[sbe-eas] Fw: IPAWS Stakeholder Update

[k7cr]

Just received - FYI - 
Clay Freinwald
 
Sent: Friday, May 21, 2010 7:03 AM
Subject: IPAWS Stakeholder Update


This newsletter is the third in a series of Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS) Stakeholder Updates and is intended to supplement IPAWS Practitioner Working Group (PWG), Federal Working Group (FWG), and Industry Meetings. 

 

In this Update:

·         Status on FEMA IPAWS CAP Adoption

·         Update on the Conformity Assessment Program

·         Status on the CAP-to-EAS Implementation Guide

·         Partner Update on the Commercial Mobile Alert Service RDT&E Program

·         FEMA IPAWS Demonstration at the National Association of Broadcasters Conference

·         Upcoming Conferences

 

IPAWS Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) Adoption

The Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards' (OASIS) Emergency Management Technical Committee approved CAP v1.2 as a Committee Specification Draft on April 13, 2010. Earlier this month, OASIS members began voting on whether to make CAP v1.2 a standard. The earliest the standard would be finalized is June 30, 2010.  The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) intends to announce IPAWS CAP adoption later this year.  CAP v1.2 will support interoperability with existing and future emergency messaging systems, including the legacy Emergency Alert System (EAS) and Next Generation Emergency Alert System; the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) systems (i.e. HazCollect, NOAA Weather Radio, etc.); and the Commercial Mobile Alert Service (CMAS).

 

Conformity Assessment Program

Pilot testing for the CAP v1.2 conformity assessment occurred in March 2010. Formal testing will not begin until after OASIS designates CAP v1.2 as a standard.  The earliest testing will begin is July 2010. Information about the Conformity Assessment Program can be found at https://www.nimssc.org/ipawsconform/.  

 

CAP-to-EAS Implementation Guide

As discussed in past working group meetings, part of IPAWS standards work includes providing a CAP-to-EAS Implementation Guide to ensure legacy EAS equipment can handle a CAP message. Over the past three months, the EAS CAP Industry Group (ECIG) has been hard at work to create the CAP-to-EAS Implementation Guide. In April 2010, the ECIG board approved the CAP-to-EAS Implementation Guide and posted it to their website for a two-week public comment period.  The feedback collected during the comment period was used to update the Implementation Guide before it was finalized. The CAP-to-EAS Implementation Guide is now available on the ECIG website (www.eas-cap.org).  

 

Partner Update:  CMAS Research, Development, Testing and Evaluation (RDT&E) Program 

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology (S&T) Directorate's CMAS RDT&E Program recently sponsored a Workshop on Public Response to Alerts and Warnings on Mobile Devices, hosted by the National Academy of Sciences on April 13 and 14, 2010 in Washington, DC.  The Warning, Alert, and Response Network (WARN) Act of 2006, which established CMAS to enable a national capability to deliver alert messages to mobile devices, required the Command, Control and Interoperability Division within DHS S&T to conduct research on understanding and improving public response to warnings. The Public Response Workshop brought together experts in the field of public alerts and warnings from both the research and practitioner communities, to address this critical emergency management issue.  Workshop panelists and participants consistently emphasized that successful implementation of a mobile alert system must take into account key factors that impact public response, such as message content, source credibility, and public education.   

 

IPAWS Demonstration at the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) Conference

The FEMA IPAWS program participated in the 2010 NAB Conference held in Las Vegas, NV on April 12-15, 2010.  Damon Penn, Assistant Administrator of FEMA National Continuity Programs, provided opening remarks at the "Putting the Final Touches on Next-Generation EAS" session.  Antwane Johnson, Division Director of FEMA IPAWS, and Wade Witmer, Deputy Division Director of FEMA IPAWS, spoke as panelists during the session.

