ABJ50 Meeting at TRB Mid-Year Conference 2011
(Notes prepared by Frances Harrison)
Tuesday, July 12, 2011, 8:00 AM to 11:45 AM Eastern Time
Boston Seaport Hotel
Attendees
Frances Harrison, Spy Pond Partners (chair) – fharrison@spypondpartners.com
Hazar Dib, University of Southern Mississippi (member) – hazardib@gmail.com
Ping Yi, University of Akron (member) – pyi@uakron.edu (phone)
Colin Brooks, Michigan Tech University (member) – colin.brooks@mtu.edu (phone)
James Hall, University of Illinois, Springfield (member) – jhall1@uis.edu (phone)
Don Grayson, Mississippi DOT (member) - dgrayson@mdot.state.ms.us (phone)
Ken Orr, Ken Orr Institute (member) – kenorr@kenorrinst.com (phone)
Jeff Western, Western Management Consultancy (friend) – jeffrey.western@consultingwestern.com
(phone)
Charlene Wilder, FTA (friend) – charlene-wilder@dot.gov
Phyllis Dunn, MassDOT (friend) – phyllis.dunn@state.ma.us
Tan Gopal, MassDOT – tanuja.gopal@state.ma.us
Gene McHale, FHWA(friend) – gene.machale@dot.gov
Travis Black, FHWA(friend) – travis.black@dot.gov
Rob Hranac, Berkeley Transportation Systems (friend) – rob@bt-systems.com
Jeff Price, VDOT – jeff.price@vdot.virginia.gov (phone)
Joe Pugh, VDOT (friend) – joe.pugh@vdot.virginia.gov (phone)
Brian Alula, Maryland SHA – BAlula@sha.state.md.us (phone)
Leni Oman, WSDOT – OmanL@wsdot.wa.gov (phone)
Michael Dinning, USDOT/RITA - Michael.Dinning@dot.gov (phone)
Jack Whitsitt, TSA - John.Whitsitt@dhs.gov (phone)
Tom Palmerlee, TRB –tpalmerlee@nas.edu
Reginald Souleyrette (TRB Data Section Chair) - reg@iastate.edu (phone)
Conference Updates
Recap of TRB 2011 (Frances Harrison)
- Presentation by Nitin Pradhan, USDOT CIO
- Intellidrive (Connected Vehicle Technology) Presentation Session
- General IT Innovations Paper Session
- Collecting and Managing Data (cosponsored session with LIST)
- Sensing Technologies Workshop (Colin Brooks)
 Speakers on diverse topics: use of smartphones as sensors, sensors embedded in
pavement and bridges for condition monitoring, and low cost airborne platforms
- Construction Information Technology Workshop
AASHTO IS Conference (Don Grayson)
- Conference was May 24-26 in Branson, Missouri
- 22 state DOT attendees representing 13-14 states; about same number of vendors
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Good presentations on: Microsoft Collaboration Solutions, Rural ITS (Mike Miller – MODOT),
Risk Management (Shanon Barnes – ITD), Spatial Real Property Management, Re-Imagining IT
(Gartner) and Mobile Computing
- One trend of note is increased use of employee-owned computers and smartphones for work,
with employers paying a stipend
- Next year’s conference date and location still TBD
4th International TRB Performance Measurement Conference (Jeff Price)
- Conference was May 18-20 in Irvine, CA – see
http://onlinepubs.trb.org/onlinepubs/conferences/2011/PerformanceSystemsMeasurement/Ag
enda.pdf
- Several sessions of interest to our committee:
 Emerging tools for capturing system performance information, including smart phone
applications (panel with Terry Bills of ESRI, Rick Shuman of Inrix, Alexandor Sohr of
German Aerospace Center)
 Techniques for “reality mining” for “digital breadcrumbs” (panel with A. J. Brush,
Microsoft; Munmun De Choudhury, Arizona State University; and Ramon Caceres, AT&T
Research Lab) – Conference chronicle noted that the following research needs emerged
from this session: 1) further study of what transportation agencies can do in terms of
innovative applications using social media, 2) how venues of information dissemination
can be better used, and 3) the coordination of data and resources which are currently
“siloed” in the industry (for example, toll tag data).
