Primary Questions: Deliverables: Target Audience:

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1 Mobile Apps: Implications for Tue, October 7 1:15PM 3:00PM Caribbean III Facilitated by Sandy Beitel, Jerry Schlesinger, Mike Vislocky & Dan Mongrain There has been a lot of discussion lately concerning the development of mobile apps and their ability to provide additional data to PSAPs (e.g. accurate caller location, personal information about the caller, and images/video/audio about active emergencies) mobile Apps can provide this information to appropriate PSAPs by directly transmitting data stored on and/or collected by the device, enabling PSAPs to access the data from offsite locations where it is stored, or a combination of those two methods. Participants in this session will discuss work in progress on standardizing the information content and transmittal processes, as well as other requirements, aspects, and impacts of mobile apps. Primary Questions: What is NENA s role in educating app developers about (i3, availability, redundancy, etc.)? How can we limit the number of interfaces that need to be supported at the PSAP? What are the potential benefits and limitations of routing the information to intermediary call centers? Will i3 support these apps in the long term and how can we make sure that the apps conform to i3 specifications? What are the security implications of enabling the apps to communicate directly with PSAPs and how can we minimize potential security vulnerabilities? What are the potential operational impacts (SOPs, Guidelines, etc.)? Is it possible to standardize the contents of existing and future mobile apps? Deliverables: Update on current efforts to standardize the content and transmission of emergency incident data by mobile apps Location of relevant information available to PSAP managers and app developers Discussion and identification of the potential implications of mobile apps Target Audience: PSAP Managers System Developers App Developers Technical staff

2 Mobile Apps: Implications for NOTES Tue, October 7 1:15PM 3:00PM Caribbean III Facilitated by Sandy Beitel, Jerry Schlesinger, Mike Vislocky & Dan Mongrain What is a mobile App? Information sources. Jerry encourages participation. A app is an application, typically operating on a smartphone, that assists citizens call communication centers. May operate on other devices. May add additional data to the call. Sandy gives the history published a document from a joint NENA/APCO working group. Public Safety Considerations for Smartphone App Developers on both NENA and APCO websites. Guidelines for App Developers. Googling 911 apps gets a plethora of returns. We don t know how to control that how do we get folks involved from the app standpoint? Lots of folks marketing these without our knowledge. How do we streamline this process? Jerry says apps don t just typically show up in the PSAP. Smartphone apps shake it and it makes a 911 call that s an app. App developer can show up at the PSAP and try to sell the product; install this app on the devices in your PSAP and you ll get their stuff. No standardization yet for these apps.

3 Another joint WG is working on standardizing interfaces for these apps. Dan speaks to the many different ways app developers are doing products. Could be a problem with a PSAP using an app within a region and the consumer tries to use the app outside their region, since they expect it to work. Is this also a task overload issue for dispatchers, if they have to deal with apps installed in their PSAPs? Question about what the name of the NENA WG is that is dealing with apps. APCO Mark Reddish is the person working with it I didn t get the name the speaker said. Maybe appcom.org??? Display some current apps: What kinds of things should we take to this joint WG for them to think about? Dan says there s an expectation of being able to deliver data to PSAPs. If everyone is using different protocols to do this it s painful. Someone says an app developer is encouraging folks to come in and work with their app. These apps are inevitable. There will be problems if we don t try to control it. Suggestion from floor that APCO group is developing applications. FirstNet has mentioned they are considering having an app store for First Responders. Perhaps we create a WG that has members of APCO, Firstnet, and NENA folks so that we are getting input from all sides 911, Public Safety, and app developers. Single sign-on like a gateway into the appcon(?) world. Like a menu system. Richard Ray - Interoperability is a concern with the 911 framework. Borrow a page from the FCC when they put out their proposals in rulemaking, especially in relay services. Interoperability is addressed there. Video phones being dissimilar is like apps being dissimilar. Something has to be done. Donna expresses concern from deaf and hard-of-hearing communities. Likes the idea of pressing a button to get the app. How is a PSAP going to know what kind of help is needed? Will the app pass on that information and location? Is it going to be like texting and has to have a data plan? From the floor - All these apps use data channels so must have a data plan or they might work. Data may not be sent with the call. Jerry says that s what this WG is working on. Dan wonders why have another WG when i3 group is doing that. The concern is what to do in the interim time period until i3 work is complete? (I paraphrased what I m hearing!) No standard mechanism to ensure data is sent to the same PSAP where the call goes.

4 Apps are not limited to telephones. Integrated into computers and notepads. No funding mechanism if it s not a telephone. Should be any source that has access to an app. We need to consider that Public Safety Responders might be able to use these apps. In conjunction with creating a WG, could the WG create a mechanism where the app is certified and the fee for getting that certification goes to PSAPs. Why are we not leveraging legislation as texting was? We need regulation on this. By the time legislation could be passed, it would be counter-productive since it s an interim solution we re talking about. Maybe we should focus on getting to Next Gen. How long until Next Gen? From an operations standpoint, one app that can handle multiple apps. Intent is to get that going and switch to i3 when it s ready. An aggregation service as a go-between. First time one of these apps breaks down will cause the debate to become more visible. How accurate is the information coming in and can it be trusted? What are we talking about? We had a WG between APCO and NENA but that group is no longer meeting. Clarification needed about a WG Jerry says we re not talking about a WG. It s on the technical side but ops folks are not included. Jerry doesn t know. These apps can do one of two things. Most are fancy interfaces to make the phone dial From the PSAP point of view, it s no different than a human calling Some of these other applications anticipate they ll send data in somehow. Can t just magically start sending data to a PSAP. In a NG world, we d hope we wouldn t open our firewall and just let them in. i3 data comes in according to standards. Having a hard time understanding why we re worried about it. We worry about the public s perception and how the public is being informed about what the 911 PSAP can do. Maybe it s an education challenge. It may not be a technological thing. There is some disagreement about whether it s only an educational thing. Big discussion about how easy it is to get location information.

