OASIS Common Alerting Protocol - Workshop 9-10 December 2008

["Dee Schur" <dee.schur@oasis-open.org>]

Dear OASIS Members,

OASIS members are invited to suggest major discussion topics/issues and
potential participants for a high-level Common Alerting Protocol (CAP)
Implementation Workshop that will be organized jointly by
the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), ITU and OASIS. The Workshop
will take place in Geneva on 09-10 December.

The event will focus on the Common Alerting Protocol (CAP), an OASIS
Standard, adopted as ITU Recommendation X.1303, and the foundational 
standard for all-media public warning. Designed as an all-hazards alert
format, CAP is being implemented worldwide for earthquakes, public
health/epidemics, and many other emergencies, in addition to weather events.

If your organization is interested, please reply by 
September 8 (mailto:echristian@wmo.int) with a copy to me
as to:

 - How many persons from your organization are 
   likely to participate in this Workshop?

 - Is your organization interested in showing a 
   technology demo or best practices poster?

 - What high-priority coordination topics should 
   be discussed at this Workshop?

Please also forward this note to any discussion lists or
individuals that may be interested in participating.

Details:

The Workshop is planned for 9-10 December 2008 at the 
WMO (World Meteorological Organization) in Geneva, in 
cooperation with OASIS and ITU. It will be primarily a 
forum for discussions among CAP implementers and 
ICT or emergency management organizations on topics 
requiring coordination. These topics may include, among 
others: having an internationally agreed list of authorities 
for common types of CAP alerts; disseminating, aggregating, 
and authenticating CAP alerts; making globally unique 
identifiers for CAP alerts; and, best practices for text 
in the CAP "description" and "instruction" elements.

There is no charge for participation in the Workshop.

You may be aware that this Workshop follows on the 
October 2006 "Workshop and Demonstration of Advances in 
ICT Standards for Public Warning" held at ITU in Geneva.  
see http://www.itu.int/ITU-T/worksem/ictspw and 
http://www.oasis-open.org/events/ITU-T-OASISWorkshop2006/proceedings.php.


Since that 2006 Workshop, there have been notable 
developments including:

 - The ITU-D (ITU Development sector) approved guidance  
   for developing nations on CAP implementation
 - OASIS established its Emergency Management Member  
   Section to accelerate implementation of CAP and  
   allied emergency data exchange standards
 - The U.S. FCC (Federal Communications Commission) 
   issued an order requiring use of CAP
 - The WMO SWIC (Severe Weather Information Centre) 
   began work on CAP warnings of Tropical Cyclones
 - The U.S. National Weather Service (NWS) continued 
   improving its CAP messages and developing its 
   Next Generation Warning Tool
 - The Weather Channel underscored to NWS the need 
   to institute CAP
 - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency began 
   developing CAP alerts for air quality warnings
 - The Earth Observations Summit highlighted CAP 
   implementation as a major achievement
 - Canada and the U.S. coordinated on implementation 
   of their respective CAP-based alerting systems
 - EUMETNET began exploring how to adapt METEOALARM 
   to support CAP.

The Chair of the organizing group is:
Eliot Christian, WIS Senior Scientific Officer
World Meteorological Organization (WMO)
Case Postal 2300, CH 1211 Geneva 2, Switzerland
phone: +41 22 730 81 71

Thank you for your attention,
--
Dee Schur, Manager of Member Support
OASIS: Advancing open standards for the information society
http://www.oasis-open.org
+1.978.667.5115 x211
Join us at the OASIS Forum on Security
30 Sept - 3 Oct, near London
http://events.oasis-open.org/home/forum/2008