system faster, simpler, and more intuitive to the user than unstructured communication. Examples of structured crisis-related information include, but are not limited to: form-based multimedia messages from organizations, predefined notifications of crisis-related information from individuals, predefined crisis-related reports from individuals on-site, and the like.

In one embodiment, the CIE provides a service for exchanging crisis information between multiple organizations and multiple individual users. These services enable two-way communication of structured crisis-related information between multiple entities, including multiple individuals and multiple organizations and/or groups of individuals. For example, using CIE, multiple individuals can structure crisis-related information with multiple individuals organizing and associating communications using multiple communication devices available to them, thereby increasing the speed, accuracy, and efficiency of their crisis-related communications.

In another embodiment, the CIE provides a service for exchanging crisis information between multiple organizations. These services enable the delivery of structured crisis-related information from information publishers, such as the National Weather Service (NWS) or the integrated public warning and alert system (IPAWS), to organizational crisis management systems and Public Safety Access Points (PSAPs). These services also include exchanging structured crisis-related information between different crisis management systems and transferring structured crisis-related information from the crisis management systems to Public Service Access Points (PSAPs) and alarm systems, such as emergency alarm systems EAS.

In another embodiment, the CIE also provides a service for exchanging crisis information between multiple individuals. These services enable two-way communication of structured crisis-related information between multiple individuals (e.g., families, community members, religious organizations, sports teams, etc.) that have established associations between them.

In various embodiments, the services provided by the CIE enable organizations to target individuals most relevant to crisis resolution and directly or indirectly notify individuals that may be affected by a crisis, regardless of their organizational affiliation. The system is capable of determining the relevance of an individual to crisis resolution based on a number of parameters including, but not limited to, the individual's information preferences, location, role, skills, and schedule.

In various embodiments, the services provided by the CIE also enable organizations to target individuals and organizations that may or may not be associated with a source of affairs (organizing) organization based on a number of parameters including, but not limited to, the individuals' information preferences, location, role, skills, and schedule. For example, an emergency operations center may target all individuals and organizations located within a particular area within a particular time frame, regardless of their organizational relevance.

In various embodiments, the CIE facilitates reliable and secure information exchange between multiple crisis management systems participating in crisis event management, enabling each of these systems to run securely behind their respective firewalls and over their private network only with their own authorized individual users operable. The CIE does not manage the crises themselves, but rather enables each crisis management system to operate by reliably, safely, and bi-directionally exchanging crisis information with relevant individuals and organizations.

In one embodiment, the SCS is a scalable, geographically distributed information system that serves multiple individual user's devices and multiple organized systems. The SCS manages information flow between user devices and an organization system to ensure reliability of communications and protect organization network security while implementing business rules for routing messages among multiple individuals, organizations, and groups.

The end-user device enables the end-user to bi-directionally communicate with multiple organizations and groups of other individuals through the SCS. Means for such communication include, but are not limited to: a personal secure mobile application for a plurality of mobile devices and mobile operating system platforms; a Web user interface application for multiple types of Web browser clients; FACEBOOK^TMApplications and PC-based applications; and communication via voice calls, text messages, email, and the like. Typically, end-user applications provide similar functionality and user experience and are limited by their respective platforms. However, in some embodiments, certain end-user applications may be customized to meet the specialized requirements of individual users and/or organizations.

In various embodiments, the communication interface includes hardware and software components that interface between the SCS and various communication systems, including but not limited to: text messaging systems, telephone systems, indoor and outdoor notification systems, Emergency Alert Systems (EAS) and Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA).

Embodiments of the disclosed system provide an organizational system and informal group (referred to herein as a "subscription system") that subscribes to the CIE in a manner that subscribes to services of the CIE with different subscription types. Associations (associations) characterize real-world relationships between entities (e.g., groups of families, organizations and their employees, people in a given area, etc.), and subscriptions define a set of rules used by the CIE to determine which individuals and/or organizations receive a given message based on the real-world relationships.

Subscription types may include, but are not limited to: a) a system where only publish-instruments can provide information and not receive information from users, such as the national weather service; b) systems that only accept-messages initiated by users or Emergency Alert Systems (EAS), such as 911 Public Safety Access Points (PSAPs); and/or c) bi-directional, systems that publish and receive information (e.g., organization or regional crisis management systems) and informal associations (e.g., family members, friends, and individuals currently in a particular geographic area).

In one embodiment, the CIE provides the ability to manage a composite profile for each user. These composite profiles include attributes that are common to all associations of a user (e.g., user identity), as well as attributes that are specific to each association (e.g., the role of the individual in a given organization) or the particular communication device that the individual typically uses to communicate with the recipient identified by a given association. For example, an individual may be a teacher of his university and also a volunteer firefighter of his community. The two roles are specific to the two associations, but the person's name, home address, and vehicle information are common to both associations. As another example, an individual may use a corporate cell phone to communicate with colleagues and customers, but use a personal cell phone to communicate with family and friends. The composite profile enables the CIE to create subscriptions so that everyone can send and receive messages for groups that comply with various rules.

In some embodiments, the CIE provides the ability to manage a repository that stores data related to users and their devices. These repositories include user records that include subscription and association data indicating the relevant organizational systems with which the user may communicate, and which devices should be used for that communication. Capabilities of the CIE include, but are not limited to: registering one or more users with the subscription system, and associating the one or more users with other users of the subscription system. In one such embodiment, each user record includes details of the user, including the user's name, organization and group associations, roles within each organization or group, devices that may be contacted with the user, the sequential priority of the devices that should be tried when transmitting the message, and the user's current and default location. In other such embodiments, the user record may contain different fields. In some embodiments, some information (e.g., user names) is shared with multiple organizations, while other data is organization specific (e.g., roles within the organization).

In some embodiments, the CIE enables organizational systems and individual subscribers to establish rules that govern which individual users and other organizational systems may subscribe to their services. The rules may include, but are not limited to: opt-in to subscription, opt-out of subscription, forced subscription of a subscriber, subscription with reference to other subscribers, or ad-hoc subscription based on location or message context.

In some embodiments, the CIE enables the subscription organization system and the individual users to establish rules by which messages from the individual users are accepted, processed, and routed. The CIE provides ad-hoc subscription and association services to individual users based on configurable rules. These rules determine the individual user's eligibility to receive a given communication. An ad-hoc subscription is created based on the current situation of the user (e.g., based on the user's location and/or current time). For example, if a user is observed to be located in a new city or neighborhood, an ad-hoc subscription may be created that subscribes to notifications from local emergency services. The ad-hoc subscription may persist indefinitely or expire at a certain time, for example, when the user leaves the location, after a set amount of time (e.g., one month), or after a set amount of time (e.g., one week) after the user leaves the location. In one embodiment, prior to the final determination, the user is presented with potential ad-hoc subscriptions for approval.

The CIE routes crisis-related information between multiple individual users and multiple organizations based on respective subscriptions. The CIE routes individual user-initiated communications to any number of subscription systems based on configurable business rules. These rules determine which organizations should receive communications for individual users. For example, which organizations should receive a particular communication may be based on the type of information submitted, the role of the user, the location of the user, and/or the time of the particular communication. The CIE routes communications initiated by the subscription system to multiple individual users based on configurable business rules. These rules determine which individual users should receive the user's communications.

Various client applications used by individual users connect each user with the CIE and through the CIE to the various subscription systems and groups with which they are associated. The client application also provides the user with an interface to the functionality of the system including, but not limited to: registration, submission of personal information, contact details, subscription preferences, sending and receiving messages, viewing of disseminated information and reporting functions, and providing visual and audible alerts to users.

Embodiments of the disclosed system provide a number of advantages over existing crisis management and notification systems. Four such advantages are described below. Based on the disclosure herein, one of ordinary skill in the art will recognize additional advantages and features.

First, embodiments of the disclosed system provide an organization subscribing to the CIE the ability to communicate with multiple related individual users in a critical situation, regardless of whether or not those users are members of the organization. It also provides an individual user with the ability to communicate with multiple organizations and groups. Furthermore, regardless of where an individual user is, the user may use a single application on the mobile device (rather than multiple proprietary applications where each application can only communicate with a single system) to communicate with multiple organizations and groups. Thus, the user can respond to a plurality of organizations quickly and efficiently in an emergency.

