Call for Papers – Innovative Technologies for the Marine Transportation System

From the Executive Director of the Committee on the Marine Transportation System (CMTS):

“A friendly reminder that the deadline to send abstracts for the upcoming Resilient MTS conference is nearing.  We expect that the deadline may be extended a bit.  Please forward this information to your staff and stakeholders.  Sincere thank you!

“We are pleased to announce the call for papers for the upcoming TRB-CMTS conference, “Innovative Technologies for a Resilient Marine Transportation System” to be held June 24-26, 2014, at the National Academy of Sciences, Washington, DC.  Persons interested in submitting a paper or presenting relevant research should submit an abstract of 300 words or less by 28 February. We sincerely appreciate if you would forward this information to your innovative technology and resiliency experts and to interested stakeholders.

Further information:  Call for Papers

Sincere regards,

Helen A. Brohl”

eNavigation 2013 – see you in Seattle!

As it has for the past 12 years, Pacific Maritime Magazine will be hosting eNavigation 2013 in Seattle, WA 19-20 November 2013. This promises to be yet another excellent conference, with a finely focused agenda and participation from across the spectrum of e-Navigation stakeholders.

As always, this is an outstanding forum to find out about recent developments in e-Navigation from the perspective of regulators, technology developers, training providers, the legal world, and the industry that will have to deal with whatever e-Navigation becomes. More importantly, it is also an opportunity to have your voice heard by those shaping those developments. Central to every eNavigation* conference has been the opportunity for feedback from the audience and dialog with them. This occurs during the usual Q&A sessions during each panel presentation, but unique to this conference there is also a significant portion of the agenda dedicated to an interactive review of what has been heard and the opportunity for anyone to present their perspective, questions and concerns.

This will be my 13th consecutive eNavigation conference (including when it was called the “AIS conference”) and it is certainly not a lucky number, owing to various obstacles placed in my path that nearly precluded my participation. However, as always I am looking forward to the conference, the spirited exchange of ideas, hearing from everyone there, and of course the opportunity to experience the joys of Seattle.

I hope to be providing frequent updates on the conference proceedings – keep an eye here and @maritimespatial

*Observant readers may notice the differing use of “eNavigaton” and “e-Navigation” in this post. The former is the name of the conference (as trademarked by Pacific Maritime); the latter the “official” spelling/punctuation for the concept as used by IMO, IALA, and other bodies developing the e-Navigation concept.

Help shape US e-Navigation implementation

The Committee on the Marine Transportation System (CMTS) e-Navigation Integrated Action Team (“e-Nav IAT”) has been working for nearly a year to implement the US e-Navigation Strategic Action Plan.  The Strategic Action Plan says that “A core element of successful e-Navigation implementation is partnering across the spectrum of stakeholders” and among the principles supporting that are: “Focus on meeting users’ requirements. Develop a collaborative partnership with the MTS community. Encourage and support regular and frequent communications. Be thoroughly transparent in decision-making activities.“

The e-Nav IAT has announced that they are conducting an online dialog through 28 February 2013 on the future of e-Navigation in the United States.

Go to http://enav.ideascale.com to register and start participation in the dialog.  You can review current focus areas, see suggested actions, comment on proposed actions and suggest your own.

According to the site: “Users submit their ideas. Our community discusses and votes for ideas. The best ideas bubble up to the top.”

So what will be done with the outcome(s) of the dialog?  The site says:

“Comments provided to this dialogue will be considered by the CMTS e-Nav IAT along with other stakeholder input to inform the IAT’s work plan and recommendations. An analysis of the feedback received through this effort will be made available at the conclusion of this dialogue at http://www.cmts.gov.”

Whether this “analysis” will consist of a report, statistics or suggestions for what will be included in the action plan is not stated. But, it is certainly a chance for you to have your voice heard if you have any interest in e-Navigation, so go ahead and check it out.

Week in Review – 03-09 December 2012

Main focus and events this past week:

• 03 Dec 12: CMTS e-Nav IAT chairman’s meeting – discussed upcoming meetings and efforts following e-Navigation 2012 conference
• 04 Dec 12:(1)  NTSB GIS conference – interesting gathering to present uses of GIS in transportation safety in all modes. Unfortunately missed Maritime portion on Wednesday morning; but hope to catch up through archived webcast. (2) LOMA coordination and governance meeting.
• 05 Dec 12: Federal Initiative for Navigation Data Enhancement (FINDE) meeting – Regular meeting of interagency group working to harmonize Government navigation data standards. Promising reports on efforts, including prototype establishment of industry reporting portal and provision of various web services for navigation information.
• 06 – 07 Dec 12: Various e-Nav and AIS work, including participation in phone conference to discuss work needed to get transmission of weather data via AIS in Alaska set up. Interesting public-private partnership opportunity between Marine Exchange of Alaska, National Weather Service and USCG.

The week ahead:

• 10 Dec 12: Work on a blog post or two, preps for CMTS, USACE, USCG and RTCM meetings. Oh and this as well as other holiday preparations!
• 11 Dec 12: CMTS Bagel Breakfast, e-Nav IAT and WG meetings. Also working with USCG on a joint article for the IALA Bulletin on transmission of various navigation data via AIS in the US inland waterways system.
• 12 Dec 12: RTCM SC123 meeting. Briefing to USACE Chief of Ops on LOMA status and requested support.
• 13 Dec 12: USCG-USACE AIS coordination meetings; RTCM SC121 meeting to adjudicate comments on SC 12100.0 standard “For creation and qualification of application-specific messages.”
• 14 Dec 12: This and catch up from the rest of the week; hopefully also get a batch of Altbier brewing.

On the horizon:

• 17-20 Dec 12: RIS and e-Nav work in Mobile, AL and Vicksburg MS
• 24-28 Dec 12: Holidays!
• 14-17 Jan 13: TRB annual meeting
• 29-31 Jan 13: e-Navigation Underway conference