Thanks Sukumar,
It's good to have the historical context to go with the current context.
Cheers,
Rex
At 2:12 PM -0500 2/19/09, Dwarkanath, Sukumar - INTL wrote:
>All,
>
>Following a request from the FEMA IPAWS Program, I am forwarding the
>below statement.
>
>Thanks
>
>Sukumar
>
>
>-----------------------------------------------------
>
> History:
>
>- In short, per the FCC's 2nd Report & Order in 12 Jul 07, the FCC
>deferred adoption of standards and protocols for the EAS system to
>FEMA. A 180-day implementation clock starts for industry upon
>FEMA's adoption of its standards and protocols.
>- On 30 Jul 08, FEMA announced in a press release that it will be
>working with its federal, state, local and industry partners,
>including OASIS, to develop its standards and protocols. At that
>time, FEMA gave notice to the community that it intends on adopting
>its standards and protocols by 1QCY09, or 31 Mar 09.
>- On 25 Sep 08, the EAS-CAP Industry Group (ECIG) published its
>draft CAP Profile.
>- On 22 Oct 08, FEMA and DHS S&T conducted a teleconference with the
>ECIG and discussed our plans and activities with them, including the
>OASIC process.
>- On 12 Dec 08, FEMA published a draft Profile Requirements document
>to the OASIS Profiles Sub-Committee and to the ECIG and the ATIS/TIA
>Joint CMAS standard development working group. The FEMA draft
>Profile Requirements document addressed only one exchange partner
>system, namely EAS.
>- Since 12 Dec 08, the OASIS Profiles SC has been adjudicating
>contributions from FEMA, DHS S&T, from within the SC (including NOAA
>and HazCollect), and from subject matter experts from the ECIG and
>ATIS/TIA to develop a draft IPAWS CAP Profile. FEMA welcomed the
>expansion of scope for the Profile development to include other
>exchange partner systems by including CMAS and HazCollect in
>addition to EAS.
>
>Statement:
>
>FEMA and DHS S&T acknowledge that not every community member is
>aware of the OASIS process or is able to participate in the OASIS
>process. We have been engaging Emergency Managers via a separate
>Practitioners Working Group (PWG) and plan to engage Industry via a
>separate Industry Engagement Day (IED) later this month. We have
>asked the PWG to provide comments on the original Profile
>Requirements document from Dec 08. We intend to adjudicate all
>comments on the Profile Requirements document in order to refine the
>Profile Requirements document. Further, as the OASIS Profile
>document has developed, that document has addressed many of the
>matters from the Profile Requirements document. We intend on
>offering all comments to the FEMA Profile Requirements document as
>contributions to the OASIS Profiles SC to help shape the OASIS IPAWS
>CAP Profile as well.
>
>FEMA's goal is to fulfill its responsibilities under the FCC's 2nd
>R&O to adopt standards and protocols for the Next-Generation EAS
>system. The OASIS standards-making process offers a public, open,
>fair, and rigorous forum for gathering and adjudicating all
>contributions from all members of the community. The community
>requests a single CAP message for use among multiple dissemination
>systems, which we have called exchange partners. We welcome
>contributions from the whole community in order to develop a
>singular OASIS IPAWS CAP Profile that will address constraints on
>the CAP v1.1 standard among all exchange partners.
>
>It is FEMA's responsibility to publish its standards and protocols.
> FEMA will consider and adjudicate the OASIS IPAWS CAP Profile as
>appropriate in preparation for its adoption of standards and
>protocols for the Next-Generation EAS. FEMA recognizes that the
>FCC's 2nd R&O does not require standards and protocols to be
>published at this time regarding security, multiple languages,
>alerts & warnings of special needs communities, or of video media
>types. Hence, we feel that it is reasonable to consider adopting
>the OASIS IPAWS CAP Profile as part of its pending standards and
>protocols. Note, however, in accordance with statements made
>publicly, that FEMA intends on pursuing the development of
>additional requirements to address any outstanding issues for NG-EAS
>systems.
>
>
>
>------------------------------------------------------
>Sukumar Dwarkanath
>Touchstone
>SRA International
>1920 N Street NW
>Washington DC 20002
>
>