Comment Submitted By Joy Carter, Architecture Systems & Technologies

Architecture Systems & Technologies (www.archsystech.com) is chartering the Gulf Coast Community of Interest (www.gulfcoastcoi.org) to develop interoperable, integrated disaster and reponse models in a net centric environment on the Gulf Coast. OMNI Engineering (www.omniengineering.com) is providing the network infrastructure for the COI. We are currently meeting weekly with local and state government, industry, and academic leaders to establish the charter and a set of requirements for developing the Gulf Coast Security and Defense Mission Area, the Business Mission Area, and the Net Centric Information Mission Area. Leaders from the area's government, banking, academic, chemical plant, emergency management, IT, and other critical infrastructure communities are getting engaged in this effort. The mission of the COI is to develop information and data sharing capabilities on the Gulf Coast in a Net Centric Environment, to create cohesive, integratable, interoperable response within our own Gulf Coast Community to scenarios of disaster and terror, and to obtain explicit chartering from a government agency to develop a model for implementing a community of interest with an open Enterprise architecture interoperable with the Global Information Grid (GIG). Architecture Systems & Technologies would be a viable member of the Homeland Security Information Network Advisory Committee as our strategic plan for the COI includes documenting lessons learned and best practices from state and local governments and leveraging the information to develop a set of requirements for disaster and response models. A symposium is planned for February 21, 2007 at the Pelican Landing Conference Center in Moss Point, MS. Local, State, and Federal leaders are on schedule to discuss net-centric and information sharing strategies and for laying the groundwork for the Gulf Coast Community of Interest. For more information, send an email to gulfcoastcoi@archsystech.com