OASIS Joins with ITU-T to Convene International Workshop to Advance Standards for Public Warning Systems

["Carol Geyer" <carol.geyer@oasis-open.org>]

OASIS Joins with ITU-T to Convene International Workshop to Advance Standards
for Public Warning Systems

Experts to Demonstrate Interoperability of Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) OASIS
Standard for Emergency Response Policy Makers

Boston, MA, USA and Geneva, Switzerland, 9 October 2006 - The OASIS standards
consortium will join with the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) to
advance universal best practices for applying emergency response standards at
the "Joint ITU-T / OASIS Workshop and Demonstration of Advances in ICT
Standards for Public Warning," to be held 19-20 October 2006 in Geneva. Invited
policy makers, government agencies, system suppliers, and key experts from
around the world will gather at the event, which will feature an
interoperability demonstration of the Common Alerting Protocol (CAP), a widely
implemented OASIS Standard that provides all-media, all-hazards public warning
for many societies worldwide. 

"In the wake of the Tsunami disaster of 2004 and multiple natural catastrophes
in 2005, standards development organizations have stepped up work on public
warning in concert with organizations dealing with disaster management,
prevention, and relief," noted Houlin Zhao, Director of the Telecommunication
Standardization Bureau at ITU. "This workshop will emphasize the practical
application of standardized public warnings, investigate standardization gaps,
and prioritize key opportunities for collaboration on further work."

"Demand to learn more about the direct benefits that CAP and related emergency
response standards offer is extremely high now, particularly in Europe," noted
Patrick Gannon, president and CEO of OASIS. "As more and more CAP
implementations have been deployed, the ability for the public and private
sectors to exchange interoperable data messages across disparate systems and
devices has increased significantly. The potential savings in lives and
property-on a local as well as global scale-is tremendous."

The event will include presentations from representatives of the European
Commission Directorate General Information Society and Media, Swedish Post and
Telecom Agency, United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), United Nations
Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN/OCHA), United Nations
Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), United States
Department of Homeland Security, World Health Organization (WHO), and World
Weather Watch. Verisign will host a reception for all attendees.

The workshop is endorsed by the Emergency Interoperability Consortium (EIC),
International Association of Emergency Managers (IAEM), and National ICT
Australia (NICTA). OASIS Sponsor member, Warning Systems, will demonstrate its
CAP-compliant product, along with other exhibitors including Hormann Warning
Systems, MyStateUSA, and WorldSpace.

Space at the workshop is limited to enable productive collaboration.
Participation is open to ITU Member States, Sector Members and Associates, and
to any individual from a country which is a member of ITU who wishes to
contribute to the work.

About ITU:
ITU is a world-wide organization which brings governments and industry together
to coordinate the establishment and operation of global telecommunication
networks and services; it is responsible for standardization, coordination and
development of international telecommunications including radio communications,
as well as the harmonization of national policies.
http://www.itu.int/home/index.html

About OASIS:
OASIS (Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards) is
a not-for-profit, international consortium that drives the development,
convergence, and adoption of e-business standards. Members themselves set the
OASIS technical agenda, using a lightweight, open process expressly designed to
promote industry consensus and unite disparate efforts. The consortium produces
open standards for Web services, security, e-business, and standardization
efforts in the public sector and for application-specific markets. Founded in
1993, OASIS has more than 5,000 participants representing over 600
organizations and individual members in 100 countries. Approved OASIS Standards
include AVDL, BCM, CAP, DITA, DocBook, DSML, ebXML CPPA, ebXML Messaging, ebXML
Registry, EDXL-DE, EML, OpenDocument, SAML, SPML, UBL, UDDI, WSDM,
WS-Reliability, WSRF, WSRP, WS-Security, XACML, XCBF, and XML Catalogs. 
http://www.oasis-open.org


Additional information:

ITU-T/OASIS Workshop and Demonstration of Advances in ICT Standards for Public
Warning
http://www.itu.int/ITU-T/worksem/ictspw/

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


Press contact:
Carol Geyer
OASIS Director of Communications
carol.geyer@oasis-open.org
+1.978.667.5115 x209 (office)
+1.941.284.0403 (mobile)