RE: [emergency] OASIS EM-TC clarification of the USAF CoT effort

["Ron Lake" <rlake@galdosinc.com>]

Hi,

I think that COT is now being evolved into COI and there appears to be a
decision that COI is to be based on GML .. see the following text for
additional details:

" Toward a Joint Solution for "What/When/Where"
Cursor on Target in the Context of the Strike COI

The Air Force Cursor on Target initiative is a mature, cross-community
of interest solution to providing data.  The essential elements of CoT
include its extreme simplicity, developer-friendly design,
extensibility, and a "one way to do things" philosophy that makes CoT
easy to implement correctly. The adoption of CoT's approach to data
interoperability by a large number of systems has demonstrated its
utility and has resulted in significant value delivered to the war
fighter.  

As CoT adoption has progressed, several important standards and policy
developments have been emerging in the joint community:
1.	The Army and USMC have issued policies requiring the use of the
JC3 IEDM data model for Army and USMC Battle Command Information
Exchanges, and it is currently in use in NATO systems.
2.	The Navy has evolved the Joint Track Management vocabulary
developed for the Cooperative Engagement Capability as the common Navy
Vocabulary.
3.	The emergence of Geography Markup Language (GML) as a standard
for representing geographic features and adoption of GML within the DoD.

4.	The adoption of the Intelligence Community's Information
Security Marking standard (IC-ISM)
5.	The continuing adoption of the DoD Discovery Metadata
Specification

None of the above developments are reasons to quit using CoT.  Taken
together, they are reasons why CoT should not be mandated DoD-wide. What
is needed is a new core C2 vocabulary, one which preserves the CoT
properties of extreme simplicity and broad applicability, is modernized
with respect to new XML vocabularies, is compatible with the vocabulary
commitments of all DoD components, and is born joint.

Who will develop this core C2 vocabulary?  The Strike COI is presently
developing a vocabulary for its first pilot demonstration, due in 6-9
months.  This vocabulary could be the foundation of the desired core C2
vocabulary.  The Strike COI approach is also to develop a simple,
extensible schema that focuses on a core vocabulary of "what, when, &
where", but one which also addresses security and discovery. The COI has
agreed to use GML within the schema, relying on the expertise of the
geospatial community and focusing the C2 community on the C2 elements of
the vocabulary.  The goal of the joint community within the Strike
Community is to arrive at a solution that is "born joint".  To adopt
this as a core C2 Vocabulary will require a joint consensus that will
likely be achieved through some combination of piloting, implementation
and testing led by the C2CIB.

The Air Force's experience with Cursor on Target is instrumental in
helping to shape the Strike COI schema and cause it to have the same
success factors that have made CoT so compelling.  Vigorous Air Force
engagement with the joint community through the Strike COI is therefore
essential to meet the warfighter needs of tomorrow."

Cheers

Ron

-----Original Message-----
From: Elysa Jones [mailto:ejones@warningsystems.com] 
Sent: February 14, 2007 11:57 AM
To: Tom Clarke; Paul S. Embley; Martin F. Smith; Christopher Traver;
John Wandelt; Kshemendra Paul; Jeremy Warren; Chip Hines;
Stephen.hoogasian@pentagon.af.mil; william.ford@usdoj.gov; Paul Wormeli;
Webb, DavidM
Cc: emergency@lists.oasis-open.org; Patrick Gannon; Jamie Clark
Subject: [emergency] OASIS EM-TC clarification of the USAF CoT effort

To whom it may concern,

A DHS FEMA contractor is trying to foster the use of the United 
States Air Force (USAF) Cursor-on-Target (CoT) xml schema as the 
definitive solution to all data interoperability issues of the 
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Department of Justice 
(DOJ). He claims this would be accomplished by putting the CoT into 
the National Information Exchange Model (NIEM).  At the same time he 
is using the name Emergency Data Exchange Language-Asset Tracking 
(EDXL-AT) which associates this effort with OASIS standards development.

This enthusiastic, but uncoordinated, set of actions is creating 
confusion and discord within and among the data exchange projects 
currently underway in OASIS and the above mentioned departments. 
First, it is our understanding that CoT is an implemented data 
structure that is in wide use within US Air Force (USAF) systems.  As 
such, change would have to be managed very carefully. Secondly, CoT 
is currently being considered by the OASIS Emergency Management TC 
Infrastructure Subcommittee (IF SC) but would require a sponsor to 
bring the proposed standard to the committee and that the standard be 
put through normal committee procedures.  Initial discussions with 
the USAF, USSTRATCOM, and the Department of Defense (DoD) Office of 
the Chief Information Officer (OCIO) to modify the CoT for use in the 
NIEM indicate broad support. The initiative will be officially named 
EDXL-Asset Tracker (AT) when approved by the OASIS EM TC. Until that 
time "EDXL-AT" should not be associated with or used in any data 
interoperability efforts external to the OASIS EM TC.  Finally the 
NIEM process belongs to NIEM.  It is not OASIS policy to interfere in 
any way with that process.

Repeated attempts to discuss with this contractor the actual fit of 
CoT into the OASIS Emergency Data Exchange Language (EDXL) suite of 
work and NIEM have been ignored.  His actions have been hasty, very 
premature and uncoordinated with accepted standards bodies. 
Therefore, the OASIS EM TC must now state emphatically that this FEMA 
contractor does not speak on behalf of its Committee and subcommittees.

Regards,
Elysa Jones, Chair OASIS
Emergency Management Technical Committee