Every day emergency response providers and homeland security officials at the local, state, and national levels develop innovative solutions to prevent, prepare for, respond to, and recover from acts of terrorism. While sharing of lessons learned and exemplary practices has always occurred informally, no single resource existed to systematically share new lessons and generate best practices among the broader emergency response community nationwide.

To fill this critical knowledge gap, the Department of Homeland Security’s Office for Domestic Preparedness and the National Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism in Oklahoma City developed Lessons Learned Information Sharing (LLIS.gov), a secure Web-based network of peer-validated lessons learned and best practices for the nation’s homeland security community.

The system offers access to an ever-growing repository of original lessons learned and best practices developed in consultation with, and validated by, emergency responders. Lessons Learned Information Sharing also houses an extensive collection of homeland security-related materials, including hundreds of after-action reports from federally sponsored exercises and a comprehensive library of documents, reports, directories, manuals, articles, news items, and events relevant to emergency responders.

While access to Lessons Learned Information Sharing is free to all emergency response providers and homeland security officials, users must be vetted and validated prior to receiving a username and password to access the system. Moreover, the system utilizes strong encryption and active site monitoring to prevent unauthorized use.

On April 19, 2004, the ninth anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing, ODP and MIPT launched Lessons Learned Information Sharing to the national community of emergency responders.  Currently, LLIS.gov includes over 3,200 members and hundreds of relevant documents.  Please visit www.LLIS.gov to register and begin learning from others’ successes and experiences.

Lessons Learned Information Sharing is supported under Award 2002J-C-001 from MIPT and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Office for Domestic Preparedness. Points of view in this document are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the official position of MIPT or ODP.