Second, embodiments of the disclosed system provide a structured communication exchange that can be used during emergency situations. These structured communications prevent inaccurate communications and enable all interested parties to quickly process information in a critical situation. For example, an application running on a mobile device may provide a number of reports that a user may submit. Upon selection of a particular report, the user is presented with a simple form to be completed and prompted to provide the desired data.

Third, embodiments of the disclosed system provide mechanisms for organizations and user groups to establish flexible subscription policies. Organizations may use opt-in policies, in which individuals associated with an organization are sent invitations to subscribe to the organization's crisis management system. An organization may also use opt-out policies where individuals associated with the organization default to subscribers and must explicitly opt-out to stop receiving communications from the organization's crisis management system. The organization may also enforce that certain users must be subscribers and/or prevent certain users from becoming subscribers. Organizations may also automatically subscribe to users based on their location and preferences. Finally, organizations may also use a combination of these strategies.

Fourth, embodiments of the disclosed system provide a subscription system with the ability to communicate with CIE using a unique polling mechanism that enables secure low-latency two-way communication with user devices while facilitating information exchange between multiple crisis management systems and individuals who are involved in a crisis event and are not authorized to access all of these systems.

System architecture

Fig. 1 is a high-level diagram illustrating one embodiment of a CIE100, the CIE100 including at least one SCS110 coupled with a plurality of publication organization systems 120 (e.g., servers) operated by information publishers, such as the national weather service. At least one of the publication organization systems 120 is coupled to the SCS110 via a firewall 130, the firewall 130 protecting the data security of the publication organization. The SCS110 is also coupled with a plurality of organizational crisis management systems 121 operated by subscribing organizations such as companies, universities, industrial facilities, or military bases. At least one of the organization crisis management systems 121 is coupled to the SCS110 via a firewall 130, the firewall 130 protecting the data security of the subscribing organization. SCS110 is also coupled with a plurality of receiving organizational systems 122, the plurality of receiving organizational systems 122 being operated by an organization that has subscribed to receive communications from an SCS, such as a company, university, industrial facility, or military base. At least one of the receiving organization systems 121 is coupled to the SCS110 via a firewall 130, the firewall 130 protecting the data security of the receiving organization. Further, SCS110 is configured to manage communications between various organizations and individual users using one or more communication channels 140 (e.g., sending updates to and prompting mobile applications executing on a user's mobile device to provide replies, sending text messages to the user's cellular telephone, sending automatic messages to the user's landline telephone, broadcasting information using an announcement system, etc.).

In one embodiment, SCS110 includes one or more distributed computer systems running specialized software for providing the functionality described herein. The SCS110 is also coupled with at least one communication channel 140 to communicate with various users. In other embodiments, the SCS110 includes different and/or additional components. Furthermore, the functionality attributed here to SCS110 may be otherwise distributed among the various elements of CIE 100. The CIE100 elements may be distributed between two or more computer systems located in different geographic locations.

CIE100 provides a service for exchanging crisis information between multiple organizations and multiple individual users. These services enable bi-directional communication of structured crisis-related information between individuals and multiple organizations and/or groups of individuals. Using CIE100, multiple individuals can use multiple communication devices available to them to communicate structured crisis-related information with multiple organizations and groups, thereby increasing the speed, accuracy, and efficiency of their crisis-related communications.

In various embodiments, the services provided by CIE100 enable organizations to accurately target individuals most relevant to crisis resolution or who may be directly or indirectly affected by a crisis, regardless of their organizational affiliation. The system is able to determine the relevance of individuals to crisis resolution based on a number of parameters including, but not limited to, the individual's role, skill, location and availability at relevant times, and their association with one or more relevant groups. In addition, the system may keep the relevant individuals aware of the situation or receive specific instructions (e.g., orderly evacuation or refuge) via one or more communication channels 140. For example, if a fire or other emergency occurs at the organization's site, the organization's crisis management system 121 may send a request for help via SCS110 to all authenticated emergency personnel within a defined radius of the emergency, regardless of whether those emergency personnel have previously been in contact with the organization, or even know of the organization. As another example, if an organization experiences a catastrophic equipment failure at one of its manufacturing facilities, the organization's crisis management system 121 may send a first message via SCS110 to all engineers listed as "on standby" by the organization and a second message to the organization's customers informing them that the product delivery may be delayed due to the equipment failure.

Fig. 2 illustrates an exemplary deployment of CIE100 and the interconnection of SCS110 with subscription organization system 202, information publisher system 201, and various communication channels to individual users 140, according to one embodiment. In the illustrated embodiment, the CIE system 100 operates using the internet 206 as its network backbone, but in other embodiments other types of networks are used, such as private Internet Protocol (IP) based networks.

In the illustrated embodiment, SCS110 receives feeds from various information publisher systems 201 and, in accordance with subscription rules for subscription organizations and individual users, delivers information in the feeds to the subscription organizations and individual users via various communication channels 140. Examples of information publishers are weather forecasts and the United States Geological Survey (USGS). For example, if the national weather service issues a hurricane warning for a given county, a warning is provided to all users and organizations that subscribe to the weather warning and are determined to be in (or, in some embodiments, near) that county. Alternatively, all registered users in the area, whether subscribed or not, may be provided with a warning because the consequences of not preparing for a hurricane are very catastrophic. In another embodiment, the association of the affected individuals (e.g., family members) may also be notified of the situation and/or given specific instructions.

The illustrated embodiment of SCS110 facilitates reliable and secure information exchange between one or more subscription systems 202A operated by organizations participating in crisis event management, such that each of these systems can run securely behind their respective organization firewalls 205 and over respective private networks that only authorized individual users of the respective organizations themselves may operate. SCS110 also supports one or more (organizational or other) subscription systems 202B that operate openly over internet 206. Connecting with subscription system 202A behind organizational firewall 205, but not opening the system to public internet 206 introduces additional security threats, presents a technical challenge that is addressed using the mechanisms set forth below in conjunction with the detailed description of fig. 5.

In some embodiments, SCS110 exchanges messages bi-directionally with user's mobile device 207 via internet 206 and a secondary delivery service (e.g., text message aggregator 204 and/or wireless carrier's data network 202). In one such embodiment, the mobile device 207 runs one or more dedicated end-user applications, e.g., a personal security mobile application provided by the operator of the SCS110 that receives, transmits, and displays messages exchanged with the SCS. In other embodiments, the mobile device 207 does not require specialized software, but rather delivers the message via conventional mechanisms (e.g., SMS text messaging).

In some embodiments, SCS110 bi-directionally exchanges messages with user devices 208 (e.g., desktop, laptop, tablet, etc.) and other IP-based communication devices (e.g., IP telephony system 208) directly over internet 206. In one such embodiment, the apparatus and system 208 runs one or more dedicated end-user applications, e.g., a Web user interface application for multiple types of Web browser clients, FACEBOOK^TMApplications and/or PC-based applications. The end-user applications provide similar functionality and user experience and are limited by their respective platforms. In other embodiments, the mobile device 207 does not require specialized software, but rather delivers messages via conventional mechanisms, such as email or Instant Messaging (IM) services.

In some embodiments, SCS110 exchanges messages bi-directionally with landline telephone system 209 and/or services that provide bi-directional message exchange to landline and cellular telephones.

In some embodiments, the SCS110 exchanges messages bi-directionally with the public safety system gateway 210. Typically, the SCS110 sends an alert message to the public safety system gateway 210 for dissemination by each of these systems to the public. In one such embodiment, SCS110 also receives operational reports, e.g., results of public alarm activations or health status reports for public safety systems. These gateways 210 include, but are not limited to: emergency Alert Systems (EAS), WEA, gateways to community and campus alert systems (e.g., jumbo voice and/or sirens), IPAWS, mass notification systems within buildings, and public address systems.

