[CAP] Fwd: DHS NIMS NIC recommends OASIS CAP for local/state emergency responders

[Art Botterell]

This just in from the Society of Broadcast Engineers' EAS mailing list:

Begin forwarded message:

> From: "Gary Timm" <gtimm at journalbroadcastgroup.com>
> Date: January 28, 2008 3:04:02 PM PST
> To: "SBE EAS Mail List" <sbe-eas at sbe.org>
> Subject: [sbe-eas] NIMS NIC recommends OASIS CAP for local/state
> emergency responders
> Reply-To: SBE EAS Committee and mail list <sbe-eas at sbe.org>
>
> Great CAP news for the EAS community
>
> The IMSD arm of the NIMS NIC has gone on record recommending the
> state and local emergency responders and agencies adopt OASIS CAP
> v1.1 for their emergency communications.
> For those unfamiliar, here is an explanation of those acronyms:
>
> The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) created the National
> Incident Management System (NIMS) as required under Homeland
> Security Presidential Directive (HSPD)-5.  NIMS provides the
> framework for organizations to work together to prepare for, protect
> against, respond to, and recover from the entire spectrum of all-
> hazard events.
>
> The National Integration Center (NIC) Incident Management Systems
> Division (IMSD) unit leads the effort to establish and implement
> NIMS nationwide.  NIMS is a framework that provides guidelines and
> principals to first responders in effort to achieve a single
> nationwide system for managing incidents.
>
>
> IMSD recently adopted OASIS CAP v1.1 as a recommended voluntary
> standard for emergency responders to adopt.  They stated it this way:
> By adopting these voluntary consensus standards and recommending
> their adoption by state and local governments, IMSD provides
> guidance and direction to first responders by further defining NIMS
> and providing established standards to build their incident
> management policies and programs around.
>
> The OASIS Common Alert Protocol and Distribution Element technical
> alert and data exchange standards are being used and promoted to
> directly support incident management hardware and software
> interoperability.  IMSD adoption of these technical standards
> reflects a coordinated approach with other DHS interoperability
> offices in support of system interoperability.
>
>
> Here is a link to the PDF announcing this endorsement:
>
http://www.fema.gov/library/file?type=publishedFile&file=standards_nims_alert
_draft_12_11_07_rv__2_.pdf&fileid=8506bb40-bfbc-11dc-8be8-001185636fb7
>
>
> WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?
>
> After 9/11, the federal government realized that when multiple
> agencies respond to an emergency scene, they all have their own
> command structure and terminology to describe what is going on.  To
> remedy this, the federal government devised the National Incident
> Management System (NIMS).  NIMS defines command structure and
> terminology to be used by all emergency agencies, so that they are
> all on the same page when responding to a major incident.  Any
> local or state agency that wishes to receive any federal funding
> must have their personnel take NIMS classes and pass the exams.
> Therefore, all emergency response and emergency management agencies
> today abide by NIMS protocols.
>
> What the NIMS NIC IMSD did with this endorsement is not actually
> make CAP use mandatory as a part of NIMS (which may come
> eventually), but they did by recommending CAP go a long way toward
> encouraging state and local agencies to use CAP in their alerting.
> This dovetails quite well with the transition of EAS to CAP,
> especially since these same state emergency agencies may be the ones
> originating the Next Generation EAS Governors CAP messages.  This
> gives all SECCs and LECCs one more tool to convince your state and
> local agencies that CAP is the way to go, to get them ready to feed
> CAP messages into the Next Generation EAS as it comes online.
>
> Gary Timm, Broadcast Chair
> Wisconsin EAS Committee
> ..