Re: [emergency] Question about use of CAP to generate emergency alerts via twitter [SEC=UNCLASSIFIED]

[Robert Bunge - NOAA Federal <robert.bunge@noaa.gov>]

I would agree with Norm.  A community like Twitter has its own requirements... the hashtag is an example.  While you likely would not want to populate a "pure" CAP headline or even description with Twitter specific hashtags, adding them to a parameter that is community specific makes sense and is easy.   This would also allow the Twitter parameter to be populated with a URL or other information that would not be in a normal headline.

In the US, the Wireless Emergency Alerting system is limited to 90 characters.  We use a parameter to populate that message since it then allows the headline to be longer and more descriptive.  

Bob Bunge

On Wed, Dec 5, 2012 at 4:33 PM, Paulsen,Norm [Ontario] <Norm.Paulsen@ec.gc.ca> wrote:

Greg

Using headline and description is always an option. Its equally valid as using parameter. The question you should ask is, which fits better in the bigger picture? The bigger picture is (who are all the players involved and how is "change" going to be managed over time).

So, if this is a Service from one entity generating a CAP message to one channel recieving a CAP message then no real issues in my opinion. If however, there are multiple CAP generators and/or multiple CAP recipients from many different channels (twitter and otherwise) then you may be creating a problem for yourself constraining headline and description in this way (change, and there always is change, slows down considerably). In such cases I believe the parameter is a better option for community systems. If your alert issuers want to service several channels at once (I know I do), they may not want to create several CAP streams for several channels (very costly). As for me, I create one CAP, then expect a third party in between to transform it into channel specific formats or the last mile distributor to take out of it what they need. For that reason I advocate the use of parameter.

So the question is not a CAP question, it is a community question. CAP doesn't judge and allows either. This applies to all the other channels as well as twitter.

Norm

________________________________

From: emergency@lists.oasis-open.org on behalf of Doug Allport
Sent: Wed 12/5/2012 8:56 AM
To: Gary Ham
Cc: Trott, Gregory; emergency@lists.oasis-open.org
Subject: Re: [emergency] Question about use of CAP to generate emergency alerts via twitter [SEC=UNCLASSIFIED]


The Province of Alberta puts it into a twitter specific <parameter>. A national effort is suggesting to do the same for all channel specific content. This keeps the free form fields free.

Cheers,
Doug Allport
(613) 294-4425

From mobile.

On 2012-12-05, at 12:00 AM, "Gary Ham" <gham@grandpaham.com> wrote:



        The original concept was to use headline for SMS. Twitter would be similar. In fact, I wrote a titter app myself that can tweet headline.

        Sent from my iPad

        On Dec 4, 2012, at 9:53 PM, "Trott, Gregory" <Gregory.Trott@ag.gov.au> wrote:



                UNCLASSIFIED

                EM-TC Members,



                I am contacting you all in the hope that I can locate an organisation among the TC membership who has used Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) messages with Twitter and is willing to share their approach and experiences with CAP Users in Australia.



                The reason I ask is because an Australian CAP User is seeking to generate all-hazard alerts to the public via twitter, using the CAP message standard to create the alert message.  The Australian CAP User is interested in looking at any examples where the hashtag and twitter message content are incorporated into a CAP message.  Our initial thoughts are that either the OPTIONAL <headline> or <description> sub-elements could be used to incorporate the text that would be used in a character limited twitter message that gets distributed via twitter feeds, and the following hashtags might appear in the message: authority releasing the alert; and the "official" tag for the particular emergency event.



                I attempted to use the Kavi search engine to search for "twitter" and "hashtag" keywords but found nothing related to my question, so I am hoping this email approach puts me in contact with a knowledgeable person within the EM-TC membership who might be able to assist with this inquiry.  Please let me know if there is an alternate method that OASIS would prefer me to use in the future to pose questions like this one.





                Regards,



                Greg Trott

                Custodian for the Australian Government standard for the Common Alerting Protocol - Australia Profile (CAP-AU-STD)

                Australian Government Attorney-General's Department



                Download the CAP-AU-STD from www.em.gov.au/CapAuStd <http://www.em.gov.au/CapAuStd>






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