Fig. 3 illustrates the main building blocks of SCS110 and its interface with subscription organization system 202 and individual users via one or more communication channels 140, according to one embodiment. In the illustrated embodiment, SCS110 includes three main building blocks: a data warehouse 301, a platform service 302, and business logic 303. SCS110 also includes interfaces for interacting with other components in CIE100, such as API 304, one or more third party plug-ins 305, and interface 307 for end user services.

SCS data store 301, described further below with reference to fig. 4, provides persistent storage and retrieval functionality for all related entities. In one embodiment, the data warehouse 301 includes at least one non-transitory computer-readable storage medium configured to store data for facilitating efficient operation of the SCS110, e.g., messages for delivery, system settings, applications for data processing and security, system logs, subscription information, and the like.

Generally, SCS platform services 302 are subdivided into multiple service categories, including: (a) a security service, (b) a communication service, and (c) a base service. In some embodiments, additional services may be provided that do not fully fit within one of these categories. SCS platform security services protect data security for other entities in CIE 100. In one embodiment, SCS platform security services include: (a) authentication, authorization, and accounting services; (b) single Sign On (SSO) services to various systems including CIE 100; (c) protection services that prevent malicious attempts to make CIE resources unavailable to their intended users (e.g., denial of service (DoS) attacks); and (d) content security assessment.

The SCS platform communication service facilitates communication between SCS110 and various other entities in CIE 100. In one embodiment, SCS platform communication services include: (a) a connectivity service that maintains a persistent or long-term connection between SCS110 and various subscription organization systems 120; (b) a Web service, wherein the SCS receives, processes and responds to requests for resources by organizations and user customers; and (c) a network service providing a message framework for the exchange of structured crisis-related information between the SCS and its clients.

The SCS platform base services provide management services to various other subsystems within SCS 110. In one embodiment, these services include: (a) audit and logging services that record and provide documentation evidence that affects the sequence of activities of a particular operation, process or event; (b) task scheduling service, which realizes unattended scheduling execution of application, script and service; (c) a diagnostic service that provides tools for technical and situational analysis when an anomaly is trapped; (d) a workflow management service providing the orchestration of operational and technical task sequences; (e) a health monitoring service that provides continuous monitoring of business and technical measures and takes preventative and corrective proactive actions when deviations occur; (f) high availability services and disaster recovery software services, supporting computer clusters that can be reliably utilized with minimal downtime; and (g) continuous system maintenance services including services such as backup, restore, clean up, and clean up.

SCS service logic service 303 provides functionality to control and/or determine which users and organizations receive any given message. In one embodiment, SCS business logic services 303 include: (a) a user subscribes to a service; (b) organizing a subscription service; (c) message routing and tracking services; and (d) location-based logic.

SCS service logic user subscription services enable users and organizations to register and subscribe users to CIE-provided services. In one embodiment, these services include the following: (a) enabling registration of user devices and gateways to these devices (e.g., wireless carriers); (b) enabling a user to update the user's organizational affiliations, including updates to the user's role and the group to which the user belongs within the organization; the update may be user-initiated or follow context-based business logic, including system recommendations for additional subscriptions to the user based on user preferences; (c) enabling the user to configure the user's communication and licensing preferences including, but not limited to, the user's licenses to send and/or receive information with affiliated organizations and SCS licenses to track the user's location; and (d) enable the user to update other user profile information, including but not limited to the user's home location and a list of affiliated individuals (e.g., co-workers, family members, neighbors, etc.).

In various embodiments, the user's subscription profile may be initiated or modified by one or more of the following: (a) a user, depending on his or her rights; (b) organization, depending on the organization's rights; and (c) recommendations to the user by the SCS110 based on the user communication preferences and permissions. For example, SCS110 may identify that the subscribing user is away from his or her home location and recommend that the subscribing user subscribe to various information publishers, such as local emergency management systems, local weather warning services, and the like, based on the user communication preferences.

The SCS service logic organization subscribes to services enabling the organization 120 to register and subscribe to services provided by the CIE. In one embodiment, organizing subscription services includes the following services: (a) provide authentication, authorization, and accounting processing for subscription organization 120; (b) enabling a subscription organization to create and modify roles and groups of users; (c) enabling a subscription organization to register and subscribe to users affiliated with the organization; (d) enabling an organization to manage its communications and permission preferences, including but not limited to the organization's permissions to send and/or receive information to users and other subscribing organizations, the organization's communications policies, and the types of messages that the organization is authorized to receive and process from users; and (e) enabling the subscribing organization to provide and update other organization profile information.

Based on specific targeting information contained in each message and/or individual recipient or organization's subscription profile, the message routing and tracking service of SCS110 is responsible for routing organizations and user-initiated messages to their intended audience. For example, if a sender specifies a particular audience, the message may be routed to that audience, while if the sender does not provide information about the target audience, the subscription profile of the potential recipients may be used to determine which individual users and organizations should receive the message. In one embodiment, these services also track the receipt of messages by their intended recipients, resend messages based on built-in business rules, and report the success or failure of communications (e.g., to an audit and log service).

For example, in response to a pipe explosion near one of the organization's offices, the organization may send a first message to a group containing all employees working in the affected office indicating that the office will be closed for the day, and a second message to a subscribing organization informing them that it may be delayed because the office is closing the intended work product. SCS110 attempts to deliver a first message to each employee and a second message to each subscription organization. SCS110 tracks which employees and organizations (manually or automatically) acknowledge receipt. After a given period of time (e.g., ten minutes), the SCS110 resends the first message to any employees in the group that have not yet acknowledged receipt.

The SCS110 repeats the process, continuing to resend the first message to employees who have not confirmed evacuation until a preset number of attempts (e.g., five) have been made. After a preset number of attempts, SCS110 reports back to the organization indicating which employees acknowledged the receipt of the first message and which did not. Thus, the organization knows which employees may not be aware of the shutdown. In another embodiment, failure of a user to respond within a given time may indicate that the user is at risk, and therefore a message will be sent to other designated users for resolution and follow-up.

Instead, the second message is only resent when a delivery failure is reported, as repeated sending of the same message to the client may be considered annoying. Alternatively, SCS110 may report to the office manager of the event source organization which customers failed to acknowledge receipt of the second message to assist the office manager in managing customer relationships regarding the delay.

The location-based logic of the SCS110 is responsible for the geospatial functions within the SCS. In one embodiment, the services provided by the logic include: (a) location-based automatic subscriptions; (b) recommending subscriptions based on user device location; (c) outbound message distribution based on the location of the user device, and (d) applying location-based rules to inbound message processing.

SCS110 also provides one or more interfaces to subscription organization system 202. In the embodiment shown in FIG. 3, two types of interfaces are provided, API 304 and third party plug-in interface 305. The API 304 provides well-defined specifications that describe how the subscription organization 120 must interact with the SCS 110. The APIs 304 are implemented as SCS software subsystems that provide software operations, data structures, object classes, and variables that conform to the API specification.

The third party plug-in 305 is an implementation of various APIs of other systems that enable the SCS110 to interact with these systems. Such systems that may be provided with plug-ins 305 include, but are not limited to, information publisher systems 201, such as national weather service and organizational crisis management systems that do not themselves implement the SCS's API 304.

SCS110 interacts with various end-user devices and systems using various end-user services 307 to communicate with the end-users via respective communication channels 140. Each end-user service implements the appropriate protocol or API for a particular end-user device or system in terms of software operations, data structures, object classes, and variables. In one embodiment, SCS APIs for end-user devices and services are also provided. In the illustrated embodiment, end user services 307 include mobile services 308, desktop services 309, web user services 310, social network services 311, telephony services 312, and SCS administrator services 313. In other embodiments, additional and/or different interfaces are provided, such as services to a public security gateway.

FIG. 4 illustrates various SCS data warehouses 301 according to one embodiment. In the illustrated embodiment, warehouse 301 includes: (a) an audit and diagnostics library 401, (b) a system configuration library 403, (c) an entity profile library 402, (d) an operations database 405, (e) an event library, and (f) a subscription and association store 407. In other embodiments, additional and/or different warehouses 301 are used. Further, functionality may be distributed among the warehouses 301 in a different manner than described herein.

