Grandpa Ham – Grandpa Can do IT!

I want to be sure that no one confuses my blogs and Twitter accounts that access the FEMA IPAWS Production Public Alert Feed as official FEMA outlets.  They are not.  I am not paid by FEMA to run them.   I do have an MOA with FEMA to access the production Public Alert Feed.  The blogs are my own separate work.   The posts are run from my non-government, personally owned, computer to a blog host that is also not run by, or contracted to, the U.S. Government.

One other note:   The example blogs are actually subject to downtime due to local power failure ( my UPS lasts about 2 hours).  I have a backup on a thumb drive, so I can restart it from any machine that I can get to with access to the internet. I have a laptop ready.  Not your classic active-active redundant operational capability, but the best I can do as a one man band.   If I were to set one of these blogs up for a customer, it would be up to that customer to determine both retrieval customization and  what level of resiliency they wish to have (and pay for).  All levels are possible.

Example Blogs:
1. All recent Tornado Warnings and Flash Flood Warnings in the U.S can be found at http://weatheralerts.alertblogger.com and/or follow @ipawsweather on Twitter.

2. All recent IPAWS Public Alerts affecting Virginia’s First Congressional District can be found at http://va1stipaws.alertblogger.com and/or follow @VA_1st_IPAWS.

3. All production non-weather IPAWS Public Alerts can be found at http://ipawsnonweather.alertblogger.com and/or follow @ipawsalerts.

I have a new offering for all who do alerting using the Common Alerting Protocol (CAP). I can create a combined blog, tweet and RSS functionality for your alerts as an IPAWS COG, or for any set of IPAWS Public Alerts. The capability works independently and also as an add-on to any IPAWS capable alert origination software. If you have an IPAWS COG, I can make it work without any special integration effort. If you have software that creates CAP alerts, I can build a connection to that software, depending on the interfaces it provides. If you have your own Facebook Page or Twitter Account, I can connect to that. If you have your own WordPress blog, I can use it for the connection. Or I can provide you with whatever you need. I can do it for messages you originate or, if you are an information consumer only, I can support that for any IPAWS Public alert. I can host the connection for you, or you can host and I will help you set up.

Examples:
1. All recent Tornado Warnings and Flash Flood Warnings in the U.S can be found at http://weatheralerts.alertblogger.com and/or follow @ipawsweather on Twitter.

2. All recent IPAWS Public Alerts affecting Virginia’s First Congressional District can be found at http://va1stipaws.alertblogger.com and/or follow @VA_1st_IPAWS.

3. All production non-weather IPAWS Alerts can be found at http://ipawsnonweather.alertblogger.com and/or follow @ipawsalerts.

Please note: This is a grandpaham.com offering and is separate from my support to IPAWS origination vendors. The IPAWS connection tech support is free (as I am paid for it by FEMA) to such vendors. This new capability will be priced according to the complexity of the solution to be provided. It can be inexpensive. Any time spent on customization will necessarily raise the price.

Finally received my first real live Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA) on my AT&T iPhone. It was a FlashFlood Warning. I live on very high ground, but do often travel a flood prone route close by. So, the alert is appreciated.

If you need appropriate definitions for NWEM event codes check this link:  http://www.srh.noaa.gov/lub/?n=nonweathercemdescriptions

Giving a talk on the ways to use CAP using the new IPAWS CAP 1.2 interface at noon tomorrow (15 Feb 2012). Details:

Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS) Joint Developer/Practitioner Webinar
Using the Open Platform for Emergency Networks (OPEN) for Public and Private Alerting
Wednesday February 15, 2012 12:00 Noon Eastern

In addition to its role as message aggregator for public alerting, IPAWS-OPEN enables the interoperable sharing of emergency alerts and incident-related data between incident management systems that comply with non-proprietary information standards.

During our next Webinar, System Architect Gary Ham will describe how IPAWS-OPEN provides support for exchanging alerts within a single response organization, between one or more response organizations, with all response organizations, and/or with the public. He will also explain how the Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) scope element is implemented by IPAWS-OPEN for public and private alerting.

This program is intended primarily for IPAWS-OPEN developers and testers; however, emergency management practitioners who are interested in learning more about IPAWS incident management-related capabilities are also encouraged to participate. Please make plans to join us via Live Meeting. As always, your questions and comments are welcome.

IMPORTANT: The audio portion of the program will be delivered via your computer speakers. The Live Meeting client must be used in order to receive the audio. Please review the instructions available from: http://www.fema.gov/pdf/emergency/ipaws/livemtginstruct.pdf prior to the program.

