XML-2004

[Elysa Jones <ejones@warningsystems.com>]

Greetings all,

It was a pleasure to meet and have dinner with some of you in DC earlier 
this week.  In attendance were Michelle Raymond, Tom Merkle, Gary Ham, Art 
Botterell, Kwasi Speede and Elysa Jones.  In addition to these players, IEM 
and ETeam have expressed an interest in participating in 
the  demonstration.  At the meeting we discussed the upcoming XML-2004 
demonstration to be held November 17, 2004 at the Marriott Wardman 
Park.  It was a good discussion where we identified the anticipated focus 
of the demonstration.  We discussed who would be the actual audience to 
whom we intend to demonstrate CAP.  It is clear that not many XML2004 
conference attendees are really in the market for the public safety systems 
we represent.  However, since the venue is in the DC area and we could 
invite some of the public and private sector that would have an interest, 
it would be a reasonable thing to pursue.  The anticipated focus would be - 
what is the return on investment the Government is likely to achieve based 
on the work of interoperability standards in emergency management?  If 
there is no value to the funding sources, any number of demonstrations will 
not help our cause.

As many of you may recall, we did a demonstration at the same hotel in Sept 
of 2003 with CAP during the Global Homeland Security Conference.  We were 
all glad that we set up our systems and they played together.  However, 
there was no follow on activity, no press releases, etc.

We further discussed a very real scenario based on a the chemical weapons 
incinerator activity currently ongoing in Anniston, Alabama.  All agreed 
that such a scenario could gain high visibility and also allow those with 
products based on the CAP XML spec to be demonstrated.  We would like this 
to be a highly visible event with as much publicity as we can arouse.  We 
would all like to see the standards gain acceptance and to show the 
Department of Homeland Security that via these standards the cause of 
better information to the right place can improve the work done by 
emergency managers.  OASIS is our vehicle to do this.  The value of OASIS 
as our international body under which we develop is also advanced with the 
real world demonstrations.  Members of the meeting raised some valuable 
questions for which I now have answers:

There will be a cost to the participants as follows:
1.  You may attend the entire conference for 50% of the conference 
registration fee.  That is $400 for IDEAlliance members and $600 for 
non-members.  However, if you are going to just be a part of the interop 
demonstrations, you may get an "Expo only" pass (which includes the 
Keynotes) for free.  Customers and contacts can also get this type pass to 
attend the interop demos.  Everyone must register 
at  http://www.xmlconference.org/xmlusa/2004/registration.html by 7 November.
2.  OASIS planners have gathered all the expenses for the six OASIS 
InterOps and each participant will be responsible for $750.00 to be applied 
to the total to offset the expenses of the InterOps (projectors, screens, 
internet, etc.).

Given that cost, I need to know if you are still interested in 
participating.  Please let me hear from you ASAP.  If I can get the 
information to OASIS by Monday 10/25, they will be able to highlight our 
demo in the OASIS News next week.  If you have any ideas of ways we can 
increase the visibility of our demonstration, please let me know.  I will 
proceed with the scenario write up this weekend as if we are going to 
proceed.

Thank you for your timely comments,
Elysa Jones
Chair, EM-TC