The audit and diagnostics library 401 includes data describing the operation of the SCS110 for record keeping and diagnostic purposes. In one embodiment, the audit and diagnostics library 401 records and provides documented evidence of the sequence of activities that affect a particular operation, process, or event at any given time. The collected operational data, including operational anomalies, enables a system administrator to perform forensic (forensic) diagnostics on the SCS110 at a later time.

The system configuration library 403 includes system configuration parameters that control the operation of the SCS 110. Such parameters include, but are not limited to: credentials and access configurations to the message distribution system; resource allocation and configuration parameters; and clearing, archiving, and threshold monitoring parameters.

The entity profile repository 402 maintains profiles of individual users and organizations served by the SCS 110. In one embodiment, a profile may correspond to one of two types of entities (individual users or organizations). In other embodiments, additional and/or different types of entity profiles are used. Regardless of its type, a profile contains certain generic data fields that are relevant to all types of entities. For example, each profile may contain a unique ID number, a profile name, and at least one mail address. In addition to the generic data field, the profile contains additional data fields depending on the type.

In one embodiment, the profiles of the organization 120 in the entity profile repository 402 include: (a) the name of the organization, (b) the type of organization (e.g., emergency service, information provider, service enterprise, etc.), c) the connection parameters/authentication credentials of the organization, (d) the type of service that the organization provides, e.g., whether it accepts incoming duress messages and reporting templates that it can accept from users, (e) the business rules of the organization, e.g., which types and structures of incoming messages from users are accepted, under what conditions the incoming messages are accepted, whether the organization accepts anonymous or ad-hoc subscription requests, whether it forces its own user subscriptions, whether it subscribes to other organizations, whether it allows other organizations to subscribe to their messages, etc. In other embodiments, the profile of the organization 120 includes different and/or additional information.

In one embodiment, the profiles of individual users in the entity profile repository include: (a) name of user, (b) contact details of user, such as smart phone number of user, e-mail address of user, land-line phone number of user, IP-based phone number of user and/or FACEBOOK of user^TMAn account, (c) details of the user, which may be common across organizations or organization specific, and (d) subscription preferences of the user, such as whether the user wishes to be solicited for subscription public safety and weather information based on the user's location. In other embodiments, the user's profile includes different and/or additional information.

The subscription and association repository 407 maintains associations between current subscriptions and entities. In one embodiment, subscription and association library 407 enables SCS110 to route information from a user's device (e.g., mobile device 207) to subscription organization system 202, from subscription organization system and information publishers 201 to other subscribed organizations via one or more communication channels 140, or from individual user to other individual users. For example, an individual user may subscribe to multiple organizations, such as a local university, his or her workplace, a local police department, and an information publisher that generates local weather alerts. A user may be defined as a publisher at the user's workplace, a local police station, and a recipient of weather alerts, and may act as a recipient and initiator of emergency requests to and from a university. The user may also be a sponsor who authorizes the user's associates (e.g., members of the user's family) to subscribe to and receive alerts from a university. Another example is that police stations in nearby towns subscribe to information published by other police stations or emergency management systems in their vicinity.

The operations data store 405 contains records of live and recent notifications sent to users, other security-related information shared by or sent to users, such as the location of the medical support team in the current event to be shared with users in the affected area. These notifications and shared information may be accessible to various users and organizations, depending on permissions and business rules.

The event repository 406 maintains information about events, including critical events created by organizations or users, such as fires, floods, gas leaks, and the like. In one embodiment, the event repository also stores information about user-initiated events, such as duress and other user reports and responses to alerts sent to the user. The event repository 406 may also maintain event data collected continuously from users, such as the location of the user, as long as the user has given permission to collect and store the location data.

Fig. 5 illustrates the operational flow of information between SCS110, organizational system 202, and individual user's device 207, according to one embodiment. Although fig. 5 shows communications to and from a user's mobile device 207, other types of user devices may be used, such as landline telephones 208, desktop computers, public safety system gateways 210, and the like. The flow of subscription and configuration information is omitted from fig. 5 for clarity.

In the embodiment shown in fig. 5, CIE100 includes SCS server 110, which SCS server 110(a) communicates outbound messages from one or more organization systems 202 to one or more users 'mobile devices 207, and (b) processes requests from one or more users' mobile devices to one or more organization systems. In other embodiments, more than one SCS server 110 is used, and load balancing techniques are applied to ensure that no single SCS server is overwhelmed. Furthermore, the functionality attributed herein to a single SCS server 110 may be distributed across multiple devices. For example, one SCS server 110 may handle messaging to mobile device 207 while another SCS server handles requests from user devices to organizational system 202. In a similar manner, another embodiment may use multiple geographically separated SCS systems to balance the load and better serve the users.

Delivery of the outbound message is initiated by module 501 of subscription organization system 202. This module is referred to herein as the outbound message transmission engine 501, but may be referred to in different ways in different organizational systems. In one embodiment, the outbound message transmission engine 501 is configured to conform to the interface requirements of the SCS110 (e.g., using SCS APIs 304 or dedicated third party plug-ins 305). A messaging service (MDS) module 503 of the SCS receives messages originating from the organization system 202, processes the messages, and delivers them to the target user device 207 based on target information provided by the source organization and/or subscription data stored in the data store 310. The message passes through the organizational firewall 205 in the clear because it originates within the firewall and is either directly (e.g., to a dedicated application) and/or through a third party messaging service 507 (e.g., Apple)^TMPush notification service or GoogleCloud Messaging^TM) To the mobile device 207 of the target user.

The mobile device 207 sends user-initiated messages (containing information reports or requests) to the SCS server 110, and the SCS server 110 processes the messages and forwards them appropriately to the target organization system(s) 202. In one embodiment, the mobile device 207 sends a message/request to the user application API service 506 of the SCS server 110, which user application API service 506 verifies the message as conforming to the API requirements. The user application API service 506 may also confirm that the message is authentic. Once the message is verified (and authenticated, if authentication is required), the contents of the message are recorded in the event repository 406 and placed in the request queue 505. The user application API service then waits to receive a response from the organization system 202 and, upon receiving a response from the organization system 202, forwards the response to the requesting mobile device 207.

In the embodiment shown in fig. 5, the organization system 202 is behind the organization firewall 205 and thus the SCS server 110 cannot initiate a connection with the organization system to deliver the user-initiated message. Polling Web service 504 solves this problem by enabling any subscription organization system 202 that meets the interface requirements of the polling Web service to poll SCS server 110 for user-initiated messages. When a polling agent 502 of an organization system 202 polls on a polling Web service 504, the polling Web service 504 identifies and forwards messages (assuming present) in a request queue 505 intended for the polling system to the polling agent 502. In one embodiment, messages are delivered to the organization system 202 in the order in which they were received (i.e., first-in-first-out). In another embodiment, SCS server 110 arranges the messages in request queue 505 by priority. For example, messages indicating that a user is duress may be given a high priority and delivered first, with all other requests being delivered only if all pending high priority messages are successfully delivered.

When the polling agent 502 initiates a connection from inside the organization's firewall 205, the polling Web service 504 may forward the user-initiated message at this time. In one embodiment, polling agent 502 uses long-polling (long-polling) techniques to establish a persistent connection with polling Web service 504. The long polling connection remains open until a user-initiated message is received, at which point the connection is closed and a new long polling connection is opened to listen for the next message while processing the first message. In another embodiment, polling agent 502 polls polling Web service 504 periodically (e.g., once per minute) for new messages and receives all messages that are relevant to the particular organization 120 in request queue 505 at that time. Those skilled in the art will recognize that other connection methods may be applied to securely pass user-initiated messages without compromising the integrity of the organization firewall 205.

Upon receiving the user-initiated message, the organization system 202 processes the user-initiated message and sends any required responses to the polling Web service 504, the polling Web service 504 forwards the responses to the user application API service 506, and the user application API service 506 in turn responds to the user's device 140, completing the loop beginning with the user request. This mechanism enables the organization system 120 to operate behind its firewall 205 without compromising its security.

Exemplary use case

Fig. 6 illustrates a method for enabling management of crisis-related information exchange between an individual and a plurality of organizations, according to one embodiment. The steps of fig. 6 are shown from the perspective of the various components of CIE100 performing the method. However, some or all of the steps may be performed by other entities and/or components. In addition, some embodiments may perform the steps in parallel, in a different order, or perform different steps.

