Lessons Learned Information Sharing (LLIS.gov), the national, online network of lessons learned, best practices, and innovativeeas for the emergency response and homeland security communities, is proud to announce its recent partnership with DomesticPreparedness (DomPrep.com).  Recognizing their similar missions, LLIS.gov and DomPrep.com will regularly share information and provide content for each other’s systems.  To help launch this new partnership, here is some general information about Lessons Learned Information Sharing.

Sponsored by the Department of Homeland Security’s Federal Emergency Management Agency, LLIS.gov helps emergency response providers and homeland security officials prevent, protect against, respond to, and recover from terrorist attacks, natural disasters, and other emergencies.  LLIS.gov helps to improve homeland security and emergency preparedness nationwide by providing federal, state, and local responders with a wealth of information and front-line expertise on effective planning, training, and operational practices across homeland security functional areas.

Although LLIS.gov is free of charge to all users, membership is restricted to individuals involved in the homeland security and emergency management communities. This includes people who work at the federal, state, and local levels of government as well as the private sector.  All members are verified, so users have direct access to over 49,000 individuals with knowledge and expertise about all emergency management disciplines and all hazards.  Members may use the Member Directory to contact their counterparts in other jurisdictions directly.  LLIS.gov members may also participate in and post new questions in the member forum Message Boards to share experiences.

In addition to direct access to other responders, LLIS.gov members can browse a library of over 14,000 documents related to homeland security and emergency management.  These documents include after-action reports, state and local plans, federal guidelines, templates, white papers, and fact sheets.  Many of these documents were submitted or written by LLIS.gov members who wanted a way to share their work with other interested people.

Not only does LLIS.gov collect information and documents from other sources, but a team of LLIS.gov researchers also produces original content available only on LLIS.gov.  These documents—Best Practices, Lessons Learned, Practice Notes, and Good Stories—are based upon member feedback and are informed by after-action reports and subject-matter expert interviews.  All original content is approved by subject-matter experts before being published on LLIS.gov so members can be sure they are getting the best first-hand information available.

All content can be found using a Google-style search from any page on the system.  Members can also browse for documents sorted by discipline, incident, state, or content type.  Topic-specific pages provide an excellent way to browse by topic, and researchers have highlighted the newest and most relevant documents.  Topic-specific pages currently include: community preparedness, critical infrastructure, cyber security, emergency planning for persons with disabilities and special needs, exercise planning and program management, geographic information systems, hurricane preparedness, incident management, intelligence and information sharing, interoperable communications, mass evacuation, pandemic influenza (and 10 other pan flu planning pages), planning, public communications, radiological dispersal devices, school emergency management planning, training, transit security, and wildland fires (in partnership with the Wildland Fire Lessons Learned Center).

LLIS.gov also features other information-sharing tools, such as Channels.  Channels are specific areas of LLIS.gov where members can share documents andeas with their colleagues directly.  These Channels are distinct areas of LLIS.gov dedicated to specific communities and topics of interest and are administrated by a designated LLIS.gov member or members.  Channel members are encouraged to upload documents and events to share with the other members of their Channel.

In general, LLIS.gov serves as an online meeting ground for emergency management and homeland security professionals from all disciplines and jurisdictions.  It offers members a place to solicit advice from other people who have encountered similar problems and overcome them.  Also, it offers members access to a constantly growing library of lessons learned, best practices, and innovativeeas.  For more information or to register for LLIS.gov, please visit www.llis.gov.