The Open ISES Project / News: Recent posts

As we enter the fall of the year the Open ISES Project is very proud to announce a major upgrade in the Tickets Computer Aided Dispatch software project. This release is the culmination of many hours of work by our development team, and it is a release that brings into reality many of the most often asked for features for Tickets.

Internet Access Now Optional

Since the very beginning of the Tickets CAD Project, it has required the use of an Internet connection to access Google maps and other associated back-end databases. However, many users have expressed concerned that of their Internet connection is lost, their CAD system would go down as well. With this release, that is no longer a concern. You can now have Tickets constantly check for an Internet connection, and if it doesn't find one it will continue to operate, albeit without some of its features active. Now you no longer have to worry about losing your CAD if you lose the Internet.... read more

Updates to the Open ISES Project

http://openises.sourceforge.net

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Tickets
Arnie and crew have released their latest update to the Tickets project. As usual, they have included a number of improvements, some of which include;
- More reliable multi-user operation
- This version includes the (minor) changes needed for operation with Asterisk, the Open Source PBX.
- Notification of new incidents, unit status change, and unit movement via 'lit-up' buttons
- Dispatching a unit no longer needs the 'multi' workaround
- The situation screen reports the number of units assigned each incident.
+ Open (un-dispatched-to) incidents blink the count value.
+ Closed tickets my be selected by time frame and full details are shown for these.... read more

Tickets 2.11.E Released

A new update to the Tickets CAD Program has been released. The latest version, 2.11.E, includes a number of enhancements. As before, two downloads are available - a Full Installation and an Update Patch. Go to our Update Page for more information.

http://openises.sourceforge.net/tickets_update_2.html

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Problems with Educational Downloads Corrected... read more

The Open ISES Project (http://openises.sourceforge.net) is very proud to announce its latest offering. “Call and Pump” is a web-based training program for the general population (http://emstraining.eduforge.org/medical/public_trng.html) and is the first offering in the Open ISES Project's public training section. As the focus of citizen CPR turns more towards compression only CPR, this training program can help meet that need. This training project comes from our friends with the Call and Pump project (http://www.callandpump.org) in Wisconsin.... read more

Jim Keiken, our newest member of the Open ISES Project Team, has uploaded three new web-based cardiac training modules. These modules can be used as stand-alone training modules, or be used with a Learning Content Management System. The modules include Cardiac Anatomy, the Cardiac Conduction System, and an ACLS Pharmacology Review module.

These modules can be found at our Cardiology Review Page (http://emstraining.eduforge.org/medical/animation.html). As with any medical software or text, you are responsible to assure the information is in line with your local protocols. Please let us know what you think of our latest offerings.

Today a feature article on Tickets has just been posted over at EMSResponder.com. The article was written by James Careless and discusses the use of Tickets and who can benefit from its use.

We want to thank Mr. Careless for doing such a nice job of capturing the spirit of Tickets and getting Tickets (and the Open ISES Project) in the spotlight of a group of folks who may have never heard of the project.... read more

The latest update to the Tickets CAD program has been released. Here are some of the changes for this version;

1. A significantly improved multi-user capability: Buttons in the top panel are 'lit' when an event occurs that merits user attention. Specifically, a new incident written by another user will light up the situation button in red; A unit movement will light up that button in blue; a chat invitation will light up the chat button in red. Lit buttons remain so until clicked, with a red situation button taking precedence over the blue color used to signify Unit movement. Given such notification, the screen refresh is no longer needed, and this function - which can be disruptive - has been removed.... read more

The Open ISES Wiki has been updated with a brand new Tickets tutorial. This tutorial will take you step-by-step through the process of installing the Tickets software package. The tutorial is also available as a downloadable Adobe Acrobat (pdf) file.

This tutorial is the first of what should be a series of tutorials on installing, setting-up and running the Tickets CAD program.

Last month the Open ISES (Open Information Systems for Emergency Services) Project announced a major update to their flagship project, the Tickets CAD program. The latest update is labeled as Version 2.11.C

Some of the updates in this release include;
* On new calls, the entered phone number may be looked up for prior calls. If found, the most recent name and location information is copied into the new form.
* Unit status may be updated directly from the situation screen, saving a number of navigation clicks.
* Directions may now be turned off/on temporarily for routes/dispatch.
* To assist in rapid dispatch, the incident address is shown highlighted and floating on the dispatch page.
* We've made a number of other corrections as well as performance and aesthetic improvements. E.g., the full screen page now works, Google Latitude accommodates ID's with or without the hyphen, and there's better handling of floating buttons for IE users.... read more

The Open ISES (Information Systems for Emergency Services) Project is proud to announce the latest release of flagship software product, Tickets Version 2.11. Tickets is a web-based computer aided dispatch (CAD) program that leverages the power of Google maps to bring a high end open source CAD product to the emergency services community. Tickets can perform a number of functions including phone number look-up, driving directions, schedule events, and more. ... read more

This notice is for anyone who downloaded the Complete Install package of Tickets, Version 2.11, prior to Friday, December 18 at about 2100hrs (9:00 pm) Eastern Standard Time.

The original file that was made available was an incomplete version, and it would fail if you tried to install it. The correct file has been posted and is now available for download.

The original file was approximately 640K in size, whereas the corrected file is about 1.2MB.... read more

Tickets Patch 9-01-09
03 September 2009

Tickets update patch is now available for download. This corrects two PHP version dependencies that existed in its predecessor, patch_08_22.zip. This patch is not for everyone.