5 Do not confuse commercial location with emergency location. False accuracy that may be wildly inaccurate. Lots of reasons for inaccuracies. Needs to be done in a reliable way. If location is supplemental, take that into account. Vonage came out and we had to get the education out. On their apps, they should say it may not work with Seal of approval for may be needed. If it takes a dispatcher 3 minutes to get addresses, we re in trouble. It does take time. If we re still validating data coming in, we d still have to validate mobile data coming in. Beauty of the app is putting who you are but it still needs to be verified by the dispatcher. Regarding WG, according to NENA.org website there is one but we think it s already disbanded. A new WG needs to be develop, APCO, NENA, and FirstNet in some respect needs to be made. Certification needs to be a part of this. We need to focus on what we need a WG to do. What are our concerns? More discussion about location information. Location provided by handset can be spoofed, which opens up another problem for the PSAP. It s clear there are a lot of things to be discussed here. Plenty of stuff for a WG to work on. Not an immediate crisis because the PSAP can t get the data unless it lets it in. FirstNet is talking about bringing these apps into the PSAP. Going to be difficult to keep these apps from popping up not going to be a choke point at the place of sale. These apps are on the way, get ready, they re going to be here. Is it a reliable source? Steve from Vonage says that was Over the top provider type applications where there is no specific provider and all there is is Wi-Fi on an ipad, how do we get location information? Top bullet on the discussion topics. We break. Two different apps. Basically call 911 or send additional data. Maybe a way to automate calling 911 if the owner of the phone can t. There may be technical issues where apps call 911 and there s a robo-voice involved. Going to have two computers talking to each other and this will be a technical issue. Two work-streams that are related but independent. Communications aspect to these apps what it does for me and what it s limitations are those are operational kinds of things. Elderly, communications disorders might put more value in these. Second is technical side of things location, location accuracy, how the system works with recordings. If they re getting confused between the two, neither will get worked on adequately. We need to both things but it might not be the same group for both.

6 Lots of discussion on accuracy. Here s the slide that s on the screen. Additional caller information provider. Accuracy. Relevancy. Developing SOP to review and use it. Technical issues extracting information, displaying and logging the information. Smartphone location provided. Provided versus standard location. Accuracy standards. Civic versus geographic (coordinate location). What other points to send back to WG to consider? Location accuracy. App certification. Policies for dispatchers handling calls? When would you accept information coming from phone vs dispatcher. Phone is a tool in the dispatch world. LIS is provided by carrier. Commercial applications will develop location accuracy that may exceed GPS. It s very likely that a person s location may be able to be pinpointed with more accuracy in the future. Don t assume emergency location is all that we re going to get. Is all location today driven by commercial interests? We re looking for bullet points for the WG to consider. This session is about app interface with NG 911. Then we use i3? Which doesn t help us in the interim. Our role in NENA is to look at apps interfacing with NG911. Explore funding options as far as a surcharge or something like that charged to developers or commercial mobile carriers. Look at vendor disclaimers guidelines and restrictions that very specific information is given to 911. Verified with Roger Smartapps to PSAPs might be the WG name. We re talking about a NEW group dealing with NG9-1-1 and i3. From the floor specific WG was initiated because there was a concern from the PSAPs about smartphone apps being advertised that weren t doing what consumers thought they would do. Trying to educate folks on how the app should interact with the PSAP. New WG should take up where the previous WG left off; ensure education is happening. New WG should not only address applications for general public use but take up PSAP interaction with FirstNet application for Public Safety responders. Roadmap for NG to i3, too. Speaker from the floor - An application when using Wi-Fi - they can specify what the app is being used from Wi-Fi device. A lot of folks consoles are locked down to the Internet. If we re letting them into CAD, we can t allow 3 rd -party vendors and apps in. We re developing apps to

7 combat all this. Comes down to a public awareness campaign. They re dropping Smart911 because only 6 folks are signed up. App developers are not going to pay to fund and provide applications that are secure and meet all our requirements. Vast majority of people are not going to get the service. Education of the public and PSAPs. Are these applications tackled by a secret WG? Smartapps is a BAD BAD name!!!! Unlike legacy, in i3 world, there can be multiple location sources and the PSAP can choose which one to trust. What are the liabilities of choosing the wrong one? I3 precludes multiple locations. Dispatchers validate location. We need to look at apps from a First Responder perspective. Active911 is a means for anybody to get a text message and/or voice mail it s an alerting system. Summary. Consensus is we need to deal with this topic. New WG needed. We adjourn.