 Data fusion (panel with Bill Bachman, GeoStats; Yoshihide Sekimoto, Toyko University;
and Patricia Hu, Bureau of Transportation Statistics)
Future Conferences
- 6th International Visualization in Transportation Symposium
 August 20-23, 2011, Chicago, IL
 see http://www.trbvis.org/SYMPOSIUM-2011/Overview.html
- 2011 Transportation Hazards and Security Summit
 August 22-24, 2011, Irvine, CA
 See http://www.cvent.com/events/trb-2011-transportation-hazards-and-securitysummit/event-summary-6c882261feb04709bfe951cf697b6c30.aspx
- 91st Annual TRB Meeting January 22-26, Washington, DC
 Theme is: Transportation: Putting Innovation and People to Work
 Our committee is sponsoring workshops on sensing technologies and construction
technologies – both scheduled for Sunday 1:30-4:30 PM, January 22
 Other workshops of interest are:
 Accepted and Emerging Practices Using Social Media and Networking in
Transportation (Sun afternoon)
 Incorporating Social Media into Transportation Surveys (Sun afternoon)
 From Roadside to Cubicle--Integrating Innovation into Your Corporate Culture
(Sun morning)
 Automated Machine Guidance and Electronic Modeling for Highway Design (Sun
morning)
 Urban Data Integration (Sunday afternoon)
 Sessions and committee meeting slot TBD
 Papers due in to TRB by August 1st
 All workshop and session plans must be completed by October 1st
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North American Travel Monitoring Exposition and Conference (NATMEC): Improving Traffic Data
Collection, Analysis, and Use
 June 4-7, 2012 – Dallas, TX
 Our committee will be having next year’s summer meeting there – make your plans
now!
 Abstracts due September 15th – see
http://onlinepubs.trb.org/onlinepubs/conferences/2012/NATMEC/Call.pdf
- TRB Midyear Meeting 2012: Irvine – smaller meeting than this year
Research Updates
- SHRP2 L13A – Reliability Data Archive
o Follow on implementation – taking SHRP2 Reliability & Capacity projects data, put on
line for researchers
o 3 year project, just starting
o Berkeley Transportation Systems – lead contractor with Rick Dowling
o Task Group to be involved the first year
o If interested, see rob@bt-systems.com
- ITS America Connected Vehicle Technology Scan
- DUAP – Data Use Analysis and Processing (merging data from connected vehicles)
- iRODS – Data Grid - Policy-Based Data Management, Sharing and Preservation
- FHWA RFI for Virtual Access of Transportation Data From Multiple Data Sources For Improved
Decision Making
o Will follow up with procurement potentially – demonstration or prototype for info
sharing within agencies or regions
o For further info, contact: Gene.mchale@dot.gov
- Charlene Wilder updated us on several transit-related Research Initiatives
 May 2011 FTA research report published: “Traveler Information Systems and
Wayfinding Technologies in Transit Systems http://www.fta.dot.gov/documents/MMTPS_Final_Evaluation_Report.pdf
 FTA project: ITS Parking using real time information – demonstration with
WMATA, working with Street Smart (SF) – embedding sensors and cameras for
real time parking info. Nutley Rd (near Vienna Stn)
 FTA Evaluation report with CRTA door to door traveler information – multimodal
options, schedules – see
http://www.fta.dot.gov/documents/MMTPS_Final_Evaluation_05-242011(1).pdf, goroo.com
 Vashon Island – WA state, demonstration for technologies on taxi water service
– real time info deployment
 TCRP Synthesis Project: Proactive Use of Social Media in Public Transportation http://144.171.11.40/cmsfeed/TRBNetProjectDisplay.asp?ProjectID=2992
 TCRP Report – nearing completion – “Use of Mobile Device Technology for RealTime Transit Information” http://144.171.11.40/cmsfeed/TRBNetProjectDisplay.asp?ProjectID=2774
 FTA project to compare existing transit schedule information standards with
General Transit Feed Specification (GTFS). Over 200 transit agencies currently
using GTFS.
