nSide™
nSide™

Posted by Robert Nall

Upcoming Webinar: EOP Functional Annexes Migration

Upcoming Webinar: EOP Functional Annexes Migration

The functional annex has been streamlined to address the following areas: Communication, Evacuation, Secure Perimeter, Lockdown, Reunification, Recovery, and Crisis Management.

Both the updated and older versions of the functional annexes are available to you in nSide until June 30, 2017. On July 1, 2017, only the updated version will be available.

Due to these upcoming changes, we have received many questions about the Functional Annexes, General Emergency Procedures section of the EOP in nSide. With the deadline date approaching, we will be hosting free webinars on July 23rd, July 26th, July 28th, and July 30th at 12pm CST each day, in order to help those that might have questions or concerns regarding the change.

These webinars will contain information about the changes, how it affects you, transferring your information, best practices for filling out EOPs, and other important topics.

If you or any of your team would like to participate, register here!

June 21, 2017
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Automated External Defibrillator(AED) on the wall
April 20, 2017

Would you know where the closest AED is located in the case of an emergency?

Would you know where the closest AED is located in the case of an emergency?

The Today Show on NBC recently produced a story about Bob Harper from “The Biggest Loser” and a heart attack he experienced while training in his gym. He survived, primarily because an automated external defibrillator (AED) was located in the gym. These are devices that help save lives in this type of event by delivering “a dose of electric current to the heart.”

However, if you needed to locate one in your school, church, or facility, would you know where to look? With less than 3 percent of Americans trained in CPR, the survival rate of a heart attack drops to 6 percent if no one assists the victim. Simply knowing where an AED is located can dramatically help those rates. The video below is an example that puts people to the test in a gym setting:

An AED saved Bob Harper, but could you find one in an emergency? Celebrity fitness trainer Bob Harper says an AED – an automatic external defibrillator – helped save his life when he…w

How nSide Helps

When nSide is used to map a facility, lifesaving safety equipment like AEDs become instantly visible, highlighted, and searchable in accessible digital floor plans used for planning, safety drills, review, and emergency access. When the Data team visits your site, they will visually inspect every aspect of the building and make sure all AEDs are located and represented on the map.

Planning, Preparing, and Practicing

nSide firmly believes that planning, preparing, and practicing concepts are key to thriving in a safe and productive environment. By planning, all relevant stakeholders can team together to assess their current resources and put together an executable plan for dealing with an emergency. By preparing, planners can make sure they have all of the tools they need to execute the plan. Lastly, by practicing, the organization can execute the plan they have put together, noting inefficiencies along the way and adjusting accordingly. These three concepts are a never-ending circle, and should be put to use frequently in order to make sure the emergency operation plan can be as effective as possible.

Use Case for AEDs

In the case of AEDs, seconds are precious. We can assume in a real-life emergency, staff and responders will not have time to pull up the nSide map to find the closest AED. This is why we believe the planning, preparing, and practicing concepts and repetition are essential in a small-scale, single individual type of event.

nSide is a tool to help organizations and their staff better understand place and their surroundings. Each organization should use their Emergency Operation Plans in order to understand their buildings/campuses (i.e. “Where do I need to go to assist the person in need?”), the resources needed for this type of response (i.e. “I need to use an AED for the victim, and where are they located throughout the building?”), and who is best qualified to respond to the situation (i.e. “What skills do staff members possess?”).

To be better prepared, we recommend regularly reviewing the Emergency Operation Plans with your team, having the nSide map continuously updated, and staff skills surveys and user profiles being completed for all staff members.

How Have You Prepared for This Type of Situation?

We would like to understand more how the use of an AED in an event has been used with nSiders. Has your organization experienced a similar situation? How did you respond? What do you do to train or prepare for this situation? In the discussion topic on the nSide Community, let us know how you would respond in the case of an AED needing to be used.

April 20, 2017
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msu-cybersecurity-blog
October 15, 2016

nSide Visits Mississippi State University to Inspire Students to Pursue Careers in Technology and Cybersecurity

nSide Visits Mississippi State University to Inspire Students to Pursue Careers in Technology and Cybersecurity

On Wednesday, July 20th CEO Dr. Steve McKinney, Data Division Manager Robert Nall, and Chief Network Engineer Justin Billingsley traveled to Mississippi State University to speak with middle and high school boys and teachers attending the GenCyber funded Bulldog Bytes Computing Camps.The GenCyber program is a partnership between the National Security Agency (NSA) and the National Science Foundation (NSF). Mississippi State has hosted GenCyber summer camps each summer since the program’s inception in 2014, and nSide team members were excited to travel south to talk with this year’s participants about the relationships between technology, safety, and network vulnerability.

