According to an article in the U.S. National Weather Service (NWS) Aware Report,  the NWS has proposed adding Instruction Field 'markers' into WMO-formatted text Watch/Warning/Advisory/Statements (W/W/A/S). The proposal is designed to improve NWS production of the separate suite of Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) OASIS Standard messages by early 2009 to include distinct event 'Description' and 'Instruction' elements.

The following article was reproduced from the Winter 2008 edition of Interoperability Technology Today, published by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Command, Control and Interoperability Division.

CAP Keeps Nation Steps Ahead of Disaster

A new U.S. Congressional Research Service report, "Emergency Alert System (EAS) and All-Hazard Warnings" recognizes the Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) OASIS Standard. The report, prepared for members and committees of the U.S. Congress, describes ongoing measures to improve the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) network and the new Digital EAS. Author, Linda Moore, has been tracking this development from the early days of the Partnership for Public Warning.

The OASIS Emergency Management Technical Committee has approved the Emergency Data Exchange Language Resource Messaging (EDXL-RM) 1.0 as a Committee Draft and submitted the package for public review. This is an open invitation to comment. We strongly encourage feedback from potential users, developers and others, whether OASIS members or not, for the sake of improving the interoperability and quality of OASIS work. The public review ends 15 April 2008.

The OASIS Emergency Management Technical Committee has approved the Emergency Data Exchange Language (EDXL) Hospital AVailability Exchange (HAVE) 1.0 as a Committee Draft and submitted the package for public review. This is an open invitation to comment. We strongly encourage feedback from potential users, developers and others, whether OASIS members or not, for the sake of improving the interoperability and quality of OASIS work. The public review ends 18 December 2007.

US Dept of Homeland Security, AtHoc, ESI Acquisition, KITS, Raytheon,
Warning Systems, and Others Collaborate on Emergency Interoperability

The consortium is pleased to announce the formation of the OASIS Emergency Interoperability (EI) Member Section. This new group will work to accelerate the development, adoption, application, and implementation of emergency interoperability and communications standards. The Member Section will represent and serve the needs of all constituents in the marketplace; practitioners, technology providers, and national, international and multinational oversight agencies are all strongly encouraged to join this effort.