More Mainsteam Media Attention for Alerts and Notifications

For the second time in the past months, emergency notification has received a nice plug from a national business publication. Inc. magazine, which touts itself as "The Magazine for Growing Companies", cited CiviGuard in a near-front-of-the-magazine article about Gov 2.0. Inc. says Gov 2.0 brings "the virtues of the Web to government". It described CiviGuard as a "high-tech version of the old emergency broadcast system. Alerts are distributed through smartphone apps and text messages."

In its July edition, Inc. did a profile on Nixle, a notification service that allows public safety to push out text alerts at no charge.

Interesting that such a widely read "mainstream" publication that doesn't focus on public safety has written articles twice recently about an industry that serves a niche market within public safety. It's also interesting that neither CiviGuard nor Nixle have historically strong market shares in the notification industry.

Is something afoot? Perhaps so. The notification and alerting "space" is becoming increasingly important (maybe even interesting), and the big-time players in the industry may be changing. Certainly, the large cell carriers are entering the field. See our recent post on Sprint and the State of California conducting the first pilot of CMAS, the Commercial Mobile Alerting Service. If the timeframes stick, by 2012, emergency managers throughout the country should be able to provide text alerts to cell phones within a selected geographic area...at no charge...through Sprint and other carriers.

Times, they are a'changin', and people, they are a'watchin'.

All the best,

Rick

UASI Conference Reviewed

Lorin and I recently spent several days at the conference of the Urban Area Securities Initiative (UASI), the consortiums of public safety officials in large metropolitan areas. We had a chance to talk to quite a few emergency managers about quite a few things. Invariably, the conversations would turn to notifications, alerts, and warnings. Here's a bit of what we were hearing:

- The challenge of getting telephone numbers for residents continues to hamper phone alerting efforts. News about the upcoming Commercial Mobile Alert System (C-MAS) was welcomed (particularly when they heard the price). (See our post on CMAS here.)

- Text messages sent in volume don't seem to be getting to their intended recipients fast enough. The emergency managers who mentioned this topic seemed to welcome knowing of the distinction between most text delivery messages systems and ones that have special relationships with carriers for priority messaging.

- Digitization of the Emergency Alert System (EAS) seemed welcomed, but many weren't aware of the timetable for implementation. Per our post here, the clock starts ticking soon for broadcasters to upgrade their EAS equipment.

- Consolidation of data was mentioned often, as it related to alerts and notifications and otherwise. Over the years, UASIs and their members have purchased a lot of systems, including notification systems. The systems don't always work together, and the UASIs are looking for solutions. (We heard this a lot, a good thing since we were there on behalf of a systems integrator client.)

- Most we spoke with were generally aware of the federal Integrated Public Alert Warning System (IPAWS). (At least they knew what it was when reminded what the IPAWS initials stand for.) However, most we spoke with on this topic didn't have a good handle on what it means to them.

Of course, these comments came in random conversations…not a real study.

The UASI conference was a particularly strong one, not only for UASI conferences, but compared to the many other conferences we've attended. Program content was excellent. Logistics and accommodations worked well. It was good to be back in New Orleans. The food was superb. So were the people.

We had a chance to visit with our fellow Emergency Management magazine blogger Eric Holdeman, who I noticed scooped us on the UASI report. If you don't follow Eric's blog, Disaster Zone, you should. He posts often, and always has good content. A nice visit, too, with Marty Pastula, the vice president over Emergency Management magazine. He and his crew continue to do an excellent job, recognized by, not only people in the emergency management field, but his publishing peers. Marty is a true pro, and a wonderful person. We're proud to be associated with him.

All the best,

Rick

Shoulds Alerts and Warnings Vendors be Threatened by IPAWS

With FEMA under Presidential Executive Order to develop an "effective, reliable, integrated, flexible, and comprehensive system to alert and warn the American people", private companies active in the space must be asking, "Hey, will that put me out of business?" Others are asking, "Hmm, I wonder if I can sell FEMA something?" These are a pretty good questions considering the Executive Order takes FEMA beyond its historical responsibility of Presidential alerting only.

Well, the answer to both questions is probably "No".

Although FEMA intends to help stand up a modernized, comprehensive national alerting system through their IPAWS (Integrated Public Alert and Warning System) program, they're really planning to build a framework for others to hook in to...which can include private companies. The head of FEMA's National Continuity Programs Directorate, Damon Penn, likens IPAWS to the iPhone. Vendors will be able to build IPAWS apps, just like vendors build iPhone apps.