An individual user reports 601 an event to CIE 100. Using a software application running within the mobile device 207 (or other user device 208), the user sends event reports over the internet 206. In one embodiment, the event report includes the location of the event, visual and/or textual information related to the event, and optionally suggested actions to be taken. For example, if the event is a fire in an organization's office building, the event report may identify the room in which the fire is located, including a photograph taken by the user showing the extent of the fire, and suggest immediate evacuation of the building and dispatch of emergency services to the site. Conversely, if the event is a fire in a fryer in a kitchen, the report may still be locatable and include a picture, but only suggest that the organization's crisis management team be armed because the user thinks that the fire can be safely suppressed with an on-site fire extinguisher.

Upon receiving 602 the event report, the SCS110 of the CIE will verify that the user is authentic and trustworthy, and that the report conforms to the templates allowed by the recipients of the relevant organization. SCS110 then publishes the reported event to all relevant subscription organization systems 202 and the appropriate ones of the user associations. The recipients are determined by rules established by the administrator and user of each subscription system prior to the event. The published content may be the same for all organizations and associations, or may be customized such that each recipient receives information in the briefing about the events they need. Thus, while the crisis event is ongoing, the recipient's time is not wasted by extraneous information. For example, in the example of a small kitchen fire used above, the location and image of the fire and the on-hold recommendations may be provided to the organization's crisis management team and local fire department, while a text message "fire-safe at work place" is sent to each of the user's family members, and a mobile smart phone notification, phone call and/or email is sent to the user's colleagues within the building telling "ready to evacuate from the building".

Each receiver receiving an event report (requiring confirmation) confirms 603 to SCS 110: (a) an event report is received, and (b) a status of an action associated with the event. As previously described, which recipients are required to confirm receipt depends on the nature of the event being reported and the system configuration 403 settings for a particular deployment. According to the relevant rules, SCS110 tracks the confirmation, resends the event report if needed, and/or prompts the recipient for confirmation.

The SCS110 relays 604 the recipient's acknowledgement to the user's device (e.g., mobile device 207). Depending on the implementation of the software application, the user's device may display a message containing each acknowledgement, identify the recipient who has not acknowledged receipt, or use a combination of these methods.

Upon receiving 604 the event report, the subscription organization system 202 executes 605 an appropriate crisis management program at the operator of the emergency operations center. For example, if the event is an upcoming tornado, the operator may decide to arm emergency personnel and establish a safe area where all personnel must seek shelter, and all personnel outside the area must not enter the area. The operator also changes the state of the event from "pending" to "active".

Organization system 202 sends 606 messages to SCS110 for dissemination to individual users 140. The information contained in each message and its recipient depends on several parameters established by the relevant business rules and may include the recipient's role, subscription, location, and time of the message 607. For example, emergency personnel may be provided with the location and nature of the event, personnel within the safety boundary may be told to seek refuge and/or evacuate the area (depending on the nature of the event), and personnel outside of the safety range may be instructed to move away from the area. The SCS110 disseminates 608 the appropriate messages to each individual user.

Once the message is sent 606, the SCS110 monitors 609 the status of the acknowledgement from each individual user that needs to acknowledge. SCS110 resends the message and/or prompts users whose receipt has not been confirmed as needed. As previously described, in one embodiment, SCS110 sends a predetermined number of messages before reporting to the sending party that no acknowledgement of receipt has been provided for follow-up and resolution (as applicable). In another embodiment, the SCS may also relay messages to nearby organizations near the event.

Fig. 7 illustrates a method for one or more users to make location-based subscriptions to one or more subscription organizations and/or information publishers through SCS110, according to one embodiment. The steps of fig. 7 are shown from the perspective of the various components of CIE100 performing the method. However, some or all of the steps may be performed by other entities and/or components. In addition, some embodiments may perform the steps in parallel, in a different order, or perform different steps.

In the embodiment shown in fig. 7, the method begins with an application (e.g., a dedicated crisis communication application) on the user's mobile device 207 determining 701 that the user is located in a different location than the previous location, and that the user has not subscribed to information from this new location. In an alternative embodiment, SCS110 determines this condition based on the user location data (e.g., GPS data) as long as the user has given the SCS permission to track her location. The mobile user's device 207 then queries 702 on the SCS110 for available subscription organizations and/or information publishers in the new location.

SCS110 queries its organizational profile repository 402 to identify 703 subscription organizations and/or information publishers that are available in the new location. In one embodiment, SCS110 checks whether the user qualifies to subscribe to the identified organizations and information publishers, and sends one or more messages to the user's mobile device 207 recommending that the user subscribe to those local organizations and information publishers to which the user qualifies to subscribe. In another embodiment, SCS110 provides the user with a list of all possible subscriptions in the local area, and checks the user's qualification for subscribing to a particular organization or information publisher when the user makes a subscription request. One skilled in the art will recognize that other methods of identifying subscriptions for users in a new area may be used.

The user's mobile device 207 displays a message sent by the SCS110 indicating possible subscriptions. In one embodiment, the user responds to the SCS's subscription recommendations by approving or rejecting them. In another embodiment, the subscription may be fully automatic, for example when the user sets preferences such as "always subscribe me to secure messages around me current location".

If the user attempts to subscribe to the subscription organization, SCS110 forwards 705 the approved subscription request to the respective subscription organization's computing system 202 (e.g., crisis management system 121). Upon receiving the subscription request, the subscribing organization's computing system 202 registers the user and confirms the subscription to SCS110 by sending a confirmation message. Upon receiving the confirmation message, SCS110 records 707 the new subscription of the user in user-organized subscription repository 407. The user is now registered 708 in a new location and will receive information sent from the organized system 202.

If the user is attempting to subscribe to the information publisher, SCS110 records 707 the user's subscription in user-organized subscription repository 407. Thus, the user is now registered 708 with the information publisher and information received by the SCS110 in the future from the information publisher's system 201 will be automatically forwarded to the user (e.g., to the user's mobile device 207) where the user is limited to additional targeting requirements provided by the information publisher, e.g., as the user is in a particular geographic area at the time.

Figure 8 illustrates a diagram of an exemplary use case in which a subscription organization notifies subscribed users of an emergency situation, according to one embodiment. The steps of fig. 8 are shown as being performed by various components of CIE 100. However, some or all of the steps may be performed by other entities and/or components. In addition, some embodiments may perform the steps in parallel, in a different order, or perform different steps.

In the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 8, the notification process begins with the subscription organization system 202 creating 801 an announcement containing crisis-related information for users that meet one or more specified criteria (e.g., the user's location). Alternatively, the announcements may be made specific to a particular user by name, role, organizational structure, or the like. In the example shown in fig. 8, the announcement includes a request for confirmation of receipt by all users receiving the announcement, however, in other cases, such confirmation may not be requested depending on the type of information/message included in the announcement. Once created 801, the organization system 202 forwards the advertisements to the SCS110 for distribution.

Upon receiving the announcement, SCS110 publishes 802 crisis-related information contained therein to all registered users that meet specified criteria and/or to users subscribed to the organization. In one embodiment, the SCS110 begins tracking 804 user acknowledgements. SCS110 forwards the acknowledgement received from the user's device (e.g., mobile device 207) to subscription organization system 202, and subscription organization system 202 processes the acknowledgement according to the organization's own procedures. In other embodiments, such as broadcasting severe weather information to subscribing users, SCS110 does not track user confirmation.

At 803, the target mobile device 207 receives the publication, but the corresponding user fails to confirm the receipt. In one embodiment, the SCS110 sends 806 a prompt to the mobile device 207 of the user that fails to acknowledge receipt as a reminder to provide such acknowledgement. Alternatively, the message containing the post information may be resent to the user's mobile device 207. At 807, the user confirms receipt of the publication information and the user's mobile device 207 sends a notification to the SCS 110. SCS110 forwards the confirmation notification to subscription organization system 120, which generates the announcement.

