|
SIMONTON'S LAZOR PRESENTED OUTSTANDING
SERVICE AWARD
Bill Lazor, senior product manager for Simonton Windows®, Parkersbug,
WV, was presented the Outstanding Service Award for 2004 by the Remodelors
Council™ of the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB). Lazor
received the award in January during the International Builders’
Show in Orlando, FL.
Lazor was recognized for his dedication and work in creating the Remodelors
Council Business Associates Committee and for service as the committee’s
first chairman. The goal of this committee is to create a link between
Remodelors Council members and NAHB’s associate members.
Founded in 1982, the Remodelors Council represents and serves the interests
of more than 10,000 remodeling industry members. Lazor has been a member
of the council for several years representing Simonton Windows and the
interests of other building industry companies involved with remodelors.
ALLIANCE TO DEVELOP, PROMOTE DATA-SHARING
STANDARDS DURING EMERGENCIES
The Emergency Interoperability Consortium (EIC) announced that it has signed
a Memorandum of Agreement with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS)
to promote the development and proliferation of data sharing standards for
emergency response. Thought to be the first of its kind between DHS and
a non-government entity, the agreement establishes an alliance between the
organizations to jointly promote the design, development, release and use
of standards to help solve data-sharing problems commonly encountered during
emergency operations. The initial term of the agreement is three years.
“Removal of the barriers that currently hinder data-sharing in emergencies
will benefit everyone involved—from the government agencies that work
to secure our nation against potential threats to first responders in the
field and the people they assist,” commented Matt Walton, EIC chairman
and vice chairman and founder of E Team, Inc., a Los Angeles, CA-based manufacturer
of crisis management software.
By working together, both DHS and EIC believe that government and industry
can more quickly and cost-effectively bridge the data-sharing gap between
organizations that must be able to interoperate in response to the natural
and man-made hazards that form the core of the DHS mission.
Initial collaborative efforts between DHS and EIC have already borne fruit
in the release in 2004 of the Common Alerting Protocol (CAP), the first
data standard for sharing alert information between dissimilar systems.
The next generation of data-sharing standards, being developed with the
leadership of emergency response organizations, is called Emergency Data
Exchange Language (EDXL). It goes beyond alerting to address the routing
and substance of a wide variety of interagency emergency messaging.
“The Department of Homeland Security is pleased to have established
an alliance with EIC to promote the rapid development of both valid and
commercially sustainable standards to share data between all levels of the
emergency response community,” said Gordon Fullerton, executive sponsor
of the Disaster Management Program of DHS. “We are committed to working
with emergency response practitioners, EIC . . . and others to produce multiple
standards in the coming year that will make it possible to get critical
emergency data to those that need it.”
The Emergency Interoperability Consortium (EIC) was launched in October
2002 to address the nation’s lack of consistent technical interoperability
and standards for emergency and incident management. Now comprising more
than 50 private entities, public agencies, university groups and nonprofit
organizations, EIC promotes the development and adoption of standards for
using Web services, XML and existing exchange protocols that support the
timely and accurate exchange of incident information throughout the emergency
response communities. |
