SC Meeting Minutes

[Rex Brooks <rexb@starbourne.com>]

EM-Msg SC Meeting Minutes 1-18-05

The meeting convened at 12:00 p.m. Eastern Time.

Roll:
Rex Brooks
Gary Ham
Jeff Kyser
Michelle Raymond
Tom Merkle
Rob Torchon

Old Business:

1. Much of the discussion revolved around the issue of the EDXL
Distribution Block, following Art’s suggestion in the message he posted
prior to the meeting to inform us that he would not be able to attend and
chair the meeting. As co-chair, Rex convened the meeting. This discussion
centered specifically in the areas of Emergency Event Types v. Incidents,
and where other such closely related terms could produce inconsistency
and confusion, such as Resources v. Assets.
 
1a. Gary mentioned that he had missed the previous EDXL working group
meeting due to his own workload, which included a prospective CMMI Level
2 report with which he had been tasked. When asked, Gary informed us that
CMMI is Capabilities Maturity Model Integration, and quick web research
turned up Carnegie Mellon University’s Software Engineering Institute

http://www.sei.cmu.edu/cmmi/cmmi.html 
 
Downloading the Software Engineering Model, both Continuous or Staged
versions produced documents in excess of 630 pages, so this is obviously
not a trivial effort. (It is recognized that item 1a was not
specifically germane, but interesting ­ note-taker’s choice, and it can
always be struck.)
 
ITIL, Information Technology Infrastructure Library, was also mentioned,
and a bit more research revealed that it is the main component of ITSM
Information Technology Service Management, a discipline that appears to
have originated in a UK government program that can be found at

http://www.ogc.gov.uk/index.asp?id=1000367
 
This site led to a 23 page glossary which was copied and pasted into the
document attached to this message, rather than uploaded to the document
repository since it is copyrighted, and potential IPR considerations make
it advisable to make it available by this mechanism since it is contained
in a document that carries the copyright. If it is used, as it might well
be in the Infrastructure SC as a model, we should formally acknowledge
it. It is supplied now as a reference aid.
 
1b. Gary’s concern with the Area element of CAP in relation to work on
CAP 1.1 and the GJXDM revealed the GIS SC’s decision to ask Carl to write
up the recommendation to the TC to retain the CAP 1.0 stipulation of the
WGS-84 geocode with the addition of a reference for users to locate
specific Coordinate Reference Systems and led to a quick briefing on the
result of the EDXL working group Gary missed, in which the remaining
issues were decided. 
 
Specifically, that meeting decided that we would use the CBRN Emergency
Event Type categories as another top level category and adopt them as is,
and maintain the authority and responsibility demarcation as is
also.
 
2. This led to a discussion of the distinctions between the terms Event
and Incident and the distinctions between the terms Resource and Asset,
resulting in a consensus to keep the discussions going and to attempt to
get these issues discussed in the ongoing DRM work, especially the Core
Data Types Focus Group, CDT FG, as well the the NIMS work and the ICS
portion of that in order to foster a reconciled vocabulary. It was also
suggested and agreed that these issues should be forwarded to other
appropriate individuals in DHS and EIC.
 
It was agreed that clarification of these issues is needed.
 
The meeting adjourned at 12:45 p.m. Eastern Time.

--
As always, please feel free to comment with corrections.


Regards,
Rex Brooks

CT Infrastructure Management.doc