Fig. 9 shows a diagram of an exemplary use case of the information distribution system 201 that distributes crisis-related information through the SCS110 according to one embodiment. The steps of fig. 9 are shown as being performed by various components of CIE 100. However, some or all of the steps may be performed by other entities and/or components. In addition, some embodiments may perform the steps in parallel, in a different order, or perform different steps.

In the embodiment shown in FIG. 9, the publication process begins with the information publisher system 201 creating 808, from the information publisher system 201, for example, operated by the national weather service, an announcement project that includes information for users in a given location. The SCS110, having subscribed to the information publisher, receives 809 the announcement and publishes the information to all registered users in the location. The mobile device 207 of the subscribing user at the location receives and displays 810 the information.

FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating an exemplary use case in which a user uses the mobile device 207 to issue a duress alert when experiencing a crisis situation, according to one embodiment. The steps of fig. 10 are shown as being performed by various components of CIE 100. However, some or all of the steps may be performed by other entities and/or components. In addition, some embodiments may perform the steps in parallel, in a different order, or perform different steps.

In the embodiment shown in fig. 10, the mobile user uses an application on the smartphone 207 to issue a duress alert 811 that describes the nature of the emergency. The mobile application automatically adds the user's location in the duress alert and forwards it to the SCS 110. Upon receiving 812 the duress alarm, SCS110 publishes it to all subscribing organizations that meet pre-established criteria to receive such alarms. For example, if the user's location is within an established area of responsibility of the subscription organization and within a specified time frame (e.g., weekday only), SCS110 sends a threat alert to organizational system 202 operated by the subscription organization. In one embodiment, SCS110 begins tracking the validation of the organization. In another embodiment, SCS110 sends 813 a notification to user's smart phone 207 of which organizations have forwarded the duress alert for display in the application.

The system 202 of the subscribing organization receives 814 the duress alarm and processes it according to its respective operating program and system capabilities. In one embodiment, the system 202 of the subscription organization sends a message to the user's smartphone 207 indicating the status of the alert process and/or issuing instructions to the user on how to react to the emergency. These messages are routed from the subscribing organization's system 202 to the user's mobile device 207 via the SCS 110. Upon receiving and displaying 816 crisis-related communications, the user's mobile device 207 acknowledges receipt to the SCS110, which SCS110 in turn forwards the acknowledgement to the corresponding subscribing organization's system 202 accordingly.

Exemplary scenarios

The comprehensive example use case illustrated by fig. 11A-11C below illustrates how the above-described components may interact during a tornado event to provide for the exchange of crisis-related information between multiple individuals and multiple organizations, according to one embodiment.

Referring to fig. 11A, an individual user subscribes 1101 through SCS110 to her local community mass notification system, her workplace instant messaging and notification system, and the national weather bureau alert system. She is also a member of a personal association, which is mainly composed of her family members and is registered in the SCS110 as a group that can exchange structured messages with each other in case of emergency.

An individual user moves to an area away from her home location 1102. Upon arrival at the new location, the PSMA running on her mobile 207 communicates with the SCS 110. The SCS110 detects 1103 that she is now in a location different from her home location and provides a recommendation to the user's mobile device 207 of additional subscriptions that may be relevant to her at the new location. In this case, the recommendation includes a link to the local PSAP and updates the location to which she subscribes to the national weather service.

The user's mobile device 207 presents the recommendation to the user and she accepts 1104 the recommendation from the SCS. The PSMA on the user's mobile 207 informs the SCS110 that, in response, the SCS110 subscribes 1105 to the recommended organization and confirms the new subscription by sending a confirmation message to the PSMA on her mobile.

Turning now to FIG. 11B, sometime after the user subscribes to the recommended organization, the national weather alert service issues 1106 a tornado alert for counties near the user's location. The SCS110 receives and distributes 1107 the alert to all subscribing users and organizations, including users and local PSAPs.

The local PSAP receives the national weather bureau tornado alert from SCS110, and based on information contained in the alert, local PSAP operator 1108B activates the community alarm located on the tornado path.

The user also receives 1108A tornado alert. She looked at the tornado at a distance, but determined that it did not appear to be oriented in her direction. Using the PSMA on her smartphone 207, she takes a picture of the tornado and sends the picture to the SCS110 along with her observations. When the pictures and observations are received from the user, the SCS110 forwards them to the local PSAP to help coordinate the response of the emergency service.

Referring now to fig. 11C, all other subscribed SCS users and organizations on the path of the tornado also receive 1108C tornado alerts. Multiple individual users take a picture of a tornado in proximity and use their PSMA to send the picture and comments to the local PSAP through SCS 110. Each of their transmissions automatically includes location and time information for the image and the comment.

Returning to fig. 11B, the SCS110 forwards 1109 the report for all users to the local PSA. The PSAP receives 1110 the user's input and refines its threat assessment. The PSAP then subscribes to the user to make updated instructions to all SCS located in the vicinity of the tornado, indicating a path to escape the tornado or refuge on site based on their location. The PSAP also issues appropriate instructions to the emergency personnel's system and the workplace instant messaging and notification system for further distribution through their systems. The SCS110 issues PSAP instructions to all SCS subscriber users and organizational systems based on the location of the SCS subscriber users and organizational systems.

Referring to fig. 11A and 11B, the individual user receives (1112A and 1112B) instructions from the PSAP and acts as directed. They continue to report their observations of the progress of the tornado using their PSMA. The emergency personnel also receive 1112 the information of the C PSAP and act accordingly. The workplace instant messaging and notification system also receives 1112 the D PSAP's information and issues their own instructions to their users, such as instructing workers to move to the workplace shelter or to be out of service.

Individual users enter updates of their subscribed family groups (1113A and 1113B) into PSMA to inform the family groups of their status. The SCS110 receives 1114 updates from individual users and distributes 1115 them to the appropriate family groups, as indicated by subscription data stored in SCS library 301.

Computing machine architecture

The present disclosure describes a number of processing embodiments and examples. These processes may be embodied as logical operations or program code instructions. The instructions may be stored and executed by a machine. FIG. 12 is a block diagram illustrating components of an example machine capable of reading instructions from a machine-readable medium and executing them in a processor (or controller). In particular, fig. 12 shows a diagrammatic representation of a machine in the example form of a computer system 1200 in which instructions 1224 (e.g., software) may be executed to cause the machine to perform any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein. In alternative embodiments, the machine may operate as a standalone device or may be connected (e.g., networked) to other machines. In a networked deployment, the machine may operate in the capacity of a server machine or a client machine in server-client network environment, or as a peer machine in a peer-to-peer (or distributed) network environment.

The machine may be a server computer, a client computer, a Personal Computer (PC), a tablet PC, a set-top box (STB), a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), a cellular telephone, a smart machine, a web appliance, a network router, switch or bridge, or any machine capable of executing the instructions 1224 (sequential or otherwise) that specify actions to be taken by that machine. Further, while only a single machine is illustrated, the term "machine" shall also be taken to include the individual or joint execution of the instructions 1224 to perform any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein.

The example machine system 1200 includes a processor 1202 (e.g., a Central Processing Unit (CPU), a Graphics Processing Unit (GPU), a Digital Signal Processor (DSP), one or more Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs), one or more Radio Frequency Integrated Circuits (RFICs), or any combination thereof), a main memory 1204 and a static memory 1206 configured to communicate with each other via a bus 1208. The computer system 1200 may also include a graphics display unit 1210, such as a Plasma Display Panel (PDP), a Liquid Crystal Display (LCD), a projector, or a Cathode Ray Tube (CRT). The computer system 1200 may also include an alphanumeric input device 1212 (e.g., a keyboard), a cursor control device 1214 (e.g., a mouse, a trackball, a joystick, a motion sensor, or other pointing instrument), a storage unit 1216, a signal generation device 1218 (e.g., a speaker), and a network interface device 1220, which are configured to communicate via the bus 1208.

The storage unit 1216 includes a machine-readable medium 1222 having stored therein instructions 1224 (e.g., software), the instructions 1224 embodying any one or more of the methodologies or functions described herein. The instructions 1224 (e.g., software) may also reside, completely or at least partially, within the main memory 1204 and/or within the processor 1202 (e.g., within a cache memory of the processor) during execution thereof by the computer system 1200, the main memory 1204 and the processor 1202 also constituting machine-readable media. The instructions 1224 (e.g., software) may also be transmitted or received over a network 1226 via the network interface device 1220.

