NEARS Seeks Funding for National Emergency Communication Standards
Congress should earmark $16-20 million to finish developing and testing uniform communication standards and a national directory of emergency contacts, said the National Emergency & Alerting Response Systems (NEARS). All emergency organizations could use those contacts to share data over the Internet and wireless, landline and broadcast networks, said NEARS, a private partnership of emergency service and telecom and IT organizations. To date, the technology has been developed by nonprofit industry groups.
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At a Capitol Hill briefing co-sponsored by Sens. Clinton (D-N.Y.) and Burns (R-Mont.), NEARS demonstrated communication software with which emergency response groups automatically could receive alerts and critical data related to a disaster. The system would make it easy for first responders to alert all relevant emergency units through a uniform communication system and national directory, NEARS said.
One developer, Comcare, includes 100 organizations with an interest in emergency preparedness, including CTIA and several wireless and IT vendors. A key element of the NEARS initiative is a national GIS-enabled directory of emergency service organization, dubbed EPAD (Emergency Provider Access Directory), which Comcare members have been developing for 2 years. The effort, championed by Burns, received about $1.7 million in funds.
Another critical piece of the NEARS plan is universal data standards already developed by emergency responders and industry groups. These have been submitted for approval by OASIS (Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards), a nonprofit global consortium for development, convergence and adoption of e- business standards.
Emergency communication system vendors, including Raytheon, Unisys, Buffalo Computer Graphics and Blue 292, Inc., have cooperated to develop universal standards so their proprietary systems -- already used by many large municipalities -- will be compatible immediately with the system NEARS envisions. Industry participants belong to the Emergency Interoperability Consortium (EIC) -- 60-plus organizations that allied in 2002 to push for consistent, uniform communication standards for emergency management.
In requesting funds, NEARS spokesman Dr. Jack Potter described how the money would be used. The next steps in the effort, he said, are to demonstrate the system nationwide, finish developing the tools including addition of security features and put the system to work in at least 5 communities to find out what improvements may be needed.