[emergency-msg] Review of CAP Issue #18

[Art Botterell <acb@incident.com>]

ISSUE: 18 - Proposal to add a <responseType> element

DESCRIPTION: The commenter suggests that many implementers have 
expressed interest in having a coded, machine-interpretable "call to 
action" value available in all messages, which would specify the type 
of action the target audience for the message should take.

PROPOSED CHANGE:  The commenter suggests that a mandatory 
<responseType> element be added within the <info> block.  The 
enumerated values might include:

	Evacuate - Begin evacuation immediately.
	Shelter In Place - Take shelter immediately and minimize 
exposure to the outdoors.
	Mobilize - Activate pre-existing emergency plans.
	Monitor  - Monitor news sources for further details and instructions.
	Information Only - Information only, no action required at this time.

DISCUSSION:  As with <category> in the earlier days, there is some 
question of how the TC could obtain and validate an appropriate list 
of options for this field.  However, we do have the benefit of some 
other work (from the EDXL project) and the range of response actions 
for non-specialist and/or public audiences is relatively small.

The impact of this change would be a significant modification in the 
schema and in implementation software.  However, the impact would be 
lesser now than if this change were deferred, and the added 
functionality could be significant.

RECOMMENDATION:  Review the submitted taxonomy for <responseType> in 
the EDXL submission and extract a subset of items or collective codes 
appropriate to the alerting context, review it with the implementer 
community, and use that enumeration for a mandatory <responseType> in 
CAP 1.1.