01/12/2011 1 the future of wireless weather where are nws and the enterprise going? nws partners...
TRANSCRIPT
01/12/20111
The Future of Wireless Weather
Where are NWS and the Enterprise Going?
NWS Partners Meeting
January 27, 2011
01/12/20112
Agenda
• Background and overview of issues• Panel discussion• Summary and wrap-up
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Goal
• Engage NWS, weather enterprise, and core partners (e.g., emergency managers) in discussions on how best to provide wireless environmental information services.
• Identify issues for further in-depth discussion in the Spring, if needed
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Target Audience for Wireless Weather Information
Ownership of wireless devices - 89% US population (June 2009, 276.6M subscribers)
• Government decision leaders and emergency managers – – Require timely, text and graphical information wherever they are,
through multiple channels of dissemination– NWS needs to know they are looking at same
data/products forecasters are looking at– Require tools to facilitate two-way information
sharing and decision support with NWS
• General public – – Want instant and reliable information on-the-go– Want information presented in clear, non-technical language– Seek corroborating information from many sources before acting– Threats need to be better personalized to ensure responsive action
is taken
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Current Mobile/Wireless Services
• Mobile Decision Support Service/ interactive NWS Alert System – Target Audience: NWS core partners (EMs, Gov’t decision leaders, media)– Alert Types: Sub-catastrophic, “usual” watch/warning/advisory for moderate to
high impact weather important to EMs
• FEMA IPAWS/CMAS (Commercial Mobile Alert System)– Target audience: General Public– Alert types : Cell broadcast of imminent/catastrophic threats (e.g., tornado
warning)– In development and scheduled for 2012; all major wireless carriers participating;
requires cell tower/phone upgrades
• Private Sector fee services– Target audience: businesses; public subscribers– Alert types: Value-added and custom alerts
• Private Sector free services– Target audience: General Public– Alert types: General weather info, all alerts
FEMA
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MOBILESector Relationships
Ale
rt T
ypes
Target Audience
Community Leaders
and Decis
ion Make
rs
(eg, E
Ms)
Subscrib
ing Public
,
Business
es
General P
ublic
Advisories: Anticipate, Respond
and Recover
Watches: Prepare for Action
Warnings: Urgent, Immediate
Action Required
KEYiNWS
Private Sector
IPAWS/CMAS
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NWS Guiding Principles
• Ensure NWS core partners have assured access to unaltered NWS products to facilitate communication with NWS forecasters – critical for decision support services
• Increase efforts to provide NWS information in standard formats/protocols to facilitate commercial provision of support services for general public
• Foster wide availability of NWS weather warnings and environmental information by diverse means
• Trademarks/copyrights– NWS data/products are not copyrighted and can be used freely – NWS encourages use of trademarked name/logo to identify unaltered
NWS products– Cannot assert your own copyright for NWS products– Use of NWS trademarks does not imply affiliation/endorsement
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Constraints on NWS for Providing Mobile Services
Resource challenges• Cost to provide a national guaranteed level of
wireless service delivery to the general public
• Cost for ongoing development and support of device-specific “Apps” to deliver NWS information
• Cost for maintaining/supporting direct email services to general public
Policy/Legal• NWS will only consider approaches that do not in
effect give anyone exclusive rights to NWS products.
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Achieving a BalancedWay Forward
9DRAFT
NWS focus on core partners; limited mobile service for
public
NWS supports commercial mobile
development through information centric
services
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Balanced Way Forward
• NWS focus on core partners– Continue direct service to core partners – iNWS– NWS web standards sensitive to access by mobile devices
(vs. apps designed for specific devices)
• Support commercial sector with information centric approach– Make information more accessible and lower cost of entry
• Use of common data formats/protocols; data easier to work with• Developers’ site/Wiki for better documentation of info feeds and
direct feedback to NWS• Application Programming Interface (API)• Use of CAP standard and push
– Greater visibility for Partners• Prominent public listing of mobile services (e.g., apps) that use
official NWS feeds (unaltered products, clearly labeled NWS content)
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Panel Discussion
What do you think?
How else can Weather Enterprise best work together in providing mobile/ wireless weather services?
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Backup/Details
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Emerging Government Mobile Alert Services
iNWS (NWS) CMAS (FEMA)• Serves community decision leaders.
• Provides information relevant to user defined areas.
• Users receive alerts for NWS products to which they subscribe.
• SMS message up to 160 characters
• Embedded link to more info - full text, impacts, warning outline, storm track, radar, etc.
• Serves general public.
• Provides information relevant to user’s current location – cell tower
• Users only receive alerts for “imminent threats.”
• Message limited to 90 characters.
• Embedded links now allowed.
• Future capabilities TBD.
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NWS Use of XML Standards Supports Mobile Development
• Common Alerting Protocol (CAP)– Emergency/alert information
• Really Simple Syndication (RSS)/Atom feeds– Allow subscribers to receive timely updates and
aggregate feeds from many sites into one place
• Keyhole Markup Language (KML/KMZ)– Expresses geographic annotation and
visualization on 2D and 3D maps
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Benefits of XML for Commercial and Public Safety Interests
• Commercial Weather Sector– Low cost of entry
– Can make many products from same easy to parse message
– Minimal issues when NWS makes changes
• Public Safety– CAP to serve as basis for FEMA’s Integrated Public Alert
and Warning System (IPAWS) and CMAS
– Enables/facilitates mobile decision support
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Proposed Support for Private Sector Wireless Services
• NWS-hosted directory of wireless environmental information applications and related services (i.e., vendor name, type of service, description, contact information, etc.)
• One-stop-shop or wiki for developers– NWS data types (i.e., CAP, RSS, KMZ/KML, etc.)– Where to get the data– Sample mobile applications showing how to integrate the
data– Related documentation