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What's New?
Get a FREE VisuaLinks and DIG Installation from the ONDCP
Starting October 1, 2003 (Fiscal Year 2004), the Counterdrug Technology Assessment Center (CTAC) of the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) is again making VisuaLinks and DIG available through the CTAC Technology Transfer Program. The program is administered by the U.S. Army Electronic Proving Ground, Special Programs Office located at Fort Huachuca in Sierra Vista, Arizona.
According to the program site:
"The goals of the technology transfer process are to identify law enforcement requirements, match them with the appropriate technologies, provide equipment training, and permanently transfer the equipment to agencies."
Starting in October, you will have the opportunity to request DIG and/or VisuaLinks under this program. The program will underwrite all costs associated with the acquisition of these tools.
Application for the program is straightforward and simply requires:
- An official letter
- Technology Transfer Program application
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Organizations that submit their requests and are accepted to the program will have DIG and/or VisuaLinks installed, configured, and trained complements of the U.S. Government - at no cost to the applicant. The program is designed to cover all the up-front costs associated with the transfer of these technologies. This is a great program for law enforcement!
Apply on OCTOBER 1, 2003 at http://www.epgctac.com/application.htm
You can review the program information for both DIG and VisuaLinks on the program website, or on the Visual Analytics website.
*** Video presentation from the ONDCP/CTAC Conference (San Diego).
Visual Analytics just completed our initial round of VisuaLinks training for First Data Corporation in Englewood, Colorado. First Data is the world leader in electronic commerce and payment services, including their subsidiary Western Union. First Data services 1,400 card issuers in over 40 countries worldwide. They were the first company to do wire transfers, process VISA and MasterCard transactions, and create an ATM network. VAI welcomes First Data as a new and valued customer.
Visual Analytics attended the FBI ITEC Conference, August 18-20, in Reno, Nevada. The FBI attendees were very impressed with VAI's capabilities - and were especially impressed by VisuaLinks and Digital Information Gateway. In particular, attendees were very excited to see how well VAI's superior technology and functionality suit the Bureau's new focus on intelligence and predictive analysis. VAI's tools outperform the Bureau's current tools that focus on ex post facto investigative analysis.
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continued from the cover
Security - Consider access control with regard to data sharing. In part, this means keeping your data safe from unauthorized access and regulating that access to appropriate segments of information depending on the user. For instance, organization "X" may have 10 databases and 2 million documents it wants to make available to its own local users and several external organizations (with their own groups of users). Further, some of these databases are sensitive within organization "X" such that only a small group of users can see them…you get the idea. What is needed here is a granular security model that enforces the permissions for each data source. Additionally, the security model itself must also support a distributed approach where organization "X" can delegate some authority for sharing its data to administrators in remote organizations whom they trust to apply appropriate permissions to their users.
Real-Time Access - The nature of a distributed system lends itself to real-time information access. Consider a data warehouse approach where information from many sources must be copied into a centralized warehouse. Depending on the methods used, each of these sources may be copied at various intervals ranging from hours to days to weeks. In contrast, the distributed model doesn't need to copy data because it connects to the "live" data, so it is a real-time system by design. Think of Napster, Kazza, or any of the other peer-to-peer sharing networks. If any of these services they worked off of a static, clumsy, centralized data repository, the service would not be dynamic - or very useful - to many users.
Robustness - Consider a system where data from 50 sites around the nation is copied to a single location, then searched and analyzed remotely by users from those same 50 sites. What happens if that single location becomes unavailable? Potentially, hundreds or thousands of users will be offline because that single location is a single point of failure. Now, consider that same data in the same 50 locations where instead of copying data, each of the 50 locations installed a "Data Sharing Hub" that enabled secure sharing to both local users and each of 49 affiliate locations. This model is much more robust because there is no single point of failure for the entire system. Moreover, the entire system of 50 locations is real-time and each location retains full control over the dissemination of their data.
Additionally, the "format" of the data would need to change for each of the 50 sites into a single composite representation within a data warehouse. This makes users subject to the decisions made by a remote party which may not reflect their particular needs. Using the distributed approach found in VisuaLinks and DIG, each format remains in-tact while utilizing the access and transformation features to add-value to the end results.
Now, let's talk about how Visual Analytics is implementing practical extensions to VisuaLinks and DIG to accomplish these distributed systems. Both products have built in the ability for their servers to "talk" to one other. Essentially, each server can broker a search or other request on behalf of an authenticated user to another server in an affiliate organization. Information sent between servers is encrypted and sent via the HTTP (SOAP/XML) protocol in order to help traverse firewalls that exist between different locations. This means that users in one location will be able to search for and analyze data that physically resides in multiple locations. This type of integrated technology is unprecedented.