- ITS Real Time Data Capture and Management Program
o Prototype data environment – from MI connected vehicle testbed (2 vehicles plus one
intersection)
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See www.datacapture.noblis.org
Go to www.its.dot.gov for further info
Awarded 4 contracts for test data sets – will add metadata, make available to research
community (transit, freight, GPS probes) – avail end of calendar year. To be posted
initially on prototype data environment
o Looking towards a research data exchange platform – to be available to community
o Webinar Aug 10 – draft COO for research data exchange
o SOP review, innovations scan – aviation, IT, banking industries on data capture and
management (including social networking) – due end of 2011
NCHRP 20-07 Task 295 – Survey of Existing Schemas for Incorporation into TransXMLhttp://144.171.11.40/cmsfeed/TRBNetProjectDisplay.asp?ProjectID=3001 (contact Frances
Harrison if you have ideas or suggestions for new common data formats to be incorporated into
TransXML)
Committee Strategic Plan Update
- Each TRB committee must prepare a strategic plan every 3 years
- Strategic Plan process “is designed to help the Chair and members to set a course for the next
three to seven years, identify successes and areas where the committee can make
improvements, and the steps to make those improvements. “
- Strategic Plan must include:
 Future Outlook Statement: primary factors and influences that will shape the
transportation community and topic(s) within the committee’s scope over the
short- (one to three years) and long-term (four to seven years).
 Committee Plan: key issues to be addressed; activities and products to be
pursued, strategies: membership, communications, liaisons, research needs
identification, technology transfer
 Committee History: review of past activities and accomplishments
- Information Systems and Technology Committee plan is currently under revision
- Draft strategic plan due December 15th 2011, to be discussed at Annual Meeting and finalized by
March 2012
- See bullets distributed with this meeting agenda for initial sketch of the plan
- Please contact Frances Harrison to volunteer your assistance in updating this important
document – more information on how to get involved will be forthcoming over the next 2-3
months
Current State DOT IT Issues and Trends
Overview – Ken Orr (The Ken Orr Institute)
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Transition of traditional systems development process to business-centric approach, e.g.
business rule engines
 Large vendors creating tools for workflow management, business process
modeling; service buses & message brokers
Semantic technologies – move to semantic data models
Open data – big push
Rapid changes in technology reducing cost to provide functionality – e.g. Google maps, locationbased services –
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Now able to push out accurate locations and location-based information, e.g. bridge heights to
truckers
Data archiving – standards development to support this (working with Kansas Enterprise
Electronic Preservation System (KEEP) - see http://keep.ks.gov/about-2
Smart phones & apps
Social networking
Cybersecurity – huge issues
Virginia DOT– Joe Pugh
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Application usability – effort under way to develop user profiles for new roadway inventory
system and provide input to the technical design team to enhance usability. Should contribute
to the success of the system and reduce time needed for training. May be worth exploring TRB
research activity to identify and describe standard transportation application user profiles.
Enterprise data integration – taking more enterprise wide approach to maximize data re-use.
Interested in sharing information with other states on what works well related to data
management and business rule engines
Sharepoint 2010 implementation – focus initially on content management, plan to expand into
analytics and more advanced reporting services.
Implementing new financial management system (Peoplesoft)
Interested in social networking tools to gather customer information/feedback, use of analytics
on Twitter feeds, applications for in-house application management
MassDOT – Tan Gopal and Phyllis Dunn
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Working on pushing more customer transactions to the internet – starting with the Registry of
Motor Vehicles (RMV).
SOA - RMV moving to a Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) approach. SOA turns application
development process “upside down” – need to have vision, governance model, business rules,
strategy, increased focus on data validation. Issue: how to identify common business processes;
need to find business architects, data architects, and system architects. Transformation
required to move from line of business to enterprise approach is monumental.
IT security – both related to information and the network are big issues; concerned about
ensuring security for electronic transactions; also protection of tunnel and road safety
surveillance systems, ventilation systems. Using grant funds to conduct security assessments.
Social media – still solidifying; very dynamic. Public expectations changing on this.
Cloud computing & virtualization – relatively new – exploring SaaS application deployment.
Concerned about security and also latency for some applications with high transaction volumes
Also interested in data as a strategic asset; exploring opportunities for fee-based data services
Master data management
Mississippi DOT – Don Grayson
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Sharepoint 2010 implementation – developing collaboration sites, content management and
workflow. Dealing with islands of content, defining taxonomy to ensure consistent
classifications and descriptions. Started with automating more complex forms, then moved to
easy ones. Had more success with the simple forms, but there were good lessons learned from
tackling the harder ones.
Also doing some BI work using Sharepoint – stimulus projects, ROW projects. Demand has been
more limited than anticipated so far.
