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EM-XML Consortium Meeting Minutes
February 25, 2003 at 10a.m.- 12p.m.
Executive Committee Attendees:
Matt Walton, E Team (Chairman)
David Beddoe, IBM
Tracy Ryan, Oracle
Bill Schroeder, ESRI
Jim Morentz, SAIC
Eugene B. Kim, SAIC
Aubrey Chernick, Candle Corporation
Susan Acker, Blue292 (teleconference)
Kevin Coyne, Blue 292
Mark Zimmerman, FEMA
Dick Munnikhuysen, Project Lead DM Team
Sumeet Luthra, DM-PMO
John Gordon, RAMsafe Technologies
Dee Hill-May, RAMsafe Technologies
Jim Montagnino, NC-4
John Hughes, Ship Analytics
John Gargett, Essential Info Systems
AGENDA
1. Many thanks to Mark Zimmerman for hosting the meeting
2. Introductions
3. Comment/Discussion- Key Issues
a. Need for a national approach
b. How can we really ensure interoperability with legacy systems?
c. What do we mean by interoperability?
d. What is the appropriate role of the government?
1. Everyone wants to be interoperable; lots of talk, but no one
has really stepped up to the plate to do something about it
2. Government should do a presentation on what their
interoperability objectives at a later meeting
3. Dynamic interoperability is what we need
e. What do you do when people don’t want others tapping in (John
Gordon/RAMsafe)
1. We don’t want to close the system and make it proprietary
2. Spoke to some counties and there is no way they are going
to use a system that is publicly available
3. At the core of this effort is the whole question of security
(Matt Walton/E Team)
Sharing information is easy; controlling the sharing
of information is the critical requirement so the the
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owners of data can determine when, how and to
whom it gets shared
Technical control aspects are doable – it is the
political aspects that are going to be a challenge
i. Technical vs.cultural mechanisms
f. Is XML just one part of the Executive Committee’s mission? (David
Beddoe/IBM)
1. Need to stay within the scope of what we can solve with
XML (Tracy Ryan/Oracle)
There are tremendous hurdles:
i. Buying decisions at state and local levels
based on functional capability of what they
are seeing—without reference to Federal
guidelines
ii. Cultural challenges
iii. There are security and interoperability
standards in existence.
Need to further educate the stakeholders regarding
our efforts
i. We don’t want to be a threat
Need to have common criteria/vocabulary
ICS is the behavioral foundation for EM-XML
John Gordon – I come from major event
background. Problem is how do we make it happen
and make it meaningful without exposing ourselves
too much. We don’t want to share all of our secrets.
2. The EM-XML mission is available at
www.disasterhelp.gov under the Industry Day hot link
3. EM-TC Schedule
Stated objective to achieve published, validated
initial standards in one year is very ambitious- will
require discipline and avoidance of “scope creep”
One of the primary functions of the Executive
Committee is to insure that the TC stays aon focus
and has adequate institutional support
See timeline for the technical work steps (broken
down into 4 quarters)
OASIS Validation Process
i. Once the initial standards are completed, the
results are sent to the entire OASIS
membership (300+); they have the right to
determine if the standard meets all
requirements before being published
ii. Then they are distributed to industry bodies
for review
g. What is Mark Zimmerman’s role?
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1. To be part of the team- not attempt drive it
2. Will help on the political front and cultural front (industries
coming together)
3. Facilitate the testing
4. Better for standard to come from OASIS vs. Government
5. There are other Government agencies who are interested in
getting involved in this effort
i. Weather
ii. EPA
iii. DOD
iv. Federal PKI
6. What could go wrong? We could go into 2 different
directions (private vs. government). That’s why we are
involved to make sure we are in sync and on the right track.
i. But if vendors are making a financial
decision, we want to make sure that
government is on board.
ii. e-Gov will support XML – it would be hard
for the 27 different agency members to resist
this.
7. Met with Norman Lorenz/CTO for Federal Goverment,
Bob Haycock/Chief Enterprise Architect for Federal
Government (thanks to Mark Zimmerman); they liked it
and the fact that is was coming from private industry,
vertical market coming together to make this happen, XML
8. Steve Cooper expressed a desire to join meeting if possible
– important to work with Dept. of Homeland Security
h. Why XML for a standard?
