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Subject: [emergency] RE: Opportunity for CAP? State CIOs Plan System ToWarn Public Of Danger
Title: [emergency] RE: Opportunity for CAP? State CIOs
Plan Syste
As if the tsunami disaster wasn't enough, the train wreks in
South Carolina really drives home the point of 2003's Sept. CAP demo
and the presentation I made at Collaboration Expedition Workshop #30
(slide 59) at the NSF in Dec. 2003 (below) that relates to just
exactly how the measures suggested below are needed but only as a
start. What do you do with a filled Baseball Stadium downwind
from a toxic leak let alone an incendiary explosion in a tank car? I
think we also need to get some attention onto Chemical Plants and
Warehouses, as well as LNG ports.
http://ua-exp.gov/QuickPlace/ua-exp/Main.nsf/h_Index/B6211857396EBE3485256DF6007B83A8/?OpenDocument&Form=h_PageUI&PreSetFields=h_HTMLImport;TMP9565.HTM
Anyone else catch the History Channel program over the weekend on
mega-tsunamis generated from volcanic island earthquake/eruption
triggered landslide collapses that identify an active volcano in the
Canary Islands as the most likely source of such for the next 200
years or so? Very interesting for what research has discovered about
how an event considerably larger than the Sumatra Quake Dec. 24, 2004
could happen. The coastline most at rish up to 12 miles inland? The
entire east oast of the U.S. Could the next eruption or as delayed the
fifth eruption from now. Fascinating.
Thanks, Carl, this is important in the window of opportunity we
are in now.
Ciao,
Rex
At 9:13 AM -0700 1/10/05, Carl Reed OGC wrote:
State CIOs Plan System To Warn Public Of
Danger Jan. 6, 2005
Proposals call for a system that would be used to send
alerts--targeted down to an individual ZIP code. The warnings would
show up on mobile phones, PCs, PDAs, as well as TV and radio.
By Jim Nash
InformationWeek
Amber Alerts, used to rapidly disseminate news of child abductions,
are getting a lot of attention from federal and state governments
looking for better ways to warn the public of imminent danger such as
threats to public safety. The ultimate goal: a standard, nationwide
system for alerting the public.
The National Association of State CIOs
(NASCIO) is planning a pilot that would operate similarly to Amber
Alerts and could enable states to warn people of everything from
overturned trucks hauling gas to a chemical attack. On the federal
level, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is already in
the midst of such a pilot.
Amber Alerts are sent to
broadcasters--which stop programs to announce details of suspected
kidnappings--and directly to the public via E-mail, text messages,
electronic roadside signs, and pop-ups on computer screens.
Safety information from governments tends
to flow like water from a hydrant: If you aren't standing in front of
it, you aren't getting wet. A good example is storm warnings that can
only alert people who are listening to a radio or watching TV when the
warning is issued. The creators of Amber Alerts have honed what might
be called the capillary model of information distribution: Alerts
start in a central conduit, namely a Web portal, and flow out to a
variety of devices.
Chris Dixon, an issues coordinator with
NASCIO, says the organization is in the early stages of planning its
pilot--coordinating with DHS to minimize overlap in the projects. The
goal is to create a nationwide alert network called the All Alert
System, Dixon says.
"It'd be state-implemented and
state-activated," Dixon says. Governors could use the system at
their discretion either for their states alone or in concert with
other governors.
The system would be able to send
messages--targeted down to an individual ZIP code, if necessary. Dixon
says he's already thinking about ways to harden the network against
hacking and crashes.
The pilot is expected to be running by
the end of the first quarter, despite the fact NASCIO hasn't made a
short list of locations for the test. By August, NASCIO must report to
Congress on results of the pilot. There's no budget for the pilot
yet.
Meanwhile, the Federal Emergency
Management Agency is in the midst of its Digital Emergency System
pilot project. Reynold Hoover, director of the office of national
security coordination, says FEMA is mandated by the Intelligence
Reform Act to work with NASCIO to minimize duplicative efforts.
"We're proposing that they become
part of [our] pilot," which began in October and should end in
March, Hoover says. FEMA is testing the practicality of using the
digital signals of public TV stations as the conduit that would carry
warnings to mobile phones, PDAs, satellite broadcasts, cable
companies, and others.
Carl Reed, PhD
CTO and Executive Director Specification Program
OGC
The OGC: Helping the World to Communicate Geographically
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