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Virtualization – moving towards virtualizing desktops, ability for employees to use tablets and
see their regular desktop applications.
Have grant to implement statewide LTE network. Initially implementing voice; moving to data in
next 12-15 months
State has been an early adopter of using social media (Facebook, Twitter)
Maryland SHA – Brian Alula (for Jim Yarsky)
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Have been using Sharepoint, currently SHA is planning migration to 2010. Use collaboration,
document control, electronic forms features. Training has been a big component of the effort.
Cloud computing: SHA has been a leader in this area; have been using salesforce.com for
customer care management system. Now adding GIS capability; features will be allowing people
to submit photos associated with trouble tickets/issues. Have added an e-snow book for 28
shops & 7 district offices t for tracking and sharing employee contact information, equipment
locations, etc during emergency operations such as winter snow removal; will be extending to
track salt utilization. Have also implemented Miss Utility Ticket Tracking System (MUTTS) in the
cloud; locating all SHA utilities on ROW.
Some challenges with cloud implementations – data security (no single standard for this);
contingency planning in case provider goes out of business
MD hired Chief Innovation Officer (Bryan Sivak) – very supportive of cloud efforts
Just got Innotas cloud-based Portfolio Management System; currently deploying for IT projects
(MassDOT is using this too)
Software development methodologies shifting from traditional SDLC to Agile/Scrum methods.
Deployment of new versions every 10 weeks (only concern is that it isn’t clear when the project
is over)
Data classification/Analysis/Integration: currently recruiting for a data management person,
need to identify which data is classified versus open – this is the top priority. Just procured
Talend data integration tool – plan to use for serving data to customers
Mobile Devices – lots of field data collected, use of mobile devices important for this. Had
standardized on the blackberry for security reasons; now looking at different tablet models.
Topical Reports
Sensing Technologies (Colin Brooks)
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Sensing workshops initially focused on Remote Sensing but last year branched out to other
sensor technologies - e.g. use of cell phones as sensors
Looking at LIDAR applications for road and bridge management, uses of radar data beyond GPR
– e.g. interferometric radar to detect bridge settlement
Other topics: 3D optics, low cost version of Google Street View for creating high resolution
inventory (strap cameras to front of car, load video to ArcGIS)
For further info, send email to colin.brooks@mtu.edu or check ABJ50.ORG web site – section for
Sensing Technologies subcommittee. Link to google group for subcommittee provided there.
IT in Construction Management (Paul Goodrum)
(Paul provided the following update for inclusion in these meeting notes):
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First, subcommittee is organizing the 8th annual Information Technology in Construction
Management workshop to be held on January 22nd, Sunday afternoon (1:30-4:30PM) at the TRB
Annual Conference. This year’s presiding officers include Dr. Michael Casey (George Mason
University), Dr. Kamel Saidi (National Institute of Standards and Technology) and Dr.
Mohammed El Gaffy (Michigan State University). Currently speakers are being identified to
present around the theme of 3D Imagining and will include a cadre of industry and academic
speakers.
Second, subcommittee of the subcommittee being led by Dr. Ed Jaselskis (North Carolina State
University) has been conducting structured interviews with various state transportation
agencies to identify their pain points when it comes to information sharing and integration on
highway construction jobsites. The findings of this subcommittee are anticipated to seed a
number of research needs statements and future workshop themes .
Cloud Computing (Doug Couto)
(Doug provided the following notes via email):
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“Within the next two weeks, the TechAmerica Federal Cloud Commission will release their
report and recommendations to Vivek Kundra, the Federal CIO (prior to his departure in August)
The TechAmerica State and Local Board is considering a companion report for state and local
CIO's. I think there is enough material out there to help transportation organizations seriously
consider cloud solutions and address management concerns. At GIS-T there was lots of interest.
I am also doing an update presentation at the ITS World Congress in October. The planning
committee has slotted five sessions related to cloud solutions. Last year in Korea I was the only
presentation. Interest is growing quickly.”
Knowledge Management (Leni Oman)
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Leni is the chair of a newly formed TRB Joint Task Force on Knowledge Management – under the
Technical Activities Council.
A KM webinar was held last month and 145 people participated. If you missed it, a repeat is
being planned.
Our committee is interested in collaborating with this Task Force on data archiving and
findability issues.