1. Rapidly becoming the dominant commercial
interoperability standard and something we can all strive
for.
2. Certainly don’t want to see the return of ADA.
3. Once standards start to proliferate, economic incentives
drive acceptance- vastly preferable and more effective than
government edict
4. Update on Technical Committee (Matt Walton)
a. They are off to a very good start
b. OASIS was a sound idea – they provided a template and a structure to
move forward
c. There is tremendous depth on the technical committee (20 members)
d. We have carefully defined the initial scope to focus on what’s critical to
first responders and our objective is to deliver tangible results within the
one year time frame
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e. Within OASIS they already use “Steering Committee” so we need to
change our name. Rename to Executive Committee. The EM-XML
Consortium is the umbrella for both.
f. Allen Wyke (Blue292) is head of the TC
5. Discussion on why a company wouldn’t choose to be on both committees
6. Media
a. We want Microsoft at this table.
b. Is there a series of messages we would like to have come out of this? We
have defined a very simple mission statement. It is important to make that
agenda public
3 guiding principles
1. Interoperability is a critical national requirement and XML
represents a viable technological solution
2. Industry/government effort initiated by industry
3. Ensure every American has appropriate access to
information
Strength of private/public support
Tremendous breadth across the industry
c. Matt to distribute the mission statement; Executive Committee members
to provide Matt with feedback so that there is agreement on the message
before going out into the marketplace. Message consistency will build a
stronger consensus
d. Next step is to develop a press release announcing the EM-XML
Consortium and the two sub-committees
E Team will provide first draft for Executive Committee review
e. OASIS press release initiated market analyst interest
March 6 Gartner meeting: 4 representatives presenting
1. Matt Walton as Chairman of Executive Committee
2. Allen Wyke as Chair of EM TC
3. Todd Ramsey (IBM) representing large corporations
4. Mark Zimmerman (Disaster Management) representing
federal government
Discussion on need not to represent individual companies, but to
keep public comment at the Standard level
Need an incentive for companies to adopt the standard
1. Possibly launch an “EM-XML inside” campaign
f. Need money for ongoing media campaign
g. Need a ground swell adoption
Who is the central person for media inquiries or interest in
joining either committee
1. Allen Wyke for EM TC
2. Cathy Subatch for Executive Committee
3. NACO, NEMA, IAEM as clearing houses for their
memberships
i. Bill Schroeder will draft letter to
government associations
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ii. Jim Montagnino will contact NEMA on
behalf of EM-XML
Need criteria for joining committees
1. Can’t discriminate by enforcing participation in the
technical committee in order to be a member of the
executive committee; it may be cost prohibitive for small
companies to participate in the EM TC. (should note, as
was discussed, that there is a very low cost entry point for
individuals into OASIS)
Web site
1. OASIS site provides technical information
2. Should we develop a Consortium site?
Provide way for people to provide input
Letter to go out to industry/government associations to request a
representative (designated individual) to join the Executive
Committee
1. Bill Schroeder/ESRI to draft letter
2. Bill will post sign up for volunteers to spearhead outreach
to each association
3. Cathy Subatch to take suggestions for additional
corporations we would like to participate
Tracy Ryan to spearhead outreach to Microsoft
h. Urge members to attend IAEM conference in San Jose next week.
i. Decision made to hold quarterly Executive Committee meetings
Right after quarterly review of the Technical Committee so we
can review progress of the EM TC at that time
Next meeting date scheduled for April 23, 1-3p.m. ESTin
Washington DC.
IBM offered to host meeting in downtown office
j. Items to be discussed at next meeting
Results of the analyst briefing with Gartner; we will also send
summary notes via email to Executive Committee
Continuing to grow membership in the Consortium
k. Action Items
Draft letter for industry/government association outreach – Bill
Schroeder
Distribute Mission Statement to Executive Committee – Matt
Walton
Review and comment on Mission Statement – Executive
Committee
Initial draft of EM-XML Consortium press release
Identify potential participants – Executive Committee
(Coordinated by Cathy Subatch)
Outreach to Microsoft – coordinated by Tracy Ryan
Notice for details of next meeting – Cathy Subatch (based on
info received from IBM)
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