Kentucky State Police Instant Messaging Application Wins International Award

Kentucky State Police Instant Messaging Application Wins International Award 
Excerpts from: http://techlines.ky.gov/2007/dec/kywins.htm
The Commonwealth has a new toy for emergency personnel, and it’s been catching eyes:

The Kentucky State Police (KSP) recently received an international award for the Kentucky Wireless Interoperability Network System (KyWINS) Messenger, a statewide instant messaging system for use by all emergency responders in Kentucky.  The award was accepted by Major Brad Bates, KSP chief information officer, at the 114th International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) Annual Conference in New Orleans, LA.

The article continues:

The KyWINS Messenger system was created by KSP with coordination and support from the Commonwealth Office of Technology, Kentucky Office of Homeland Security and the Center for Rural Development.  Utilizing Jive Software’s Openfire open source product, which was modified to meet the system specifications, KyWINS Messenger provides one unifying and central communication tool across several areas and disciplines in the commonwealth where uninteroperable mobile message switching applications are being used.

By using an Internet connection or the statewide 800 MHz wireless data communications infrastructure, immediate text communication is available to authorized users, regardless of location. The system not only provides mobile-to-mobile communications but also allows personnel at dispatch centers across the commonwealth to quickly communicate with each other in the event of an emergency. These quick avenues of communication help avoid radio traffic congestion through both one-to-one and one-to-many communication, with the later being based on the system’s group conferencing feature.  In addition, KyWINS Messenger can broadcast an immediate message to all online users in order to spread important information rapidly and requires little technological knowledge to use. In order to ensure complete security and confidentiality, all system messaging traffic is encrypted.

It’s a nifty little toy, but needs a lot of work. Trust me…