About the Meeting

On 11 July 2001, the National Institute of Justice, Office of Science and Technology (NIJ/OS&T) along with support from the Institute of Security Technology Studies (ISTS/Dartmouth College) co-sponsored an Advanced Distributed Learning (ADL) strategy meeting.

The overall objective of the meeting was to develop and leverage a Federal Agencies collaborative effort (with direct input from State and local users) to develop shared visions, terms, ideas, and goals for ADL as it relates to State and local law enforcement, corrections, and public safety/first responder communities.

A total of seventeen agencies/groups participated in the meeting:

• Department of Labor
• Department of Energy
• Federal Emergency Management Agency
• ADL Co-Laboratory
• DoD/Department of State Technical Support Working Group
• DOJ/Office of State and Local Domestic Preparedness Support
• Federal Law Enforcement Training Center
• Federal Bureau of Investigation National Domestic Preparedness Office
• Federal Bureau of Investigation Academy
• Occupation Safety & Health Administration
• Environmental Protection Agency
• DOJ/Office of Legal Education
• Center for Disease Control
• National Guard Bureau-Counterdrug
• DoD Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
• DoD Naval Air Warfare Center Training Systems Division
• Administrative Office of US Courts.

From the meeting a mission statement was prepared and agreed upon by all participating agencies. The mission statement is:

To facilitate the coordination of Advanced Distributed Learning (ADL) efforts in order to improve readiness, response, and interoperability among Federal, state, and local law enforcement, corrections, public safety, public health, and first/emergency responder communities.

Primary Strategies for this coordination

• Identify, develop, and adopt shared ADL visions, terms, ideas, and goals;
• Identify and share existing and planned ADL project initiatives and resources;
• Identify and develop new ADL project initiatives based on well defined user requirements; and
• Identify, publish, and update best practices, lessons learned, and guidelines.