[CAP] Fwd: [emergency] FW: [announce] Members Approve Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) v1.1 as OASIS Standard

[Art Botterell]

Well, it took awhile to get the news release out the door, but here  
it is:

Begin forwarded message:

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Carol Geyer [mailto:carol.geyer at oasis-open.org]
> Sent: Wednesday, November 30, 2005 9:59 AM
> To: announce at lists.oasis-open.org
> Subject: [announce] Members Approve Common Alerting Protocol (CAP)  
> v1.1 as OASIS Standard
>
> Members Approve Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) v1.1 as OASIS Standard
>
> Boston, MA, USA; 30 November 2005 -- OASIS, the international e- 
> business standards consortium, today announced that its members  
> have approved the Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) version 1.1 as an  
> OASIS Standard, a status that signifies the highest level of  
> ratification. Developed through an open process by the OASIS  
> Emergency Management Technical Committee, CAP provides a simple,  
> general-purpose format for exchanging all-hazard emergency alerts  
> and public warnings over any network.
>
> "CAP allows a consistent warning message to be disseminated  
> simultaneously over many different systems, increasing warning  
> effectiveness while simplifying the notification task," said Elysa  
> Jones of Warning Systems, Inc., chair of the OASIS Emergency  
> Management Technical Committee. "Since the approval of CAP v1.0 in  
> 2004, the standard has been deployed by a wide variety of  
> government agencies and companies within the emergency management  
> community. CAP v1.1 incorporates many lessons learned in the  
> production implementation of the standard."
>
> Jones cited several high-profile CAP implementations, including the  
> United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration  
> (NOAA) and the United States Geological Survey (USGS).
>
> "CAP is an integral part of relaying civil emergency messages on  
> the NOAA Weather Radio All Hazards and other NWS dissemination  
> systems," said Mark Paese, Director, Operations Division for NOAA's  
> National Weather Service. "Its success is an excellent example of  
> how the emergency management community and the government can work  
> together to increase the effectiveness of emergency alerting."
>
> "The United States Geological Survey is pleased to be providing  
> information about earthquakes and volcano and landslide advisories  
> in CAP format," said David Oppenheimer, a seismologist with the  
> USGS Earthquake Hazards Program. "The advantage of CAP is that it  
> allows the USGS to instantaneously distribute our earthquake  
> information to a wide audience of emergency responders in an  
> approved message format." The USGS automatically distributes CAP  
> messages about earthquakes within minutes after their occurrence as  
> well as advisories via the Disaster Management Interoperability  
> Services (DMIS) and as an RSS feed from the USGS website.
>
> CAP v1.1 enhancements include flexible geographic targeting using  
> latitude/longitude shapes and other geospatial representations in  
> three dimensions; multilingual and multi-audience messaging; phased  
> and delayed effective times and expirations; enhanced message  
> update and cancellation features; template support for framing  
> complete and effective warning messages; compatibility with digital  
> encryption and signature; and a facility for digital images and audio.
>
> Chip Hines, Program Manager for the Disaster Management eGov  
> Initiative Office of the Chief Information Officer Emergency  
> Preparedness and Response/FEMA Department of Homeland Security,  
> noted, "Not only does the publication of the CAP OASIS Standard  
> signify an increase in capability to send alerts, it also shows  
> that the process works--that the emergency community is ready,  
> willing, and able to bring standards into their operations. CAP has  
> grown into a standard that is being adopted worldwide, helping the  
> seamless transition of a host of alerts across platforms and  
> systems. The end result is a world better prepared for any emergency."
>
> "The CAP OASIS Standard is being used in many exciting ways, some  
> that weren't envisioned in the initial stages of its development.  
> It offers tremendous benefits for local public safety environments  
> as well as in global and regional efforts, such as tsunami  
> warnings," said Patrick Gannon, president and CEO of OASIS. "With  
> this work and their continuing efforts, members of the OASIS  
> Emergency Management Technical Committee are responding well to  
> today's critical need for enhanced response. There is little doubt  
> that the use of CAP offers the potential to save lives."
>
> The OASIS Emergency Management Technical Committee remains open to  
> new participation and particularly seeks input from those in the  
> international community  to advance CAP in alignment with other  
> specifications in its Emergency Data Exchange Language (EDXL)  
> suite. All interested parties are encouraged to exchange  
> information on implementing CAP via the cap-dev mailing list  
> (http://www.oasis-open.org/mlmanage/). As with all Consortium  
> projects, archives of the OASIS Emergency Management Committee's  
> work are accessible to both members and non-members, and OASIS  
> hosts an open mail list for public comment on the standard.
>
>
> About OASIS:
>
> OASIS (Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information  
> Standards) is a not-for-profit, international consortium that  
> drives the development, convergence, and adoption of e-business  
> standards. Members themselves set the OASIS technical agenda, using  
> a lightweight, open process expressly designed to promote industry  
> consensus and unite disparate efforts. The consortium produces open  
> standards for Web services, security, e-business, and  
> standardization efforts in the public sector and for application- 
> specific markets. Founded in 1993, OASIS has more than 5,000  
> participants representing over 600 organizations and individual  
> members in 100 countries. Approved OASIS Standards include AVDL,  
> CAP, DITA, DocBook, DSML, ebXML CPPA, ebXML Messaging, ebXML  
> Registry, OpenDocument, SAML, SPML, UBL, UDDI, WSDM, WS- 
> Reliability, WSRP, WS-Security, XACML, XCBF, and XML Catalogs.  
> http://www.oasis-open.org
>
>
> Additional information:
>
> OASIS Emergency Management Technical Committee http://www.oasis- 
> open.org/committees/emergency
>
> FAQ
> http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/emergency/faq.php
>
>
>
> Press contact:
>
> Carol Geyer
> Director of Communications
> OASIS
> carol.geyer at oasis-open.org
> +1.978.667.5115 x209