Last week, Twitter announced a new service for governments: Twitter Disaster Alerts, http://venturebeat.com/2013/09/25/new-twitter-disaster-alerts-twitter-launches-emergency-alerts-for-public-warnings/
Our latest blog analyzes this latest addition to the set of public alerting tools.
Twitter disaster alerts: a logical extension to Twitter
Twitter Disaster Alerts are a logical next step or Twitter. Twitter is already widely used as an informal tool for public alerting by the general publis and even some governments. Therefore this is a logical addition to Twitter's services.
The list of participating US governmental institutions is already impressive and we believe there are many situations where Twitter Disaster Alerts can be highly effective due to the high level of acceptance of Twitter among the population.
Functionality missing in Twitter Disaster Alerts
Twitter Disaster Alerts can be highly effective. On the other hand, it is not the ultimate tool. It has two main disadvantages:
1) Twitter currently has no geo-specific filtering capacity i.e. alert messages will be received by all subscribers and not only by subscribers that are in an affected area.
2) Twitter uses the public internet which may be congested during crises and disasters. Please also see our previous blog on this subject. This means that the service cannot be used during critical circumstances where an alerting service is highly needed.
A potentially effective new tool in the toolbox, but not the ultimate tool
Our idea on Twitter Disaster Alerts is that it is a tool that can be highly effective in many circumstances. But please be aware that Twitter uses the public internet as a communication channel and this channel might be congested during critical circumstances. This implies that in many cases (i.e. 9/11, Katrina), Twitter Disaster Alerts would not not have been functional under these circustances.
maandag 30 september 2013
dinsdag 24 september 2013
Public Warning via mobile phones: cell broadcast, SMS, apps or what?
Everywhere I go and talk about public warning via mobile phones, there is lots of discussion on which technology is the best. In many cases, this discussion is driven by industry players that directly benefit from ons of these technologies. This blog is providing some background information for anyone involved in these discussions.
What is essential for a public warning service?
A public warning service is highly comparable with any other communication service, but there is one major difference. The service can save lives during major disasters or crises and therefore needs to work during major crises and disasters.
During major disasters or crises, there is a risks that communications systems are affected e.g. because the electricity system may be damaged or in case there is physical damage to mobile network infrastructures. It is very costly to design a system that is capable to cope with these effects of disasters and in practice this is only doable in exceptional cases.
Another effect of a crisis or disaster is that (mobile) networks get congested because people in an affected area are contacting friends and family and vice versa. This happened e.g. during 9/11 and hurricane Katrina in the US. There are technologies that can cope with this effect
So, in order for the public warning system to be most effective during crises and disasters, it is essential for them to cope with these critical circumstances.
Which infrastructures can cope with crisis and disasters?
Communications systems based on satellite infrastructures are probably most insensitive to effects of crises and disasters. The correlation between a crisis and disaster on earth and the functioning of a satellite system is minimal. GPS and Gallileo have the possibility to broadcast messages and most mobile phones have chipsets for these satellite systems on board.
A land-based infrastructure like a mobile network can well become unfunctional due to the effects of a crisis or disaster. However, since most countries have 2,3 or even 4 mobile networks, it is likely that a part of the population can still be reached through one or more of these infrastructures.
A major disadvantage of satellite systems is that they hardly work when the mobile phone is inside of a building. Therefore the remainder of this blog willl focus on mobile networks.
Technologies in a mobile network
Mobile networks (and mobile phones) have various technologies on board to transport information from A to B. Examples are SMS, MMS, voice, cell broadcast, internet. During normal operations, any of these technologies are suitable to transport information from A to B.
However, for a public warning system, the question is which of these technologies have maximum resistance to the effects of crisis and disasters. And is capable to deliver an alert message to a large part or all of the population of a country. The USA and The Netherlands have chosen for cell broadcast. There were several reasons why this technology was chosen, but its main advantage is that cell broadcast remains functional also in highly congested networks.
Conclusion
If you want to save lives with national public warning service, an essential requirement is that the technology works when the service is most highly needed i.e. during crisis and disasters.
This article contains a very high level outline of one of our reports. Please contact us for detailed information via www.conict.com.
What is essential for a public warning service?
A public warning service is highly comparable with any other communication service, but there is one major difference. The service can save lives during major disasters or crises and therefore needs to work during major crises and disasters.
During major disasters or crises, there is a risks that communications systems are affected e.g. because the electricity system may be damaged or in case there is physical damage to mobile network infrastructures. It is very costly to design a system that is capable to cope with these effects of disasters and in practice this is only doable in exceptional cases.
