Merry Christmas to everyone! I am excited to announce a new project that we at Spartan I.T. Solutions are working on. It is a new informational city guide for Savannah, Georgia. It is called Come To Savannah and provides a clear and concise website to showcase Savannah restaurants, hotels, and attractions.

We feel this site will give local merchants another venue to showcase their business.  There is no charge for a business to add their listing and they can do it right there on the site.     They can add contact details including Facebook, Twitter, and website addresses.  There is also a section for special deals and the merchant can upload multiple photos.

So head on over and visit the site and feel free to drop us a line with any suggestions you have.

Come To Savannah

Todays law enforcement officers have amazing technology at their fingertips from in-car workstations to smartphones to case management systems and also a plethora (yes I said plethora) of non lethal weapons.

I ran across this blog post over at Galls which makes some very good points so head on over and check it out.

The next six months are going to be an exciting time here at Spartan I.T. Solutions.  We are putting the finishing touch on version 2 of our CCID product (Consolidate Criminal Information Depository).    The software has been renamed to SpartanLG and we have added many new features including file/image uploading,  the ability for analysts to link multiple entries together as well as manually merge subject records and  this new version will also have a mobile browser version which will allow your users to input information on the go.  With so many today using smart phones this is an essential element.

We believe this software will a great assistance to small/mid sized agencies in regards to lead generation and information gathering.    The ability to give officers on the street as well as trusted ordinary citizens a way to submit potential intelligence data will give intelligence analysts a great deal more information to work with.

We are also excited about two new products which are on the development horizon.  SpartanSM is a social media search/filter application for law enforcement.   We won’t go into any details yet about it’s capabilities at this time but we haven’t found anything else on the market that has the same features.

Our other new product is SpartanEM, which is an evidence management application.  SpartanEM will be a web based evidence management tool.  Some of the features include: full chain of custody logging and reports, mobile storage container tracking, configurable location permissions, evidence image management, and alerts based on location or evidence item.  We feel there are few tools out there today that address the issues faced by small to mid sized agencies in regards to evidence management.

We think these three products will become a great tool set for law enforcement agencies and will improve their efficiency in preventing crime, apprehending offenders, and closing out investigations.  Be sure to check out our website in the coming months as we provide more details and screenshots on these three products as well as other exciting news.

I just read this story that relates to a previous blog post here where police utilize social media to apprehend gang members.  In this case it’s the NYPD and a Twitter tip that leads police to a gathering of gang members.

In this case 56 people were arrested and a firearm was recovered.

Read the entire article at Mashable

Do you attach your location to your tweets?  I’ve noticed that some mobile applications do this by default.  This had me wondering how much value it would be to develop a way to mine that data for law enforcement use.

If your suspect is an avid user of Twitter, you could grab a list of his followers/people he follows.  Then you can go a level or two deeper on those people and start to generate some location based data.   I doubt that the details of their tweets would be of much use (unless they are REALLY stupid) but the location could be of some value and garner your agency some intelligence data.

Now if you can identify which of these people are closest to your subject, you can begin to generate a near real time map of this person and their associates.  Honestly, the situations where this is applicable are probably very limited…but I think there is a use for it and as more people are using twitter and updating twitter from their smartphones…it becomes more and more likely to produce valuable intelligence.

Just a thought.  Let me know what you think.

There was a time, not so long ago, that the words “Twitter” and “Facebook” meant nothing to most people.  Now there are over 200 million Twitter accounts out there and it seems like everyone on the planet uses Facebook.  These services have evolved from purely social to so much more.  Many people (myself included) get much of their news from Twitter.  Facebook has become a place for consumers to connect with all types of companies and brands.

With so many people making these services a part of their daily lives it only makes sense for law enforcement agencies to utilize them.  An agency can use a Facebook page to keep the public informed about events and directives they are working on.  Citizens are much more likely to check out a department’s Facebook page than they are to go to a separate website.

Twitter can be used by the police to push out alerts and other high priority information.   An agency with only 200 followers can push out an Amber Alert and, with people retweeting the alert, reach the entire area nearly instantly.

Some agencies may resist using these new tools due to the fact that they may have little knowledge of how to properly use them.  However, if they will make the effort to lean to use them, they can connect to and better serve their citizens.

The FBI is getting ready to roll out it’s National Law Enforcement Data Exchange system nationwide.  In an article on it’s website (read article here) the FBI said that the system should be ready in late February 2011.

The N-DEX system is basically a search engine of criminal data gathered from all over the nation from participating agencies.   So a detective investigating a string of burglaries and who has a suspect can search the system and potentially find that the same person is suspected in another state in a string of home invasions.

A major problem law enforcement has always had has been the ability to share data.   Linking data stored in local, state, and national databases is what is so exciting about this system.     Many agencies have always submitted data to state level databases.  But searching all 50 states is no easy task.  N-DEX solves that, it links all of those databases  and provides one source to search for information related to criminal cases.

This is just another example of how technology, when used correctly, can augment and assist law enforcement with keeping us all safe.