These capabilities are mandatory in the next-generation analytical systems. Both products are currently progressing through beta testing in multiple client locations and final commercial releases of VisuaLinks 3.0 and DIG 2.0 are expected well before year's end.
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September 7th-14th, 2003
VAI will be participating in the 21st International Symposium on Economic Crime in Cambridge,
England sponsored by the Jesus College, University of Cambridge and the Institute for Advanced Legal Studies,
University of London. This year's theme is Financial Crime, Terror and Subversion: The Control of Risk in a
Destabilized World Economy. VAI is presenting on September 11th on a plenary workshop on Drug Trafficking,
Financial Crime and Terrorism. For more details, visit www.crimesymposium.org.
October 20-24, 2003
VAI will be partnering with Denali Solutions at the International Chiefs of Police Association (IACP)
Annual Conference in Philadelphia, PA, on October 20-24. Please come see the new DIG feature functionality enhancements including server-to-server
connectivity enabling unmatched information-sharing capabilities. Visit http://www.theiacp.org/ for more detail on IACP and the conference.
October 22-23, 2003
VAI will be demonstrating the newest version of VisuaLinks at the AFCEA Fall Intelligence Symposium at the Defense Intelligence Analysis Center (DIAC), Bolling Air Force Base, October 22-23, 2003. VAI's technology is ideally-suited to address the Symposium's theme, "Shifting Sands: The Changing Perspectives of Intelligence in an Uncertain Security Environment," by offering intelligence analysts a robust, integrated suite of tools to look at the data from numerous angles to discern patterns, networks, links, associations, anomalies, and changes of intelligence interest.
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Trainer - one (1) position is available
This position will be expected to conduct on-site training for the VAI tool suite, to include both VisuaLinks and DIG. Additionally, the successful candidate will assist our quality assurance staff in identifying and reporting software performance issues.
The successful candidate will demonstrate a background in technology training to include the creation of training objectives, lesson plans, presentation materials and end-user exercises. The candidate will also be expected to participate in the software testing cycle and provide input to improve and enhance software functionality based on client interaction experience.
Requirements: A degree in an educational field, or 5 years of equivalent technical training experience. The candidate must show at least two (2) years of professional experience as a technical trainer. A portfolio of sample work would be helpful. Current TS/SCI security clearance is a plus.
All interested candiates should submit a resume to: info@visualanalytics.com
Testing Technician - one (1) position is available
This position will be expected to conduct on-site testing for the VAI tool suite, to include both VisuaLinks and DIG. The successful candidate will execute test scripts and scenarios, record results and report discrepancies to development staff. The candidate may be required to write new test scenarios.
The successful candidate will demonstrate a background in structured testing with demonstrable experience in other testing environments.
Requirements: A degree is not required for this position, however, 2 years of testing experience are required.
All interested candiates should submit a resume to: info@visualanalytics.com
Field Support Engineer - two (2) positions available
These on-site technical support engineers will support one or more DOD customers, including analytical and modeling support. Technical support responsibilities will require on-site support for VisuaLinks in the following areas: troubleshooting, model building, installation and configuration, performance analysis and tuning, training and to lend assistance to the database administration staff on matters concerning VisuaLinks.
Requirements: A BA/BS in Computer Science or 5 years of equivalent technical experience with large relational databases (Oracle, MS SQL Server, Sybase, Informix) Oracle experience is a plus. Scripting and network experience, especially troubleshooting, required. Data mining or visualization experience is helpful. Training experience is highly desirable. Current TS/SCI security clearance required.
All interested candiates should submit a resume to: info@visualanalytics.com
Technical Writer - one (1) position is available
This position will design and develop end-user documentation programs in support of the VAI tool suite, to include both VisuaLinks and DIG. The successful candidate will be responsible for creating, updating and maintaining end-user documentation as well as managing company documentation deliverables to include marketing collateral and newsletter content
The successful candidate will must also be able to design, develop and implement interactive, self-paced training programs based on creative sample scenarios.
Requirements: A BA in English, Journalism or Technical Communication, or 5 years of equivalent technical writing experience. The candidate must show at least three (3) years of professional experience as a technical writer. A portfolio of sample work would be helpful.
All interested candiates should submit a resume to: info@visualanalytics.com
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