While the machine-readable medium 1222 is shown in an example embodiment to be a single medium, the term "machine-readable medium" should be taken to include a single medium or multiple media (e.g., a centralized or distributed database, or associated caches and servers) that are capable of storing instructions (e.g., instructions 1224). The term "machine-readable medium" shall also be taken to include instructions (e.g., instructions 1224) that are capable of storing instructions for execution by the machine and that cause the machine to perform any one or more of the methodologies disclosed herein. The term "machine-readable medium" includes, but is not limited to, data stores in the form of solid-state memories, optical and magnetic media.

Other configuration considerations

Embodiments of the above-described system and process provide advantages over existing systems for managing crisis-related communications. For example, embodiments enable danger-related communications to be delivered to users regardless of whether the users are members of the source organization. Further, a user can send and receive all crisis-related communications using a single application on the mobile device (rather than multiple proprietary applications that are each capable of communicating with only a single system). Additional advantages include providing structured communications that reduce the likelihood of inaccurate information being disseminated, providing flexible subscription policies, allowing subscription organizations to select their own policies, and facilitating information exchange between crisis management systems of multiple organizations without compromising the data security of the organization's private network.

In this specification, plural instances may implement the components, operations, or structures described as singular instances. Although the individual operations of one or more methods are illustrated and described as separate operations, one or more of the individual operations may be performed concurrently and nothing requires that the operations be performed in the order illustrated. Structures and functionality presented as separate components in the example configurations may be implemented as a combined structure or component. Similarly, structures and functionality illustrated as separate components may be implemented as separate components. These and other variations, modifications, additions, and improvements fall within the scope of the subject matter herein.

Certain embodiments are described herein as comprising logic or multiple components, modules, or mechanisms. The modules may constitute software modules (e.g., code embodied on a machine-readable medium or in a transmission signal) or hardware modules. A "hardware module" is a tangible unit that is capable of performing certain operations and may be configured or arranged in a particular physical manner. In example embodiments, one or more computer systems (e.g., a standalone computer system, a client computer system, or a server computer system) or one or more hardware modules (e.g., processors or groups of processors) of a computer system may be configured by software (e.g., an application or application portion) as a hardware module that operates to perform certain operations described herein.

In various embodiments, the hardware modules may be implemented mechanically or electronically. For example, a hardware module may comprise dedicated circuitry or logic that is permanently configured to perform certain operations (e.g., a hardware module may be a special-purpose processor such as a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) or an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC)). A hardware module may also include programmable logic or circuitry that is temporarily configured by software to perform certain operations (e.g., programmable logic or circuitry contained in a general-purpose processor or other programmable processor). It should be understood that: the decision to implement a hardware module mechanically, in dedicated and permanently configured circuitry, or in temporarily configured circuitry (e.g., configured by software) may be cost and time considerations.

Various operations of the example methods described herein may be performed, at least in part, by one or more processors that are temporarily configured (e.g., via software) or permanently configured to perform the relevant operations. Whether temporarily or permanently configured, such a processor may constitute a processor-implemented module that operates to perform one or more operations or functions. In some example embodiments, "module" as used herein includes a processor-implemented module.

The one or more processors may also be operable to support execution of related operations in a "cloud computing environment" or as a "software as a service" (SaaS). For example, at least some of the operations may be performed by a group of computers (e.g., machines including processors) that are accessible via a network (e.g., the internet) and via one or more appropriate interfaces (e.g., Application Program Interfaces (APIs)).

The performance of certain operations may be distributed among one or more processors and may not reside in a single machine but may be distributed among multiple machines. In some example embodiments, one or more processors or processor-implemented modules may be located in a single geographic location (e.g., in a home environment, an office environment, or a server farm). In other example embodiments, one or more processors or processor-implemented modules may be distributed across multiple geographic locations.

Some portions of this specification are presented in terms of algorithms or symbolic representations of operations on data stored as bits or binary digital signals within a machine memory such as a computer memory. These algorithms or symbolic representations are examples of techniques used by those of ordinary skill in the data processing arts to convey the substance of their work to others of ordinary skill in the art. An "algorithm," as the term is used herein, is a self-consistent sequence of operations or similar processing that results in a desired result. In this context, algorithms and operations involve physical manipulations of physical quantities. Usually, though not necessarily, such quantities may take the form of electrical, magnetic, or optical signals capable of being stored, accessed, transferred, combined, compared, and otherwise manipulated by a machine. It is convenient at times, principally for reasons of common usage, to refer to such signals as "data," "content," "bits," "values," "elements," "symbols," "characters," "terms," "numbers," "numerals," or the like. However, these terms are merely convenient labels and should be associated with appropriate physical quantities.

Unless specifically stated otherwise, discussions herein using terms such as "processing," "computing," "calculating," "determining," "presenting," "displaying," or the like, may refer to the action or processes of a machine (e.g., a computer) that manipulates or transforms data represented as physical (e.g., electronic, magnetic, or optical) quantities within one or more memories (e.g., volatile memory, non-volatile memory, or a combination thereof), registers, or other machine components that receive, store, transmit, or display information.

Reference herein to "one embodiment" or "an embodiment" means that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment is included in at least one embodiment. The appearances of the phrases "in one embodiment" or "in an embodiment" in various places in the specification are not necessarily all referring to the same embodiment.

Some embodiments may be described using the expression "coupled" and "connected" along with their derivatives. For example, some embodiments may be described using the term "coupled" to indicate that two or more elements are in direct physical or electrical contact. The term "coupled," however, may also mean that two or more elements are not in direct contact with each other, but yet still co-operate or interact with each other. The embodiments are not limited in this context.

As used herein, the terms "comprises," "comprising," "includes," "including," "has," "having" or any other variation thereof, are intended to cover a non-exclusive inclusion. For example, a process, method, article, or apparatus that comprises a list of elements is not necessarily limited to only those elements but may include other elements not expressly listed or inherent to such process, method, article, or apparatus. Furthermore, unless expressly stated to the contrary, "or" means an inclusive or and not an exclusive or. For example, either of the following satisfies condition a or B: a is true (or present) and B is false (or not present), a is false (or not present) and B is true (or present), and both a and B are true (or present).

In addition, "a" or "an" is used to describe elements and components of embodiments herein. This is done merely for convenience and to give a general sense of the invention. This description should be read to include one or at least one and the singular also includes the plural unless it is obvious that it is meant otherwise.

Upon reading this disclosure, those skilled in the art will appreciate further alternative structural and functional designs for systems and processes for providing crisis communication management through the principles disclosed herein. Thus, while particular embodiments and applications have been illustrated and described, it is to be understood that the disclosed embodiments are not limited to the precise construction and components disclosed herein. Various modifications, changes, and variations apparent to those skilled in the art may be made in the arrangement, operation, and details of the methods and apparatus disclosed herein without departing from the spirit and scope defined in the appended claims.

Claims (28)

1. A Safety Communications Service (SCS) for managing crisis-related communications between a plurality of entities, the SCS comprising:

a storage repository configured to store data about entities and indicating relationships between entities, each relationship comprising an indication of a first entity, an indication of a second entity, an indication of whether the first entity is available to receive information from the second entity, an indication of whether the second entity is available to receive information from the first entity, and additional information describing a relationship between the first entity and the second entity:

an entity interface configured to receive crisis-related information items from devices of a plurality of event source entities, each crisis-related information item including metadata and information; and

a business logic subsystem operatively connected to the repository and the entity interface and configured to analyze an information item to determine whether the information item includes a particular metadata attribute, the metadata attribute comprising: an identity of the source entity, a geographic location of the source entity, one or more geographic locations corresponding to the information items, a time at which the information items originated, an urgency of the information items, a type of the information items, and one or more designated sets of recipient entities, the business logic subsystem being further configured to: for each information item, identifying a corresponding group of recipient entities based on the metadata attributes determined to be included in the information item and the relationships stored in the repository.

