Emergency Data Exchange Language (EDXL) Distribution Element Ratified as OASIS Standard.

BOSTON -- U.S. Department of Homeland Security, ESI Acquisition, Raining Data, Warning Systems, and Others Collaborate on Standards to Advance Information Sharing for Emergency Preparedness and Response

The OASIS international standards consortium today announced that its members have approved the Emergency Data Exchange Language Distribution Element (EDXL-DE) version 1.0 as an OASIS Standard, a status that signifies the highest level of ratification. Developed by the OASIS Emergency Management Technical Committee, EDXL-DE facilitates emergency information sharing and data exchange across local, regional, tribal, national, and international organizations in the public and private sectors.

"The United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is extremely pleased that EDXL-DE has been adopted by OASIS as an international standard. EDXL-DE will facilitate the implementation of a host of standards which will lead to fully interoperable sharing of information in emergency related applications," said Chip Hines, Acting Director of the DHS Office for Interoperability and Compatibility (OIC) in the Science and Technology Directorate. "The ability of this standard to transmit any content, from files to technical data exchange information, provides immediate capability to the emergency response community. OIC is delighted to have been a part of the process that included the requirements and participation of the emergency responder stakeholders. I encourage industry to quickly make this standard available in their products," said Hines.

EDXL began in 2004 as a project of the Disaster Management eGov Initiative of the DHS as a means to enhance inter-agency emergency data communications. DHS partnered with industry members of the Emergency Interoperability Consortium to bring the work to OASIS for advancement and standardization.

"EDXL-DE acts as a header to identify to whom and under what circumstances the associated emergency information is to be sent. An example of that emergency information is the basic warning messages defined by the Common Alerting Protocol (CAP), but it can also be basic spreadsheets, text documents, video images, etc.," said Elysa Jones of Warning Systems. Jones serves as chair of the OASIS Emergency Management Technical Committee, which developed both EDXL-DE and CAP. "EDXL-DE is a powerful way to map to the specific communication plan at any level - local, state, national, and even international."

"The EDXL-DE OASIS Standard is the product of open collaboration across a diverse and representative group of local, state and federal emergency response organizations and industry," noted Patrick Gannon, president and CEO of OASIS. "The standard delivers reliable, implementable messages, in an incremental fashion, directly to emergency response workers in the trenches. "It provides the seamless communication and coordination that's needed to address the unique needs of information exchange among emergency response organizations."

The OASIS Emergency Management Technical Committee continues to develop other components of EDXL, which is intended to serve as a suite of emergency data message types. In addition to message routing instructions such as the DE, EDXL will address resource queries and requests, situation reports, damage assessments, and other functionality necessary for cross-disciplinary, cross-jurisdictional communications.

All interested parties are encouraged to participate in the OASIS Emergency Management Technical Committee, which remains open to new contributions. As with all consortium projects, archives of the Committee's work are accessible to both members and non-members, and OASIS hosts an open mail list for public comment on the work.

Additional Information:

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

Cover Pages Technology Report: EDXL http://xml.coverpages.org/edxl.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, EML, OpenDocument, SAML, SPML, UBL, UDDI, WSDM, WS-Reliability, WSRF, WSRP, WS-Security, XACML, XCBF, and XML Catalogs. http://www.oasis-open.org