AtHoc, Canadian Association for Public Alerting and Notification, Desktop Alert,
US Department of Defense, US Department of Homeland Security, Warning Systems
(WSI), and Others Collaborate to Support CAP and EDXL Implementations

Boston, MA, USA; 25 June 2009 – The international open standards consortium,
OASIS, has formed a new group to encourage and support the adoption of
information exchange standards that help improve the speed and quality of
emergency response activities. The new OASIS Emergency Management (EM) Adoption
Committee--a diverse group of government agencies, public safety organizations,
associations, and vendors--will work together to broaden use of the Common
Alerting Protocol (CAP) and the family of Emergency Data Exchange Language
(EDXL) standards.

"Governments around the world are mandating use of CAP and EDXL," noted Werner
Joerg of IEM and Thomas Ferrentino, co-chairs of the OASIS EM Adoption
Committee. "Our goal is to provide neutral ground where implementers and
solution providers can connect, share experiences, and define best practices for
deploying interoperable systems based on CAP and EDXL."

One of the first activities of the new Committee will be a two-day Emergency
Interoperability Summit, which will be held in Washington, D.C. in September,
co-hosted by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

The EM Adoption Committee is also working on a series of webinars, whitepapers,
primers, and slide presentations. It will engage in outreach with other
organizations and communities-of-interest, such as the world-wide meteorological
community.

"The adoption of emergency management standards, already strong in the United
States, is growing in the rest of the world, especially the European Union,"
said Laurent Liscia, executive director of OASIS. "We're happy to see the EM
Adoption Committee actively soliciting participation from governments,
companies, and organizations around the world. Emergencies don't recognize
national boundaries; global participation in this work is essential."

The EM Adoption Committee coordinates its activities with the OASIS EM Technical
Committee, which develops the CAP and EDXL specifications.

"In an emergency, no single form of communication reaches all people. Alerting
people quickly through multiple communications channels such as computers,
phones and sirens is central to an effective emergency response.
Interoperability between these communication channels is key for successful
dissemination to all target populace. This is why the establishment of the
Emergency Management Adoption Committee is so important," said Aviv Siegel,
Chief Technology Officer for AtHoc. "This OASIS committee will support
development and market adoption of interoperable solutions – based on standards
such as CAP and EDXL – that can communicate with each other to quickly and
effectively spread critical information during times of emergency."

"The DHS Command, Control and Interoperability Division (CID) is pleased to be
involved in the creation of the new OASIS EM Adoption Committee," said Dr. David
Boyd, director of the Command, Control and Interoperability Division within the
U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Science and Technology Directorate. "The
increased adoption and use of EDXL standards is a crucial step toward enabling
the exchange of real-time information between agencies' public safety systems,
providing emergency responders with the resources necessary to keep our Nation
safe."

"WSI has long been a strong advocate for open standards in emergency management.
We believe you shouldn't have to replace existing equipment in order to realize
the benefits of the latest technologies. By being interoperable with other
standards-compliant applications, WSI's alert and warning systems protect and
respect our customers' investment," said Patrick J. Gannon, President and COO,
WSI. "WSI has provided leadership in the OASIS Emergency Management Technical
Committee since 2004, and we look forward to playing a major role in this new EM
Adoption Committee."

Additional information:

OASIS EM Adoption Committee http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/emergency-adopt/

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

OASIS Emergency Interoperability Member Section http://www.oasis-emergency.org/

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 open standards for the global information society.
OASIS promotes industry consensus and produces worldwide standards for security,
Web services, XML conformance, business transactions, electronic publishing, and
other applications. OASIS open standards offer the potential to lower cost,
stimulate innovation, grow global markets, and protect the right of free choice
of technology. OASIS members broadly represent the marketplace of public and
private sector technology leaders, users and influencers. The consortium has
more than 5,000 participants representing over 600 organizations and individual
members in 100 countries. http://www.oasis-open.org