As I type this post, I am logged into a hosted server owned by some other company, whom I pay yearly to host my site. Every so often, I consider hosting my site on my own server. I have a Windows 2003 server that I use for development…so there really is no reason for me not to…or is there?

There are many factors to consider when looking at hosting your own site. Cost being the primary one for many people. Let’s say you have a low traffic site, you can get by with a $60/year hosting plan with no problem. Compare that to the cost of a server and everything that goes along with it and you see that $60/year is nothing. But lets look a little deeper.

Requirements for Running Your Own Server
Obviously, you first need your own server or at least a desktop that you can use as a server. I have clients who do not wish to spend the money for a server and instead use a Windows XP Pro box. This works for a small site with little traffic. Windows XP has a concurrent connection limit. I was able to double this limit with a little registry hackery but there is still a limit.

Next, you need a static IP address. Now this also isn’t an absolute requirement. There are ways around it by using a dynamic DNS service and a service like Zone Edit.

A reliable internet connection and power source are also vital to avoid downtime of your site. The fact is that if you are running a site off of DSL or Cable then you most certainly will experience service failures. Combine that with power outages and you have the potential for a good deal of downtime. There’s not much you can do about your network service but you can protect yourself by purchasing a UPS. Most UPS systems targeted to the SOHO environment only give you a few minutes of uptime. They are designed to provide a constant power source when you have flicker outages. There are some higher quality UPS units who will give you an hour or more of uptime.

Backing up your data is always a good idea and a web server is no exception. Most hosting providers provide regular backups and some even have automatic fail over in case of server failure. To get that same level of reliability in your own server would require a bit more investment in time and money.

Benefits of Running Your Own Server
Control, control, control. You will have it all. You can load any software you want, you can tweak your site at the root level. There have been times when I’ve written a function for use in a client’s site and when I uploaded to the host, it would not work. It turns out they disabled that feature on their servers for security reasons. Now, that may be a prudent decision for them…but I needed it to work for me. With my own server, I could enable and disable at will.

Security of data is another benefit of running your own server. Many of my clients are law enforcement agencies and they simply cannot allow their data to be out on some server they don’t control. Now, I don’t know if I have that same need for security. None of my client data is housed on my shared hosting, only my public website and blog. So that really wouldn’t be an issue.

However it does open up another issue. Lets say I have my development data (which may contain proprietary data from my client) on the same server as my public website. If that site/server gets compromised then I have a much bigger problem. Now I’m left with the option of getting a completely separate server for my external site….once again those costs are creeping in.

With all of the issues to consider, I think I’ll leave it the way it is. I’ll continue to pay the $60/year for my hosting and sleep peacefully knowing that I’m not compromising my client data, my site won’t go offline if I forget to pay my internet or power bills, and if a server dies…the site will be back up in a matter of seconds.

The above scenarios were for demonstration only. If you would like a detailed analysis of your own system and which option is right for you, please Contact Us for more information.

When launching a new site or redesigning an existing site, you must decide if you are going to use a static site or a site managed by a CMS (Content Management System) such as WordPress, DotNetNuke, or many many others.

Until recently, I was not crazy about using a CMS, I preferred the absolute control over design and content.  But after trying WordPress, I have to admit that I see the benefits.

Benefits of a CMS
The primary benefit, for me, is that non-technical users can manage content with the need for the developer to stop what they are doing and upload/format the data. This allows for updates to occur more frequently.

Design consistency is another benefit, although I use Master Pages with ASP.NET, which allows for design consistency also, a CMS allows a non-technical user to create a new page and that page will be themed exactly the same as the rest of the site.

With a traditional site, if you want to change the design…it requires money and time. With a CMS and specifically WordPress, it simply requires loading a new theme. This allows the developer and client to see different looks for the site within seconds. Combine this with widgets and plugins and you have a completely customizable experience.

Is a CMS always the best idea?
Short answer…NO. The fact is that some clients don’t want or need the ability to update their site on a daily, weekly, or even monthly basis. They simply want a web presence with their basic info and do not need it updated. You could still use a CMS in this scenario, but it would be a bit of a waste of resources.

I can say with a great deal of confidence that I will use WordPress (or another CMS) in the future.

A recent Inc.com article cites research done by development tools company Appcelerator and research firm IDC as saying that developers are betting on Android being a better bet to grow their business in the future.  The developers still think Apple is the best current source but believe that Android holds the most promise for sustainable growth.

This isn’t surprising, the open source nature of Android compared to the closed, proprietary nature of Apple makes this a no brainer in my book.  Combine this with the restrictive practices of Apple when it comes to developing for the Apple platform and you can see why Android will be the platform of choice for the future.

From a personal standpoint, I recently decided to start developing a mobile application.  I had the choice of Apple, Blackberry, or Android.  Apple gives me the larger audience at the moment, Blackberry would allow me to target the enterprise business clients, but Android gives me the most potential.  Considering the recent smart phone releases…the great majority of them are Android phones.  And as more business applications come out for Android, the more businesses are likely to embrace it…which means a larger client base for my products.

Head on over to Inc.com for the full article.