[CAP] [emergency] NOAA Undermining International Standards?

[Rudman, Richard A]

I sent a message to my prime NOAA NWS contact about this simply  
saying that I have heard that CAP will not be fully implemented  
within HazCollect and asking for more information.  I would also like  
to see the specifics. I agree with Rex that going public with this  
may be necessary.

Richard Rudman
======
On Jun 1, 2006, at 6:12 AM, Rex Brooks wrote:

> Thanks for the heads up, Art,
>
> Can you provide the specific parts of CAP that are not being
> implemented? If we are to successfully influence this situation in a
> way that can ameliorate or alleviate the problem, we need to know
> this.
>
> My general approach in circumstances like this is to find those with
> the most practical clout who are willing to listen to sanity, and
> give them the kind of ammunition they need to apply the right
> leverage.
>
> That would be a clear example of how the real world consequences of
> some policy such as this will have obvious harmful affects which can
> be clearly linked back to the decision makers in question. If it
> looks like they could be on the receiving end of the responsibility
> for a calamity, the chances are they will buck whatever corporate or
> political pressures being brought to bear on them.
>
> However, it is also useful to craft a few arrows for use on those
> corporate or political pressure groups just to give our champions
> more ammunition.
>
> At the same time, it is necessary to be able to get press focused on
> the probable calamity-result in such a way that the pressure groups
> understand that they will also be held responsible.
>
> In a sense, the aftermath of Katrina with the start of this year's
> hurricane season, the lingering aftereffect of the Tsunamis,
> especially with the recent Indonesian Earthquake puncutated by the
> volcanic rumblings or Mount Merabi and the impending Avian Flu
> Pandemic, which is showing the first signs of manifesting human to
> human transmissibility are all our friends, sad to say. But we have
> to make use of the public awareness of these disasters, both in spite
> of and because of disaster fatigue since we are all quite ready to
> lynch whoever rubs our collective nose in further negligence in the
> face of such non-stop disasters.
>
> Ugh!
> Rex
>
> At 9:33 PM -0700 5/31/06, Art Botterell wrote:
>> Friends -
>>
>> As you may be aware, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
>> Administration (NOAA), in a bid to expand its role in national
>> public warning, is representing its new "HazCollect" all-hazard
>> warning program as using the OASIS Common Alerting Protocol (CAP)
>> standard.
>>
>> Regrettably, what NOAA is proposing to roll out nationwide in the
>> next few months is a crippled and incomplete version of the CAP data
>> format.
>>
>> If NOAA was a warning system provider like any other, that might be
>> a minor and ultimately self-correcting glitch.  But what NOAA is
>> about to unwrap is nothing less than a national backbone network for
>> public warnings of all kinds.  The sheer size and scope of the NOAA
>> effort means there'll be strong pressure on other warning technology
>> providers to conform to the NOAA-variant specification.  That will
>> leave firms and agencies in the U.S. and abroad that already have
>> implemented CAP per the international specification at a severe
>> disadvantage.
>>
>> Despite numerous requests over the past six months, and spurning
>> offers of technical assistance and even of funds from local
>> governments to bring HazCollect into full CAP compliance, the NOAA
>> officials in charge of HazCollect have stubbornly declined to have
>> their contractor, the Battelle Memorial Foundation, make the
>> relatively minor--by their own admission--adjustments required for
>> full CAP compliance.
>>
>> Regrettably, we can no longer ignore the possibility that NOAA is
>> trying deliberately to drive a wedge between implementers and the
>> international standards process.  One reason might be that the
>> restrictions NOAA is trying to impose on CAP serve to mask serious
>> and long-standing shortcomings in existing warning systems,
>> including ones operated by NOAA.
>>
>> But we don't need to speculate about motives to see that we are at a
>> crossroads for the adoption of open standards by the U.S.
>> Government.  If federal agencies start to rewrite science-based
>> consensus standards by dint of raw administrative muscle, that will
>> leave the technology market at the mercy of unrestrained
>> bureaucracy.  It will inflict huge costs on industry and the public
>> and be an enormous setback for international humanitarian relief and
>> the global war on terror.
>>
>> It's too bad that quiet diplomacy was unable to resolve this before
>> it became public.  However, with the national deployment of
>> HazCollect's "initial operating capacity" just weeks away, it's time
>> for the standards community to take a stand for standards compliance
>> and transparency.
>>
>> Therefore, speaking as the original architect and editor of the
>> Common Alerting Protocol, I'm calling on the OASIS Emergency
>> Management Technical Committee and its members to demand that
>> HazCollect not be declared operational until its CAP implementation
>> is complete and fully compliant with the published specifications.
>>
>> Our integrity is being tested now.  Either we stand up for open,
>> non-proprietary standards or we stand by as our work becomes a
>> stalking-horse for narrow institutional interests.  I'm confident
>> that the agencies, organizations and individuals who've invested so
>> much hard work in standards development over the last few years
>> won't let that work be distorted or dismissed.
>>
>> - Art
>>
>>
>> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
>> To unsubscribe from this mail list, you must leave the OASIS TC that
>> generates this mail.  You may a link to this group and all your  
>> TCs in OASIS
>> at:
>> https://www.oasis-open.org/apps/org/workgroup/portal/ 
>> my_workgroups.php
>
>
> -- 
> Rex Brooks
> President, CEO
> Starbourne Communications Design
> GeoAddress: 1361-A Addison
> Berkeley, CA 94702
> Tel: 510-849-2309
> _______________________________________________
> This list is for public discussion of the Common Alerting  
> Protocol.  This list is NOT part of the formal record of the OASIS  
> Emergency Management TC.  Comments for the OASIS record should be  
> posted using the form at http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/ 
> comments/form.php?wg_abbrev=emergency
> CAP-list mailing list
> CAP-list at lists.incident.com
> http://eastpac.incident.com/mailman/listinfo/cap-list
>
> This list is not for announcements, advertising or advocacy of any  
> particular program or product other than the CAP itself.