If you are using Tickets 2.10.G and you are not having any problems, there is no need to install this patch. If your are using version 2.10.G and are getting an error report of "...xxx is deprecated ...' then you need this patch set. If you're not running Tickets Version 2.10.G then you are definitely encouraged to install this patch.... read more

Ari Friedman is the Dispatch Coordinator of Hatzolah of Los Angeles. He wrote to let us know that Tickets was instrumental in keeping their operation up and running during the recent fires in Southern California. Despite being 20+ miles away from the fires their repeater is on a mountain top there. Yesterday the fires brought their main repeater down. They used the "email all units" feature to advise all their units to switch over to their backup communications system. According to Ari, "We have close to 80 units and without Tickets it would have been harder and a much more painful process. My organization is operating as normal."... read more

A number of improvements in this latest release. This patch set is to be applied to a good installation of Tickets 2.10.E beta or more recent, and will upgrade that to version 2.10.G

Credit for a MAJOR chunk of the improvements here is due to our UK buddy, Andy Harvey, a needed and welcome addition to our development team. Andy brings tech chops as well as emergency support experience to Tickets development.... read more

Good morning everyone,

The latest update (2.10.F) to Tickets is now available;
http://sourceforge.net/projects/openises/files/Tickets/Tickets%202.10_e/tickets_2_10_f_update.zip/download

This is an update to the earlier release of Tickets, however, it is NOT a FULL installation. You must have version 2.10.E installed. If you do not currently have 2.10.E installed it can be downloaded at the following address;
http://sourceforge.net/projects/openises/files/Tickets/Tickets%202.10_e/tickets_2_10_e_beta.zip/download... read more

SRCSA Guidebook Released

Survivor Receiving Center and Staging Area
A Guide to Reducing Hospital Surge in Large Scale MCI

Our latest release is in the area of Emergency Management. Survivor Receiving Center and Staging Areas are designed to help reduce hospital surge by offering an alternative site for transport and treatment. In addition, SRCSA sites can be used for family reunification, mental health services and preplanned emergency service staging areas.... read more

The Open ISES Project to be featured on the Gutsy Geeks Radio Show

Bob Austin, the founder of The Open ISES Project has been invited to come and speak on the Gutsy Geeks radio program out of Phoenix, AZ. Gutsy Geeks (formerly PC Chat), which made its debut in August 2001, exists to educate, enlighten, and entertain listeners about Linux and Open Source. Their show is broadcast on 1100 KFNX on Saturdays at 2pm,
as well as posting a podcast of the broadcast a day or two later. Bob's interview will be broadcast live in Phoenix on Saturday, June 27 at 2pm local time. Read more at
http://openises.sourceforge.net/news.html... read more

We have been able to upload the initial release of the 3-lead ECG Review Workbook, Student and Instructor versions. Currently the pdf version of the workbook is the only one available. The Acrobat version is under 2MB in size, while the OpenDocument version created with Open Office is over 70MB. We are going to be working on reducing the size of the OpenDocument file to a more reasonable level. This will most likely come about by reducing the size of the graphics, most notably the cover page and the ECG rhythm strips themselves.... read more

Patch 05_03 for Tickets Version 2.10_E

14 May 2009

This update apply to tickets version 2.10_e beta and contains important updates as follows;

* Improves the reliability of units display in both the Situation and Units screen
* Provides for USNG position input.

To install, unzip and over-write the namesake files in your Tickets directory.

NOTE: Two of the files apply to the incs/ subdirectory.

As part of our on-going effort to update the Open ISES Project web site, we now have a new forum and Wiki set up.

The Wiki is based on MediaWiki, which powers the ever popular Wikipedia. Hopefully this will make it easier for you to find information you need. The format of the wiki is similar to Wikipedia, and as we begin to expand the Open ISES wiki it should make it easier for you to find things. Visit the new wiki at http://apps.sourceforge.net/mediawiki/openises/index.php?title=Main_Page... read more

Tickets 2.10_e has been released, and it has a number of updates, including:

1. Fixes to a number of areas, notably for those who use the 'database prefix' option. (Those of you who've tried it will see that it now works.)

2. For GPS-equipped hand-helds/smartphones, an Instamapper interface has been added to support GPS position data from a number of devices, notably the blackberry. Support for this interface appears in Units information display.... read more

While the Agency and Training Database project (http://agencydb.sourceforge.net) has been sitting dormant for a while, we are please to report that we have a new lead developer on the project. Clay Jackson comes to the Open ISES project with a long background in IT, including being a Database Administrator/Manager. He brings to the Open ISES project his experience with MySQL and Oracle, as well as a host of other skills. We can't thank Clay enough for coming in and picking up where Mike Harris left off.... read more

Tickets_2_10_d_beta.zip is now available for download along with the following support files:

get_started.txt
about_2_10_D_beta.txt
install.txt

This for a complete/total/from-the-ground-up installation. For those
folks with OK installations of earlier Version 2.10 I'll have an
upgrade file available shortly which will bring you current while
retaining existing data.

In addition to improvements in general usability, version 2.10_D has
the following specific upgrades:... read more

Access Database Prototypes
The First Release in the Series

The Open ISES Project (http://openises.sourceforge.net) is now offering for release the original Microsoft Access Database prototypes. These databases were developed using Access 2000, and were created to meet the needs of an EMS quality review program. Despite being prototypes, they were (and some continue to be) used on a daily basis.... read more

We have been working on a major update to the main Open ISES Project web site. We are pleased to announce that the site is now up and active well ahead of schedule. The site has been completely redone, with a goal of making the site easier to use, easier to find information, and quicker to load. We hope that you will find the new site is much better suited to your needs.

We will be going back and updating some of the other project sites in a similar fashion. They will look similar, while still retaining their own individual style.... read more