Re: [emergency] Draft TC Letter on HazCollect

[Art Botterell <acb@incident.com>]

On Jun 13, 2006, at 6/13/06 6:49 PM, Tim Grapes wrote:
> If it is agreed that a letter be sent by the TC, we should simply  
> state our concerns
> regarding the specific issue, stop there, and address this issue in  
> the next
> release of the standard (which we could also add).

Absolutely.  While the current HazCollect interface to non-NOAA users  
doesn't fully conform to the CAP spec, the cognizant NOAA staff and  
their expert contractors have identified that problem and devised a  
fix.  All that remains... but vitally important... is timely  
completion of that corrective action.

Our concern, I believe, is that any large-scale federal deployment of  
a variant "CAP" interface would cause potentially damaging confusion  
of the standard and unnecessary controversy for the HazCollect  
program.  Our strategy, I'd suggest, should be to help NOAA (and DHS)  
prevent that by providing documentation as to the importance of  
completing the planned repairs in time for a fully functional launch.

At the same time I'm not sure we should muddy the waters by implying  
that the current specification is somehow to blame for all this.   
Personally, I'm not convinced that it is and anyway, now that the  
HazCollect team has announced they're going to press to compliance,  
why risk undermining them?

- Art