[CAP] NOAA Undermining International Standards?

[Herbert White]

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: 	Re: [CAP] NOAA Undermining International Standards?
Date: 	Fri, 02 Jun 2006 10:33:48 -0400
From: 	Herbert White <Herbert.White at noaa.gov>
To: 	Art Botterell <acb at incident.com>
CC: 	Emergency Mgt XML TC <emergency at lists.oasis-open.org>, 
cap-list at lists.incident.com
References: 	<447ED3DA.1090108 at noaa.gov>



To try and calm the waters here, let me try to briefly clarify the issue 
on NWS's intent and role with HazCollect.  As one of the lead Federal 
agencies in operational warning dissemination, we recognize the high 
visibility of anything we do.  In the case of HazCollect, NWS is taking 
the first steps needed to implement an all-hazard warning system 
enabling emergency managers to input information directly onto the NOAA 
dissemination networks and beyond in support of the National Response 
Plan.  A good reason for doing it is the NWS network has the capability 
to widely disseminate the information and directly warn the public.

What we're striving for is what the CAP community has been promoting all 
along:  a common protocol that can be used by any system.  We also have 
the requirement to support existing technology, with the requirement to 
move into new technologies.
NOAA is NOT rewriting CAP specification and, as stated, needs to conform 
to CAP.  The planned HazCollect Initial Operating Capability (IOC) is 
just the first step in the process.  NOAA's intent is to fully support 
the CAP "Instruction" element.  We look forward to working with the CAP 
community to implement this high priority HazCollect function.

Herb White
Dissemination Services Manager, OCWWS
NOAA National Weather Service
Herbert.White at noaa.gov
>
> -------- Original Message --------
> Subject: [CAP] NOAA Undermining International Standards?
> Date: Wed, 31 May 2006 21:33:18 -0700
> From: Art Botterell <acb at incident.com>
> To: Emergency Mgt XML TC <emergency at lists.oasis-open.org>
> CC: cap-list at lists.incident.com
>
> 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
> _______________________________________________
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> 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 
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