US Dept of Homeland Security, AtHoc, ESI Acquisition, KITS, Raytheon,
Warning Systems, and Others Collaborate on Emergency Interoperability

The international emergency response community has taken steps to
consolidate efforts to advance a common set of standards for exchanging
information on incident preparedness and response to emergency
situations. Stakeholders in the industry have formed the OASIS
Emergency Interoperability (EI) Member Section, a group that will
address the full life-cycle of emergency communications standards from
requirements capture to standard creation and adoption services.

"We're responding to the need clearly expressed by a wide variety of
emergency response agencies and organizations to be able to share
information across professional and jurisdictional lines--whatever
specific application they may have in their office," explained David
Lamensdorf, chair of the OASIS EI Member Section Steering Committee.
"XML standards are crucial to solving data sharing problems that are
commonly encountered during emergency operations."

"Since 2003, OASIS has been the nexus for emergency management
standards. We've produced the Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) and the
Emergency Data Exchange Language (EDXL) OASIS Standards," said Patrick
Gannon, president and CEO of OASIS. "The new Member Section will
broaden our members' focus beyond specification development to advance
and support adoption and interoperability issues."

The OASIS EI Member Section represents the wide variety of public and
private sector organizations that share the common goal of
interoperable emergency communications. Membership remains open;
practitioners, technology providers, and national, international and
multinational oversight agencies are all invited to participate in the
initiative.

In addition to Lamensdorf, the OASIS EI Member Section Steering
Committee includes Dr. Donald Ponikvar of Defense Group Inc. and the
U.S. Department of Homeland Security, David Aylward and Tracy Ryan of
the Emergency Interoperability Consortium, and Elysa Jones of Warning
Systems.

Jones, who also chairs the OASIS Emergency Management Technical
Committee, looks forward to working within the new Member Section.
"We're going to be addressing global interoperability issues and
identifying areas where new standards are needed. We'll help national
and local government agencies advocate for the use of emergency
standards as a means to enable innovation, freedom of choice, and open
access to information."

Robert Dilonardo, the Test and Evaluation Infrastructure Branch Chief
and the Data Architect for the Domestic Nuclear Detection Office
(DNDO), a component of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security,
heartily endorses the establishment of this group. According to
Dilonardo, "Data interoperability is a key requirement of the Global
Nuclear Detection Architecture being developed by DNDO and its many
federal, state and local partners. The Domestic Nuclear Detection
Office already embraces standards that have come out of the OASIS
Emergency Management Technical Committee, and our representation on the
new Member Section's Steering Committee will provide a valuable means
for our needs to be represented as these standards evolve."

Support for EI

"Responding to emergencies requires a collaborative communication
effort between agencies and departments, and the OASIS EI Member
Section is now making it possible for federal, state and local
organizations to work better together. We've seen strong demand from
our government and Department of Defense customers to find ways to make
disparate emergency communication platforms work together, and this
initiative will help remove the technological barriers to ensure full
interoperability and information sharing," said Aviv Siegel, AtHoc's
chief technology officer.

"KITS is pleased to be involved in this OASIS EI effort. Our experience
integrating disparate Command & Control (C2) systems has impressed
upon us the importance of establishing data standards, especially in
cases where secure and reliable exchange of such information is mission
critical. When appropriately leveraged, the integration of disparate C2
public safety systems becomes a facilitator of Emergency Management and
Homeland Security effectiveness. Likewise, KITS looks forward to
working with OASIS in the development of information standards for the
Emergency Response community," said Randall V. Shane, President &
CTO, KITS.

Additional information:

OASIS Emergency Interoperability Member Section:
http://www.oasis-emergency.org/

OASIS Emergency Management Technical Committee:
http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/emergency/

About OASIS:

OASIS (Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information
Standards), drives the development, convergence, and adoption of open
standards for the global information society. A not-for-profit
consortium, OASIS advances standards for SOA, security, Web services,
documents, e-commerce, government and law, localisation, supply chains,
XML processing, and other areas of need identified by its members.
OASIS open standards offer the potential to lower cost, stimulate
innovation, grow global markets, and protect the right of free choice
of technology. The consortium has more than 5,000 participants
representing over 600 organizations and individual members in 100
countries. http://www.oasis-open.org

Press contact:

Carol Geyer

OASIS Director of Communications

carol.geyer@oasis-open.org

+1.978.667.5115 x209 (office)

+1.941.284.0403 (mobile)