The NSA and NSF partnered with schools and universities in 37 different states this summer in an effort to increase cybersecurity awareness amongst teachers and adolescents and to address anticipated shortages in the cyber workforce. For example, in 2015, 90% of members of the Information Systems Audit and Control Association (ISACA) surveyed agreed that there was a shortage of cybersecurity professionals. This shortage of qualified cybersecurity professionals is an eminent security threat for the United States, reflected by President Obama’s February 2016 identification of cybersecurity as one of the United States’ “most important challenges.”

Dr. McKinney spent time talking with Bulldog Bytes campers and teachers about the Internet of Things, inviting listeners to contemplate where technology has been, where it is currently, and where the future will take us, emphasizing the new challenges and increased security needs as more and more people and devices connect. Robert spoke as a geographer turned techie, explaining the importance of code literacy for all kinds of jobs and his tools-based approach to programming. Justin, responsible for the security of nSide’s system, addressed system vulnerabilities and the nonstop attention needed to deter and prevent hackers. Dr. McKinney closed things off, intimating to campers that it was his experience at 12 years old in a summer computer camp that lead him down the path that currently has him positioned as CEO of a tech startup named by CIO Magazine as one of the “50 Most Promising Google Technology Solution Providers” in 2015. He encouraged campers to use technology to address problems, have big ideas, and to make the world a better and safer place.

Contributed by: Stacy Kastner, PhD, Mississippi State University

October 15, 2016
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geography-awareness-week
November 22, 2015

nSide Gives Back to Community for Geography Awareness Week

nSide Gives Back to Community for Geography Awareness Week

Established by presidential proclamation in 1987, November 15–21, 2015 marked the 28th annual Geography Awareness Week. Organized by National Geographic Education Programs, their website explains the the event was founded in order to address a geography gap in K-12 education and to “excite people about geography as both a discipline and as a part of everyday life.”

nSide team members Robert Nall, Cameron Martin, and Seth Thompson were excited to join McBride Elementary third graders in Muscle Shoals, Alabama last Wednesday in support of this important national initiative.

As a state, Alabama has the good fortune of strong geography allies in The University of North Alabama Department of Geography and the Alabama Geographic Alliance (AGA). UNA and AGA have been working together since 2014 to institute a geospatial semester for local high schools. The result of their successful collaboration is a dual enrollment course that introduces AP high school students to geography themes and geospatial technologies. Each high school class collaborates on a project, and this year, at Muscle Shoals High School, the class hosted a “Journey with Geography” event for area third graders. On Wednesday, November 18th, third graders from McBride Elementary filed into the Muscle Shoals high school library and were greeted by geography-themed learning stations representing different regions around the world.

The Data and GIS team from nSide joined the event to facilitate a hands-on GIS demonstration as part of the event. Focusing on Latin America, Nall, Martin, and Thompson introduced students to Google My Maps, a web-based application that allows Google users to create and disseminate maps and spatial information. Third graders were instructed in digitizing, describing patterns, and asking spatial questions. Students were collectively captivated by creating spatial data, adding attributes, and visualizing different basemaps. “These kids are used to technology, so they caught on extremely quick. You could tell the excitement when they started to be able to identify patterns in the maps they were creating. It was a lot of fun,” says Nall, GIS Manager. Thompson, GIS Analyst, was also impressed with the third graders, he explained: “I really enjoyed seeing the excitement and creativeness from the students as they took ownership of their maps. It was great to see them engaged and asking spatial questions.” Allie Grissom, third grade teacher at McBride Elementary, praised the interactive spatial thinking activity designed by the nSide team: “My kids loved mapping the locations using GIS technology in the computer lab. They were fascinated that they could pinpoint locations and determine distances instantly and see satellite images of those locations halfway across the globe.”

nSide takes great pride in participating in community outreach events, especially those that enable them to provide educational opportunities for kids. “The opportunity to work with kids at such a young age, providing a look at GIS and what you can do with it, was very gratifying. The students seemed to take pride in personalizing the maps and calling it their own,” explained Martin, GIS Analyst. nSide would like to thank the University of North Alabama Department of Geography, the Alabama Geographic Alliance, and Muscle Shoals High School for the invitation to participate in this event.

Other contributing authors: Cameron Martin, Seth Thompson

November 22, 2015
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