Another effect of a crisis or disaster is that (mobile) networks get congested because people in an affected area are contacting friends and family and vice versa. This happened e.g. during 9/11 and hurricane Katrina in the US. There are technologies that can cope with this effect
So, in order for the public warning system to be most effective during crises and disasters, it is essential for them to cope with these critical circumstances.
Which infrastructures can cope with crisis and disasters?
Communications systems based on satellite infrastructures are probably most insensitive to effects of crises and disasters. The correlation between a crisis and disaster on earth and the functioning of a satellite system is minimal. GPS and Gallileo have the possibility to broadcast messages and most mobile phones have chipsets for these satellite systems on board.
A land-based infrastructure like a mobile network can well become unfunctional due to the effects of a crisis or disaster. However, since most countries have 2,3 or even 4 mobile networks, it is likely that a part of the population can still be reached through one or more of these infrastructures.
A major disadvantage of satellite systems is that they hardly work when the mobile phone is inside of a building. Therefore the remainder of this blog willl focus on mobile networks.
Technologies in a mobile network
Mobile networks (and mobile phones) have various technologies on board to transport information from A to B. Examples are SMS, MMS, voice, cell broadcast, internet. During normal operations, any of these technologies are suitable to transport information from A to B.
However, for a public warning system, the question is which of these technologies have maximum resistance to the effects of crisis and disasters. And is capable to deliver an alert message to a large part or all of the population of a country. The USA and The Netherlands have chosen for cell broadcast. There were several reasons why this technology was chosen, but its main advantage is that cell broadcast remains functional also in highly congested networks.
Conclusion
If you want to save lives with national public warning service, an essential requirement is that the technology works when the service is most highly needed i.e. during crisis and disasters.
This article contains a very high level outline of one of our reports. Please contact us for detailed information via www.conict.com.
donderdag 19 september 2013
Support for NL-Alert in iOS7
We have been waiting for it for some time, pushing Apple now and finally it seems to happen: Apple supports the NL-Alert public warning service of The Netherlands Government.
But, the title of this post is slightly misleading. The support is in principle not part of iOS7, but of the operator package that a consumer receives depending upon the SIM card that is put in the IPhone or iPad. So this makes the support for NL-Alert operator dependent. When confirmed, I will inform you via this blog which operator packages do provide support.
It is not yet confirmed to what extent the IPhone is compatible with the requirements set forth by the US WEA system, which was adopted by The Netherlands Government. The WEA standard describes the phone to generate a siren tone, combined with a vibration cadence, upon receiving an alert.
It is confirmed that Apple's implementation does not follow WEA in the following areas:
1) The support in The Netherlands is opt-in, while the WEA standard defines it to be opt-out
2) Support for Amber Alerts is not present. In the US, support for Amber Alerts is confirmed to be present.
But, the title of this post is slightly misleading. The support is in principle not part of iOS7, but of the operator package that a consumer receives depending upon the SIM card that is put in the IPhone or iPad. So this makes the support for NL-Alert operator dependent. When confirmed, I will inform you via this blog which operator packages do provide support.
It is not yet confirmed to what extent the IPhone is compatible with the requirements set forth by the US WEA system, which was adopted by The Netherlands Government. The WEA standard describes the phone to generate a siren tone, combined with a vibration cadence, upon receiving an alert.
It is confirmed that Apple's implementation does not follow WEA in the following areas:
1) The support in The Netherlands is opt-in, while the WEA standard defines it to be opt-out
2) Support for Amber Alerts is not present. In the US, support for Amber Alerts is confirmed to be present.
Startpost
Hello to all interested in public warning systems via mobile phones!
Let me introduce myself, my name is John Tacken and I work for Conict Consultants BV (www.conict.com). Our company is completely independent and so are our views submitted through this website.
I have been intensively involved in the development of NL-Alert, the Netherlands national public warning system via mobile phones. The system uses cell broadcast technology and works via the 3 mobile operators in The Netherlands. As chairman of the EU project: cell broadcast for public warning, I know most people working in this area in Western European countries.
Via this blog, I want to share some information and experience that I am allowed to share with you. Please do not hesitate to enhance the information provided or challenge the views that I express.
Let me introduce myself, my name is John Tacken and I work for Conict Consultants BV (www.conict.com). Our company is completely independent and so are our views submitted through this website.
I have been intensively involved in the development of NL-Alert, the Netherlands national public warning system via mobile phones. The system uses cell broadcast technology and works via the 3 mobile operators in The Netherlands. As chairman of the EU project: cell broadcast for public warning, I know most people working in this area in Western European countries.
Via this blog, I want to share some information and experience that I am allowed to share with you. Please do not hesitate to enhance the information provided or challenge the views that I express.
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