More CAP News!

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

Hi,

I wanted to make certain that everyone saw Robin Cover's article below. This
is another great time to request that you and/or your organization join the
Emergency Interoperability Member Section,
http://www.oasis-open.org/apps/org/workgroup/emergency-ms/index.php.
 
Your organization can affiliate by becoming a Supporting Entity to help fund
the many initiatives going forward. This means that you can direct OASIS to
allocate a percentage of your dues to go directly to the EI MS, this will
not increase your annual dues; it simply affects distribution of your dues.
Please ask your OASIS primary rep to send an email to
(member-services@oasis-open.org) requesting affiliation with the EI Member
Section.

Your company/org. will be listed as a supporter on the EI Member Section web
pages; you will also gain voting rights in determining the MS Steering
Committee and other governance matters as described in the Rules of
Procedure.

Please contact me with any questions or concerns!
 
Best regards,
Dee Schur

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XML Daily Newslink. Wednesday, 18 July 2007 A Cover Pages Publication
http://xml.coverpages.org/ Provided by OASIS http://www.oasis-open.org
Edited by Robin Cover

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Emergency Alert System (EAS) Poised for Massive Overhaul Staff, Radio World
Online

For more than 50 years, our government-imposed emergency alerting systems
have tried and too often failed to fulfill their collective intended mission
and benefit to the public.  The Integrated Public Alert and Warning System
or IPAWS is a new initiative launched within DHS and FEMA to work with
stakeholders to improve our public warning systems. We are seeing the fruit
of that labor start to ripen. On May 31, 2007 the FCC adopted a Second
Report and Order and FNPRM regarding EAS that will require EAS participants
to accept messages using CAP, the Common Alerting Protocol. This will be
incorporated in the next generation of EAS delivery systems no later than
180 days after FEMA announces its adoption of standards. CAP is an open,
non-proprietary, XML-based standard data interchange format used by DHS,
FEMA, NWS, USGS and more recently by the FCC. It can be used to collect all
types of hazard warnings and reports locally, regionally and nationally for
input into a range of information management and warning dissemination
systems. The beauty of CAP is that it's readily used by the Internet,
cellphones, PDAs, newsgathering organizations, radio, TV and cable
operators, highway messaging, lottery machines and so on. The new EAS
delivery structure will need to incorporate a text-based engine that will
easily be harnessed by CAP. Existing EAS hardware manufacturers and perhaps
new players will be introducing new codec versions that include CAP
capability when rules are finalized. Perhaps most important for existing
broadcasters, the new rules will require transmitting state and locally
targeted EAS alerts that are originated by governors or their designees. The
goal in forging a new EAS system is to quickly and reliably reach 99 percent
of the nation using radio, TV and other media with geo-targeted voice,
video, text and data emergency information. The government has fast-tracked
this proceeding, and input from broadcasters is very much needed and
encouraged. Radio World urges all interested parties to participate in the
rulemaking process.
We have a real opportunity to make EAS work the way it was intended.
[Note: CAP

http://www.rwonline.com/pages/s.0044/t.7243.html
See also OASIS Emergency Management TC and CAP:
http://xml.coverpages.org/emergencyManagement.html#oasis

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