2. The SCS of claim 1 further comprising a messaging subsystem operatively connected to the business logic subsystem and configured to: for a given information item, compiling a new message comprising at least a part of the information comprised in said given information item and distributing the new message to the devices of the corresponding group of receiving entities.

3. The SCS of claim 2 wherein the messaging subsystem distributes new messages by:

adding the new message to a queue, the queue comprising an ordered list of messages to be delivered to a device of the receiving entity;

in response to receiving a connection request from a device of a receiving entity, establishing a connection with the device of the receiving entity; and

the first message in the ordered message list is delivered to the device of the receiving entity.

4. The SCS of claim 3 wherein a location in the ordered list of messages to which a new message is added is based on a priority of the new message relative to other messages in the list.

5. The SCS of claim 1, wherein the candidate receivers are included in the set of receiving entities for a given information item based on one or more business rules relating to: the identity of the source entity, the identity of the candidate recipient entity, the association of the candidate recipient entity with one or more groups, the relationship between the source entity and the candidate recipient entity, and the explicit group of recipient entities specified within a given information item.

6. The SCS of claim 1, wherein the candidate receiving entities are included in the set of receiving entities for a given information item based on one or more business rules relating to: one or more geographic locations corresponding to a given information item, an identity of the source entity, a location of the candidate receiving entity, a location of interest of the candidate receiving entity; the identity of the candidate recipient entity, the availability of the candidate recipient entity, and the relationship between the source entity and the candidate recipient entity.

7. The SCS of claim 1, wherein the candidate receiving entities are included in the set of receiving entities for a given information item based on one or more business rules relating to: the location of the source entity, the identity of the candidate receiving entity, the location of interest of the candidate receiving entity, the type of the given information item, and the relationship between the source entity and the candidate receiving entity.

8. The SCS of claim 1, wherein the candidate receiving entities are included in the set of receiving entities for a given information item based on one or more business rules relating to: a type of the information item, an identity of the candidate receiving entity, a location of interest of the candidate receiving entity, and a location specified within the information item.

9. The SCS of claim 1, wherein candidate receiving entities are included in the group of receiving entities for a given information item based on: urgency of the information item, identity of the candidate recipient entity, and relationship between the source entity and the candidate recipient entity.

10. The SCS of claim 1, further comprising:

a relationship generation subsystem configured to automatically compare data relating to a first entity with a profile of a second entity to determine a correspondence therebetween, the relationship generation subsystem further configured to store a relationship between the first entity and the second entity in the repository in response to the correspondence.

11. The SCS of claim 1, further comprising:

a relationship generation subsystem configured to determine, based on location data of the first entity, that the first entity has entered a new location, the relationship generation subsystem further configured to identify at least one other entity associated with the new location as a candidate for association with the first entity.

12. The SCS of claim 1, further comprising:

a relationship generation subsystem configured to automatically associate an entity associated with a first entity to the first entity, the relationship generation subsystem further configured to send a message to an entity associated with a second entity, the message including a notification that the entity associated with the second entity is eligible to receive information items from the second entity.

13. The SCS of claim 1, further comprising:

a relationship generation subsystem configured to compare a profile of a first entity with a profile of a second entity to determine a correspondence therebetween, the relationship generation subsystem further configured to identify a candidate entity related to the first entity and generate an offer of the second entity also related to the candidate entity based on the correspondence between the first entity and the second entity.

14. The SCS of claim 1, wherein the data about the entity comprises composite entity profiles, each composite entity profile comprising at least one common attribute and at least one relationship-specific attribute.

15. A method of managing crisis-related communications between a plurality of entities, the method comprising:

storing, in a storage repository, data about entities and indicating relationships between entities, each relationship comprising an indication of a first entity, an indication of a second entity, an indication of whether the first entity is available to receive information from the second entity, an indication of whether the second entity is available to receive information from the first entity, and additional information describing a relationship between the first entity and the second entity;

receiving crisis-related information items from devices of a plurality of event source entities, each crisis-related information item including metadata and information;

analyzing an information item to determine whether the information item includes a particular metadata attribute, the metadata attribute comprising: an identity of the source entity, a geographic location of the source entity, one or more geographic locations corresponding to the information items, a time at which the information items originated, an urgency of the information items, a type of the information items, and one or more designated sets of recipient entities; and

for each information item, identifying a corresponding group of recipient entities based on the metadata attributes determined to be included in the information item and the relationships stored in the repository.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

compiling, for a given information item, a new message comprising at least a part of the information comprised in said given information item, an

The new message is distributed to the devices of the corresponding group of receiving entities.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein distributing the new message comprises:

adding a new message to a queue, the queue comprising an ordered list of messages to be delivered to a device of a receiving entity, a location of the new message addition being based on a priority of the new message relative to other messages in the list;

in response to receiving a connection request from a device of a receiving entity, establishing a connection with the device of the receiving entity; and

the first message in the ordered message list is delivered to the device of the receiving entity.

18. The method of claim 15, wherein the candidate recipients are included in the set of receiving entities for the given information item based on one or more business rules relating to: the identity of the source entity, the identity of the candidate recipient entity, the association of the candidate recipient entity with one or more groups, the relationship between the source entity and the candidate recipient entity, and the explicit group of recipient entities specified within a given information item.

19. The method of claim 15, wherein candidate receiving entities are included in the set of receiving entities for a given information item based on one or more business rules relating to: one or more of a geographic location corresponding to a given information item, an identity of the source entity, a location of the candidate receiving entity, a location of interest of the candidate receiving entity, an identity of the candidate receiving entity, an availability of the candidate receiving entity, and a relationship between the source entity and the candidate receiving entity.

20. The method of claim 15, wherein candidate receiving entities are included in the set of receiving entities for a given information item based on one or more business rules relating to: the location of the source entity, the identity of the candidate receiving entity, the location of interest of the candidate receiving entity, the type of the given information item, and the relationship between the source entity and the candidate receiving entity.

21. The method of claim 15, wherein candidate receiving entities are included in the set of receiving entities for a given information item based on one or more business rules relating to: a type of the information item, an identity of the candidate receiving entity, a location of interest of the candidate receiving entity, and a location specified within the information item.

22. The method of claim 15, wherein candidate receiving entities are included in the group of receiving entities for a given information item based on: urgency of the information item, identity of the candidate recipient entity, and relationship between the source entity and the candidate recipient entity.

23. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

automatically comparing data related to the first entity with a profile of the second entity to determine a correspondence therebetween; and

storing, in the repository, a relationship between the first entity and the second entity in response to the correspondence.

24. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

determining that the first entity has entered a new location based on the location data of the first entity; and

identifying at least one other entity associated with the new location as a candidate associated with the first entity.

25. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

automatically associating an entity associated with the first entity to the first entity; and

sending a message to an entity associated with a second entity, the message including a notification that the entity associated with the second entity is eligible to receive an information item from the second entity.

26. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

comparing the profile of the first entity with the profile of the second entity to determine a correspondence therebetween;

identifying a candidate entity related to the first entity; and

based on the correspondence between the first entity and the second entity, an offer is generated that the second entity is also related to the candidate entity.

27. The method of claim 15, wherein the data about the entity comprises composite entity profiles, each composite entity profile comprising at least one common attribute and at least one relationship-specific attribute.

28. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing executable computer program instructions for providing personnel crisis communication management, the computer program instructions when executed cause one or more computing systems to:

storing, in a storage repository, data about entities and indicating relationships between entities, each relationship comprising an indication of a first entity, an indication of a second entity, an indication of whether the first entity is available to receive information from the second entity, an indication of whether the second entity is available to receive information from the first entity, and additional information describing a relationship between the first entity and the second entity;

receiving crisis-related information items from devices of a plurality of event source entities, each crisis-related information item including metadata and information;

analyzing an information item to determine whether the information item includes a particular metadata attribute, the metadata attribute comprising: an identity of the source entity, a geographic location of the source entity, one or more geographic locations corresponding to the information items, a time at which the information items originated, an urgency of the information items, a type of the information items, and one or more designated sets of recipient entities; and

for each information item, identifying a corresponding group of recipient entities based on the metadata attributes determined to be included in the information item and the relationships stored in the repository.