Of course, there will be rules to follow, just as there are rules for developing iPhone apps. In the IPAWS case, many of those rules have yet to be developed. The most mature rules are the Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) and technical specifications for the Commercial Mobile Alert System (CMAS). The latest version of CAP is expected to be approved by FEMA in the coming months. Once that happens, participants in the Emergency Alert System (EAS), mostly broadcasters, will need to update their equipment so it will work through IPAWS. Meantime, cable carriers are using the approved technical specifications to equip mobile devices to handle cell broadcast alerts through IPAWS.

Vendors who supply other types of alerts and warnings (land line telephone, sirens, texting, email, radio, network, etc) can follow the same path. Same is true of vendors involved with emerging means of alerting and warning (i.e. social media). They can also "build apps" for hooking into IPAWS.

So, no, IPAWS shouldn't put alert and warning vendors out of business. In fact, IPAWS could represent a market opportunity for vendors to shine and deliver value to customers. They'll need to pay attention, get engaged in the process, and follow the rules.

All the best,

Rick

FEMA Shows Off its Geo-Targeted Alert System Project

Yesterday, FEMA illustrated its Geo-Targeted Alerting System (GTAS) project, a prototype application of plume modeling and high resolution weather models that may eventually be used for alerting the public.

The application is essentially a map-based notification interface, however, it is connected to some very useful data. First, it receives high-resolution weather data and modeling feeds from the National Weather Service. These feeds allow emergency managers to visualize areas in the path of dangerous weather (currently or forecasted) and to select these areas for the issuance of highly targeted public emergency notifications. Further, the app provides built-in collaboration tools so emergency managers can can work with outside experts to clarify the information being presented.

Second, it offers toxic plume modeling capabilities that, when combined with atmospheric information, provides detailed information on the dispersion patterns of toxic substances. This information can also be used to guide the issuance of public alerts. The application can apparently model more than 500 toxic substances (based on the CAMEO chemicals database).

The application is designed to utilize the Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) for communicating with local emergency notification systems and National Weather Service transmitters. It will also interface with FEMA's upcoming Commercial Mobile Alert System (CMAS) through CAP.

The system was piloted in four FEMA regions last year, and several more pilots are scheduled for this year. FEMA says it expects the application to be generally available to emergency managers by 2013.

All the best,

Lorin


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Nationwide Cell Alerting Moves Foward

There's a flurry of activity in the effort to expand the Emergency Alert System (EAS) to include cellular phone broadcast alerts. A recent forum, an upcoming deadline for Request for Information (RFI) responses, and a pronouncement by one of the program officials that specifications could be ready in October are all go-forward signs.

Perhaps most telling about what the feds are thinking now about the Commercial Mobile Alert Service (CMAS) program is the RFI (which can be viewed here). In the Request for Information due August 14th, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is looking for:

• information on capability gaps in initial deployment plans
• potential future enhancements because of technology advancements
• possible resources for research and development and test facilities

Beyond the RFI, a forum was recently held where interested parties could get updates from DHS Directorate of Science and Technology (S&T) officials in charge of the initial phase of the program. Program Director Denis Gusty said he hopes specifications will be ready in October for the "switch" that will be necessary to connect all of the pieces.

This is no easy task, particularly as S&T gets deeper and deeper into details. Carriers can be quite persnickety about connecting into someone else's equipment (particularly to offer a free service). And, hopefully, FEMA which has responsibility for the aggregation switch, will be quite persnickety about who hooks into the system and how they do it.

Once the switch design is public, carriers will have 28 months to put equipment in place to receive CMAS messages.

Technology aside, there are still significant outstanding questions. For example, exactly what can CMAS alerts be used for? Presumably, basically the same criteria would apply as for EAS alerts. Since the alerts could be considered less intrusive than interrupting radio and television broadcasts, could they be used for more purposes than EAS? (At least for now, the CMAS alerts would use text, not voice.) And, if so, who would have the authority to activate?

Another question will center around participation. The carriers are generally saying they'll participate. (Avoiding the wrath of the Federal Communciations Commission makes carrier participation compelling.) Then, will the public participate? The current plan would make the alerting capability available on new cell phones once CMAS is launched. Customers would have to opt-out to avoid receiving CMAS notifications.

And, here's one more significant question: how do emergency management professionals and industry make their opinions known?

Despite the outstanding questions, CMAS momentum can be a significant development in the world of alerting. Stay tuned!

All the best,

Rick