Contact Leni if you are interested in participating in this Task Force.
Cybersecurity (Jeff Western, Michael Dinning and Jack Whitsitt)
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Jeff – Cybersecurity is typically the responsibility of the IT department, but it is really a larger
business issue. Three years ago, TSA started a Cybersecurity Working Group – co-chaired by
Kelley Bray, involving the TRB Critical Transportation Infrastructure Protection Committee
(ABE40); members representing all transportation modes.
Michael: Work on Cybersecurity has been going on for 20 years, but has been on the upswing
over the past 2-3 years – driven in part by partnership between DOT and DHS/TSA. DHS looking
at Cybersecurity for 18 types of critical infrastructure; transportation is one of these. Key
initiatives:
 Have created a control systems security program for transportation and have
been providing assistance to agencies including assessments, training,
dissemination of best practices. Let Mike know (Michael.Dinning@dot.gov) if
you’d like further information on this.
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FAA/DOD sponsored program to look at security of networks on board aircrafts
– developing standards to be incorporated into the FAA aircraft certification
program
 Supporting NHTSA program to look at security of on-board software in private
vehicles – most onboard systems are networked but security issues have not
been considered fully. Also looking at reliability – under the umbrella of
“resilience”.
 With ITS JPO –security of the Connected Vehicle work – authentication and
privacy of transmissions between vehicles.
Jack: TSA responsible for mitigating risk within transportation sector – broad set of facilitation,
training and coordination activities. His branch assists with cybersecurity, which is currently a
big concern. Note – Stuxnet, most recent incident at BAH. Need to build greater awareness of
the threat and of basic best practices that should be in place. Need to recognize important role
of change control and business process formalization with respect to cybersecurity – more
critical than firewalls and antivirus software. Key activities:
 Monthly meetings of cybersecurity working group for critical infrastructure
protection. Focus on information sharing and coordinating public and private
sector efforts. State DOT participation is invited.
 Weekly newsletter – general cybersecurity news, info on cybersecurity
implications of new technologies, emerging attacker tactics.
 November 1-2, 2011: Cybersecurity Summit in Arlington, VA, including
discussion of technologies, programs and policies.
 Kelley Bray will be attending the TRB Hazards and Security Summit next month
in Irvine, CA
 For further information, send email to cybersecurity@tsa.dhs.gov.
Action item for our Committee’s consideration: formation of joint TRB subcommittee with
ABE40 on Cybersecurity. If any ABJ50 Committee members or friends are interested in leading
our participation in this, please let Frances know.
Committee Research Needs (James Hall)
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Important to have strong state involvement in identifying research needs – maximize chances of
funding
TRB has great guidance on various research funding opportunities and how to write a good
research statement (keep the audience in mind) – see
http://www.trb.org/ResearchFunding/ResearchFunding.aspx (Appendix A of this doc has the
guidance on writing research statements)
We can identify needs for formal research projects, webinars, workshops and peer exchanges –
multiple forms
Michael Dinning – key research areas related to Cybersecurity:
 Systems view of architecture vulnerabilities – best practices
 Cross modal comparison of standards & issues
 Privacy concerns
 Human factors – e.g. how to inform an operator that there is a problem
 Framework for response and recovery
Other topics based on today’s discussion:
 Making the transition to SOA, business rule-based approaches, enterprise data
management
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Link between change management, business rule formalization and
cybersecurity
Enterprise Data governance and Data Management best practices – subareas:
taxonomy, findability, access, security
Security and performance issues related to adoption of cloud computing
solutions
Safety: accident prevention technologies, monitoring content of freight without
disruption
Sensing technologies (lead by our subcommittee)
Social media policies and applications in transportation – examples with
documentation of benefits, use for collaboration within the business
environment and customer feedback, harvesting and using information,
taxonomies (ref KDOT KTOC, Work by Oak Square Resources)
Data archiving –best practices, challenges – use of real time data streams (e.g.
from AVL and other sensors, social media) – what to save, how to archive, how
to use
Open data, data dissemination
Open source/apps (ref. OpenPlans TransportationCamps in SF and NYC)
Video sharing – scalability, meta-tagging, taxonomy, security
Real-time collaboration, IM, use of mobile devices
Peer Exchange/Webinar on DOT use of Sharepoint 2010