Login to MS Live Meeting for visuals: The following login link can only be used 30 minutes prior to the scheduled meeting time: https://www.livemeeting.com/cc/eiip/join?id=DMprogram&role=attend

I will be explaining the contents of the new IPAWS-OPEN Developer’s Guide tomorrow. It will soon be added to downloads from the FEMA IPAWS-OPEN web site.
details are per the following:

Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS) Developer Webinar
Open Platform for Emergency Networks (OPEN)
Introduction to the New IPAWS-OPEN Developer’s Guide
Wednesday January 18, 2012 12:00 Noon Eastern

IPAWS-OPEN enables the interoperable sharing of emergency alerts and incident-related data between systems that comply with non-proprietary information standards, and serves as the alert aggregator for the Integrated Public Alert and Warning System.

During our next Webinar, System Architect Gary Ham will provide an introduction and overview of the new IPAWS-OPEN Developer’s Guide. The purpose of the guide is to help developers successfully write IPAWS-OPEN interoperable code.

This program is intended primarily for third party IPAWS-OPEN developers and testers. Please make plans to join us via Live Meeting. As always, your questions and comments are welcome.

IMPORTANT: The audio portion of the program will be delivered via your computer speakers. The Live Meeting client must be used in order to receive the audio. Please review the instructions available from: http://www.fema.gov/pdf/emergency/ipaws/livemtginstruct.pdf prior to the program.

Login to MS Live Meeting for visuals: The following login link can only be used 30 minutes prior to the scheduled meeting time: https://www.livemeeting.com/cc/eiip/join?id=DMprogram&role=attend

If you are unable to attend this month’s program due to other commitments, a recording will be accessible from the FEMA Library.

FEMA has announced its new course for Alerting Authorities. Alert Origination Software developers/vendors may also find the course useful to understand the context of alerting via IPAWS-OPEN to EAS, CMAS, and NOAA Radio. The course is required for alerting authorities as a pre-requisite for getting Alerting Authority for IPAWS push dissemination, but it also provides info for developers as they define requirements for the software they build. Here is the notification that I received:

The FEMA Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS) program office has worked with FEMA’s Emergency Management Institute (EMI) and subject matter experts to create a course that provides alert and warning training. This course (IS-247) is now available at no cost on-line. See http://training.fema.gov/EMIWeb/IS/is247.asp

IS-247 provides basic information on the Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS). The goal of this course is to provide public safety officials with: increased awareness of the benefits of using IPAWS for effective public warnings; skills to draft more appropriate, effective, and accessible warning messages; and best practices in the effective use of Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) to reach all members of their communities. The course is expected to take 2 hours to complete and includes a final exam.

Regional, State and Local alerting authorities must successfully complete this course prior to being authorized to use IPAWS OPEN to send alerts via EAS, mobile devices, and other communications pathways. Although the course is designed primarily for emergency management, law enforcement, fire services, dispatch, and other public safety personnel, anyone wishing to learn more about IPAWS may take the course.

The real blessing of standards is that they can make interoperability between lots of different systems possible. IPAWS-OPEN uses EDXL-CAP, and EDXL-DE in a standard SOAP Web Services environment with WS-Security. So far we have developers who have proven their interoperability using .NET, Java (Axis2 with Rampart), Java (Spring Framework), Ruby On Rails, and, as of yesterday, PHP. So, they will all be able to share vital alerting information with each other, and with the public via EAS, CMAS, and NOAA Radio. It is not easy, but it is coming together.

Still looking for the C, C++, and/or Objective C client application. 🙂

If you work with the National Information Exchange Model (NIEM) as well as with other standards, you often run into issues related to how your overall work should incorporate (or not incorporate) NIEM. The rules for NIEM allow you to use recognized external standards independently. FEMA’s Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS) does this with it implementation of the Common Alerting Protocol (CAP). You can also use components from an external Standard within a NIEM conforming schema, but only if you use the formally defined NIEM “Adapter” approach. You can also use NIEM inside an externally defined standard wrapper as shown in the graphic below.

My talk at the NIEM National Training Event (NTE) in Philadelphia this August will discuss using an OASIS Emergency Data Exchange Language – Distribution Element (EDXL-DE) as a wrapper as shown, but it will go beyond that. It will show how NIEM conforming data structures can be used within the EDXL-DE wrapper itself as DE conforming metadata to describe the content and desired distribution of the Information Exchange Package (IEP). The goal is to show an innovative use of NIEM that is actually made possible by the (also) innovative structure designed into the EDXL-DE standard. The actual content of the IEP will be an IPAW Profile conforming CAP message. The wrapping DE will use NIEM conforming metadata to define IPAWS distribution and content identification needs.

IPAWS has published the list of current MOA holders. This list is for development and does not indicate that any of them actually have a completed product. It does indicate interest, however, and a willingness to explore connectivity. See: http://www.fema.gov/emergency/ipaws/projects.shtm#3