 

IPAWS staff, with NOAA and private sector partners, were on hand at the FEMA IPAWS booth to demonstrate the IPAWS concept of operations, alert origination, and alert aggregation using the Disaster Management (DM) Open Platform for Emergency Networks (IPAWS-OPEN), and alert dissemination technologies.  Multiple types of EAS devices, including NOAA weather radio and a variety of commercial encoder/decoder devices, monitored the IPAWS-OPEN system for CAP messages to alarm equipment based on the message types and geo-location. Show attendees, interested in public alert and warnings and the upcoming EAS National test, witnessed IPAWS-centric demonstrations. Special demonstrations were also done for the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), a television station, senior Federal officers, and other distinguished guests.  

 

FEMA IPAWS' presence at the NAB Show strengthened engagement of industry stakeholders within the broadcasting community and increased awareness, coordination, and cooperation for the implementation of the IPAWS program and the upcoming nationwide EAS test, to be held in early 2011.  

 

The NAB Show is an annual event and is the world's largest electronic media show covering the development, management, and delivery of content across all mediums.  Broadcasters represent a major component in the delivery of emergency alerts and warnings to the public.  FEMA IPAWS is appreciative of its NAB Show demonstration partners, including NOAA/NWS, AlertFM/Global Security Systems, Alertus, Gorman Redlick, Sage, TFT, Trilithic, Via Radio, and Warning Systems, Inc.

 

Members from the IPAWS program plan to attend the following conferences:

 

      Date
     Conference
     Location
     
      June 6-9, 2010
     World Conference on Disaster Management
     Toronto, Canada
     
      July 16-20, 2010
     National Association of Counties Annual Conference and Expo
     Reno, NV
     
      August 1-5, 2010
     Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials International Conference and Expo
     Houston, TX
     
      August 24-28, 2010
     Fire Rescue International
     Chicago, IL
     
      October 15-21, 2010
     National Emergency Managers Association Annual Conference
     Little Rock, AR
     
      October 17-20, 2010
     International County/City Managers Association Annual Conference
     San Jose, CA
     
      October 30-November 4, 2010
     International Association of Emergency Managers Annual Conference
     San Antonio, TX
     
      November 14-19, 2010
     National Congress of American Indians Annual Convention
     Albuquerque, NM
     
      November 30-December 4, 2010
     National League of Cities Congress of Cities and Expo
     Denver, CO
     

 

 

Below is an update on the outstanding action items brought up during the last FEMA IPAWS PWG, FWG, and Industry Meetings.  Additional meetings will be scheduled as needed.  

 

      #
     Description
     Update
     
      1
     FEMA to find out more information and details about the TechRadium/Twitter patent lawsuit
     No developments at this point.  FEMA IPAWS and FEMA Legal will continue to track this issue as it affects IPAWS, and provide updates to stakeholders.

       
     
      2
     Confirm dates with Disaster Management Interoperability Services (DMIS) for IPAWS web capability and let the PWG know
     DMIS is currently being upgraded to DM-Framework and DM-OPEN 2.0.  These products are transitioning into the IPAWS program and will be leveraged to perform the IPAWS aggregation function and to provide a message-authoring tool for emergency managers.  Transition will be complete by September 2010.

       
     
      3
     Hold meetings to get more technical folks at the Department of Justice (DoJ) involved

       
     FEMA recently added three new members to the IPAWS team. Project assignments will be made in the coming weeks. 
     
      4
     Get FWG members information on National AMBER Alerts Meeting

       
     In process.

       
     
      5
     Update the adoption timeline presented to the group to decipher between adoption and implementation of the CAP profile

       
     The earliest the CAP v1.2 standard would be finalized is in June 2010.  FEMA IPAWS intends to announce IPAWS CAP adoption later this year.  Implementation of the CAP profile is expected in March 2011 for EAS participants.  Additional information on the CAP profile is included in the IPAWS newsletter.

       
     
      6
     Figure out how to engage the "implementers"

       
     IPAWS is engaging implementers through the CAP-to-EAS Implementation Guide and Conformity Assessment Program.  Additional information on the Implementation Guide and Conformity Assessment Program is included in the IPAWS newsletter.

       
     

 

As always, please contact us if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions.  Thank you for your continued interest and engagement in IPAWS.

 

Sent on behalf of FEMA IPAWS and DHS Science & Technology

 

 

 
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