Feedback from EDXL-SitRep SIG

["Timothy Grapes" <tgrapes@evotecinc.com>]

I wanted to share with you feedback from today's FEMA-SIG presentation on
EDXL-SitReps.  Due to IAEM I feared attendance would be low but we had at
least 41 participants and questions continued for 25 minutes.  There was a
great deal of interest in this particular  standard.  Here are the main
themes - no surprises but areas where perhaps S&T and OASIS should further
discuss.

 

Several attendees were practitioners and implementers from the NY/NJ region
investigating EDXL, OPEN and UICDS.

 

1.       Same old question:  Who has implemented what  standards?  We
pointed them to the OASIS member section that  lists known implementations
and NIMS STEP "certifications".  There is a growing hunger for support and
collaboration with others who have or are planning to implement EDXL.

2.       Some in the group feel that trials and pilots would be very helpful
integrated into the process prior to publication of the OASIS standard.  We
discussed where that has actually happened in the past, but they would like
to see this with SitReps as well.  I would bet the NY/NJ area attendees
would consider participating.

3.       Difficulty by practitioners and decision-makers to "visualize"
these standards, how they work, and how they benefit emergency management -
without having to look at a spec or XML.  Both S&T and OASIS have recognized
the need for better marketing and education materials and made some
attempts, but its importance continues to increase.

a.       The folks in NY/NJ have been studying CAP, RM and draft SitReps the
past several weeks and are drafting some of their own "visualizations".
They are checking with management to determine whether they may share those
with us.

Respectfully,

Tim Grapes

Evotec

703-304-4829

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