Decisions For Heroes Blog

DUBLIN, IRELAND - Release #364 (8th December 2009) has lots and lots of updates we’ve been working hard away on. If anything doesn’t work on your system, drop a note in the ‘improve it’ section.

New Flash Charts

All the charts on the site are now powered by Open Flash Chart 2. This update allows us to begin to move over to SSL security for your data as we’re generating them on our server - not on Google’s. All charts now have roll-over legends too.

Menu Tidy Up

We’ve begun to consolidate menus into simpler to understand layouts. Part of this was to merge [Comms] in under members as [Messages]. [Analytics] [Maps] is now under [Analytics] [Charts] -> ‘Heatmaps’. [Analytics] [Casualties] is now under [Activities] [Incidents] -> ‘All Casualties’. [Activities] [Agenda] is now under [Activities] [Calendar] -> ‘Agenda’. More menu changes will happen in the near future, it’s part of the plan to make the site more intuative as we add new features. Our mantra is “if you can’t control this site with an iPod dial, we’re too complicated”. We’re trying!

PDF Printing/Exports

We have a swish new printing option that allows you to create PDF reports from your data. This is ultra cool. Print calendars, phone lists (note: you only see the personal details shared with you), pocket mobile number guides, the whiteboard, etc. You can print off individual exercise/incident/event reports too. If you want a custom form replicated for your organisation, email me (robin at bytesurgery dot com).

Team Monthly and Annual Reports

A new menu option in [Analytics] is [Reports]. In here you’ll find the annual and monthly reports we’ve written for your team. We trend all your data to give you a nice report you can print out and hang on your base wall. We’re all about getting your data out of D4H again but with some magic value added.

More Numbers for Admins

Previously, we kept all personal charts ‘relative’. We never told you the exact number of activities someone had been on when comparing them to one another - we felt it might drive too much inter-team competition. Well, we’re sticking with that ethos for ‘Members’ but still giving all the information to ‘Member+’, ‘Editors’, and ‘Owner’ levels. Those guys now see the numbers too - enjoy the data!

Right Click Calendar

Jump into [Activities] [Calendar] and you can now right-click the blank area beneath a day number to quick-add an activity, or off-call period, to that date!

Forward & Back Calendar

Sick of picking dates from drop down fields? So were we! You can now jump forward or back a day, month or year in the calendar views.

Hidden Feature

If all has gone to plan, we’ll announce this killer feature this week. It’s already there - the question is, can you find it!? Hint - you’ll need small fingers.

Others

Whiteboard now has no end time, just a date. It ends at 23:59 in your timezone on the day you choose.

Export sidebars are neater, you should only see the export types you’re permissioned to.

Did you know I write a daily blog about the development of Decisions For Heroes from idea to business?

Come and join in the commercial, branding, product discussion on our parent company ByteSurgery’s blog. Today we’re looking at the logo choices for D4H.

We’re at Seedcamp in London this week as one of the top 23 European Start-ups.

We’re blogging the event live here on Twitter and with full commentary and video on our development/company blog.

-Robin.

DUBLIN, IRELAND - I’m writing this post in advance and have it scheduled to post on Monday morning. If everything has gone to plan, I can tell you that D4H flew out last night to London, and David and I should be sitting in University College London’s new engineering building listening to Jyri Engestrom and Michael Birch speaking on a founder panel.

We’ve not been able to announce it until everything was confirmed, but considering the event has already started I can now tell you Decisions For Heroes was made a Seedcamp Finalist and listed as one of 23 top European start-up companies for 2008.

Once a year we will bring together Europe’s top young founders and a world class network of mentors in one place. We will provide access to seed funding, but more importantly we will expose these teams to the collective experience of people who can help inspire the next generation of Europe’s future serial entrepreneurs.

Brilliant.

(sorry it took so long to announce)

-Robin.

(Image Credit: D4H in London for Seedcamp interviews)

We’re adding a MISPER (Missing Person) category on casualties at the request of Dog Search teams. Let’s open a discussion on how all countries and services define casualties.

Here’s a starting list of categories from the UK.

• Despondent
• Dementia Alzheimer Type
• Runaway
• Lost
• Mental health
• Natural disaster
• Man-made disaster
• Injured
• Health problem
• Unspecified
• Abduction
• Criminal investigation

With this data we can start to generate Behavior Profiles

(Photo: Boston Emergency Service taken at the weekend. By Robin.)

A recent post on RescueTech.org has brought a flurry of sign-ups using our invite code. RescueTech is a great source of knowledge on all things rescue from around the world. I’m glad to welcome the contributors to Decisions For Heroes and look forward to your feedback.

-Robin.