INTEROPERABILITY CONSORTIUM PROMOTES WEBSERVICES
STANDARDS FOR FIRST RESPONDERS

U.S. Government officials praise group’s work, pledge continued support

WASHINGTON, D.C., October 1, 2003 – Senior U.S. Government officials from congress and the Bush Administration today praised the work of the 65-member Emergency Interoperability Consortium (EIC), formerly the EM-XML Consortium, as vitally important to the nation’s homeland security programs. They pledged continued support to the private sector initiative and addressed technology interoperability issues faced by government agencies in preparing for and dealing with emergency situations, including homeland security.

Congressman Curt Weldon (R-PA), Member of the House Select Committee on Homeland Security and Vice Chairman of the House Subcommittee on Emergency Preparedness and Response, said, “Interoperability is one of the most important challenges we face in preparing our first responders to be the foundation of our nation’s overall homeland security program. What EIC is doing – working with government at all levels to make sure that first responders can communicate with each other regardless of the technology they use – could help us save literally millions of lives in the event of a terrorist attack.”

Congressman Weldon made his comments at an interoperability workshop at Global Homeland Security III, a conference dealing with global management of weapons of mass destruction terrorism, produced in the nation’s capital by E. J. Krause & Associates in association with the Homeland Security Industries Association and the Hudson Institute.

Participating in the workshop were Matt Walton, EIC Chairman and Vice Chairman of E Team, Inc.; Mark Zimmerman, Program Manager, Disaster Management e-Government Initiative, Office of the CIO, Department of Homeland Security; David Boyd, Program Manager of SAFECOM; and Tom Conaway, Managing Partner Homeland Security, UNISYS.

Steve Cooper, Chief Information Officer, U.S. Department of Homeland Security, who observed the interoperability program and its technology demonstration, said “Interoperability means the ability of all members of the emergency responder community to communicate, real-time, when incidents occur that demand immediate response to save lives. The technology exists. Emerging standards are here, thanks to the EMIC working group. What remains is to agree on the roles of the federal sector with regard to funding and sponsorship of the infrastructure. For example, think of the interstate highway system - and the private sector in building open, standards based solutions that connect via the common infrastructure. Then, think of different vehicles that use the interstate highways. It is up to us to make interoperability so common that no one talks about how important it is anymore.”

EIC promotes the research, development, and deployment of emergency interoperability standards that will ultimately facilitate the exchange of critical information between dissimilar systems using Web Services to reduce human and financial loss. The Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) standard is the first initiative supported by the Consortium and enables users to input a message once to activate all types of alert and public warning systems during an emergency. The advancement reduces workload and costs associated with using multiple systems, enhances technical reliability, and increases the consistency of the message and the ability to get that message to the right audience at the right time.

Mark Zimmerman, a member of the EIC Executive Committee, said, “The cooperation between the private sector and government in this effort is unparalleled. The private sector is absolutely the right catalyst for successful standardized interoperability, but government has to be the benchmark customer. We have a very productive partnership that could be a model for other public-private sector partnerships involved with homeland security.”

EIC is also researching and promoting the development of standards in the areas of Geospatial Information Systems (GIS) and Incident Command System (ICS), as well as for the overall infrastructure for emergency and incident management.

For more information on EIC and its activities, contact Matt Walton at mwalton@eteam.com.

For More Information, contact: Dina Frale, E Team Public Relations, 818-932-0660 x207
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