[CAP] CAP Implementation Analogies

[Jeff Kyser]

I think we need to resolve some things.

Are you talking about vanilla, vanilla bean, or french vanilla?
I really like frozen yogurt better, but that's probably a different
animal. How do I know what's in the ice cream? Are all the
ingredients standard? Are they all on the label, or do I get
referred to some web site to find out, or are part of them
'special ingredients' that make it a secret recipe? These
things you call 'sprinkles' - I can think of something similar
that I call 'confetti'. Are we talking about the same stuff?
And what about 'scoops'? How big are they? Can all of
my vanilla fit inside a scoop, or do I have to keep some my
ice cream somewhere else? How do I know your ice
cream is still any good? I mean, you don't have to put an
expiration date on it, do you? Have you ever had sour
ice cream? It can really ruin one's day... And the instructions -
sometimes, the cartons are produced overseas and they
are written in spanish or some other language I can't
read, or they are in english, but they were written by someone
who uses english as a second language.... And about those
sprinkles - do you mean 'colored' or 'coloured'...

having fun on a Friday...

-jeff

On Jun 19, 2006, at 6:29 PM, Mick Jagger wrote:

> Hi,
> 	The OASIS EM committee put a lot of hard work into producing CAP  
> and now with a standard in hand, implementers have begun putting  
> CAP into practice.  In doing so, a number of issues have begun to  
> arise such as the HazCollect instruction field, index formats,  
> custom values, legacy interop, and language translation.  Many of  
> these issues fall outside the bounds of a standard and into  
> implementation details.  I'd like to suggest that an implementation  
> guideline be developed to accompany the CAP standard.
> 	So to get things started I'd like to offer the following  
> implementation analogy both for the technical and non-technical  
> users of CAP, to serve as an introduction to the guideline.  Please  
> provide some feedback on this analogy and any improvements you'd  
> like to suggest.  I'll compile them all and edit something together  
> to start a new section on the CAP wiki for the implementation guide.
>
> 	The CAP standard is like vanilla ice cream.  Who doesn't like ice  
> cream, and vanilla accounts for more than half of all consumed ice  
> cream.  Its eaten by itself, or mixed with a vast number of  
> ingredients and put into all kinds of products.  Vanilla is the  
> building block of the ice cream world, just like CAP is for  
> emergency alerts.  If you aren't starting out with a pure CAP  
> compliant message, then you're using the wrong kind of ice cream  
> and your message is going to taste funny and probably melt.
> 	Now think of the various message transmission formats as the ice  
> cream container.  Something like a siren alert is 1 scoop on a  
> paper towel.  It can't hold much info, hence the 1 scoop, and it  
> goes out fast and doesn't stick around, hence the paper towel.  Or  
> maybe its a big tub of ice cream like a web page, which can hold  
> lots of info and you can put it in the freezer for storage.  The  
> point being that each container all holds the same vanilla CAP  
> message, but they have their own restrictions on what they can  
> offer and in what form.
> 	Finally think of custom CAP enhancements like parameters,  
> resources, and eventcodes as the ice cream toppings.  They all  
> serve to make the ice cream look and taste better.  Each person has  
> their own preferences such as sprinkles, or nuts, and the same goes  
> for various CAP systems.  To make your ice cream more enticing to a  
> particular system you provide different toppings, enabling better  
> compatibility with their system and less intervention by someone  
> who has to add the missing toppings.  Of course there should be a  
> full menu available with all of the various toppings clearly defined.
> 	So to make your Hazcollect message you start with 2 scoops  
> (message size restrictions) of vanilla (CAP 1.1) in a tall frosted  
> glass (DMIS submission) and add some coloured sprinkles (EAS codes).
>
> -- 
> lists at jpw.biz
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