Common Alerting Protocol: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 05:29, 15 October 2005

Revision as of 09:34, 19 October 2005

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{{POV check}}

The '''Common Alerting Protocol''' (CAP) is a simple but general format for exchanging all-hazard emergency [[AMBER Alert|alerts]] and [[Emergency population warning|public warnings]] over all kinds of networks. CAP allows a consistent warning message to be disseminated simultaneously over many different warning systems, thus increasing warning effectiveness while simplifying the warning task. CAP also facilitates the detection of emerging patterns in local warnings of various kinds, such as might indicate an undetected hazard or hostile act. And CAP provides a template for effective warning messages based on best practices identified in academic research and real-world experience.

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The [[National Science and Technology Council]] (NSTC) report on “Effective Disaster Warnings” ([[November]], [[2000]]) recommended that “a standard method should be developed to collect and relay instantaneously and automatically all types of hazard warnings and reports locally, regionally and nationally for input into a wide variety of dissemination systems.”

The NSTC’s recommendation is reinforced by the results of a survey conducted by Pew Internet and American Life in association with Federal Computer Week magazine about emergencies and the internet. The report states "Everything we've seen in our research suggests that Americans want every channel of communication fired up when there are emergencies," says Lee Rainie, director of the Pew Internet & American Life Project. "They want horns sounding, radios blaring, TV screens alight with the latest information, pagers buzzing, emails sent, and Web pages updated on the fly. They don't want to have to rely on just one communications method and they don't want one channel to have special privileges over others. They want each one of them used when all hell is breaking loose." (Italics added).

== Establishing the roadmap for improvement ==