Below is a link to an interesting article from The New York Times about engineers at the University of Washington creating a technology able to transmit American Sign Language (ASL) via mobile devices. They are also running a study using this technology.
What is interesting is that MobileASL should work on any phone with a video camera, unlike current technology which can only be used on 3G phones. Additionally, MobileASL will take up less bandwidth. Does anyone know of anything similar technologies or similar studies? Or is anyone out there participating in this study and want to share their experiences? For more please click here.
Engineers at the University of Washington are developing the first mobile technology able to transmit American Sign Language (ASL) over cellular networks. The software called MobileASL currently runs on phones imported from Europe while being tested, but it could be configured to run on any device in the near future.
If you’re wondering how the engineers are claiming “first” when video conferencing solutions, most notably Apple’s FaceTime and mobile video applications like Fring, already provide face-to-face communications ideal for signing, the difference is in the technology behind mobileASL itself.
Non-profit social media expert Beth Kanter posted an interesting analysis of social media’s role in emergencies on her blog yesterday.
Indeed, the geo-platform Ushahidi, which allows users to crowdsource crisis information to be sent via mobile devices, assisted many survivors, aid workers, and organizations during the Haiti crisis (most would say it played a critical role). AWARE Forum did a spotlight on the crowdsourcing phenomenon back in June.
However, the question is whether or not social media is becoming a viable outlet for all sorts of other disasters, crises, or emergencies? Can the Ushahidi effect extend to our daily lives?
According to a new American Red Cross survey, 49 percent of web users would either “probably” or “definitely” use social media to “let loved ones know they are safe.” Also, 69 percent of web users expected emergency responders to be “monitoring social media sites” to send help; in fact, 74 percent expected help within an hour of their tweet or Facebook post.
This is a brand new phenomenon, and it’ll be interesting to see how emergency responders adapt within the next couple of years (especially in conjunction with traditional 9-1-1 calls). The rise of social media has given the general public a viable and extremely fast way of broadcasting their status—good or bad—to their family and friends, but there are few cases where such status updates have been used for such utilitarian purposes.
Twitter was originally started as a quick SMS service within small groups, to the great benefit of fire departments: now are they ready to listen outward?
For the original article on Beth’s blog, go here.
Let us know in the comments what you think: is social media (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) a viable option for emergencies updates and responses in your daily life?
In order for alert and warning messages to be interoperable among the various stakeholders, we all need to be talking the same “language”. One organization promoting this standardization in emergency alerting is OASIS, the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards. OASIS is developing a family of standards it calls the Emergency Data eXchange Language, or EDXL. One EDXL standard that AWARE readers may be familiar with is CAP, the Common Alerting Protocol. Other EDXL standards deal with hospital availability, resource messaging, situation reporting (sit-reps), and the distribution and security of emergency messages.
OASIS recently presented a webinar called EDXL101, which explains the features of the various EDXL standards. This webinar has been archived and is now available for viewing. During the live presentation, over 100 people logged in to watch it. Anyone with an interest in alerts and warnings will find this webinar valuable. It is especially helpful for developers looking to incorporate these protocols in an alert and warning product line. Implementers and originators of emergency alerts will also get a good overview of the protocols available and how they might be used. Interoperability is an important priority in the alerts and warnings field, and EDXL101 is an excellent opportunity to learn the latest on where emerging standards are currently at. The archived EDXL101 webinar and slide set can be viewed at: www.oasis-open.org/events/webinars/
Last month, the Federal Communications Commission held a public workshop on “21st Century Emergency Alerting,” which focused heavily on CMAS and IPAWS. For those who missed it, video of the event is available at: http://reboot.fcc.gov/video-archives.
Speakers at the event included James Arden Barnett, Jr., Rear Admiral (Ret.), Chief of the FCC’s Public Safety & Homeland Security Bureau (PSHSB) and Damon Penn, Assistant Administrator for FEMA’s National Continuity Programs Directorate. Other speakers, moderators and panelists included representatives from the FEMA IPAWS Office, Maryland Emergency Management Agency, the National Cable and Telecommunications Association (NCTA), CTIA, NOAA, the National Association of Broadcasters, AT&T, DHS Science and Technology Directorate, Verizon, and Akami Technologies.
The workshop included some thought-provoking discussions around the upcoming National EAS test and adoption of the Common Alerting Protocol.
I know many AWARE readers were in attendance or viewed the workshop online. What did you think?
Back in May, we launched our mobile site, http://m.fema.gov to make it easier than ever for people to access information from FEMA quickly and easily. This launch was only a first step and I’m glad to announce today a new feature to our mobile site that allows disaster survivors to apply for federal assistance directly on their web-enabled mobile devices after Presidentially declared disasters (such as BlackBerry®, Apple iPhone®, and Windows Mobile® devices)
Registering through the mobile site takes just three easy steps:
1. Go to http://m.fema.gov and click “Apply Online for FEMA Assistance”. You will be directed to our partner site disasterassistance.gov.
2. Click on “Start Registration.”
3. Fill out the registration form to apply for assistance
New Hampshire has just signed into law a statewide emergency notification system which will notify residents of local and statewide emergencies via landline phones, cellular phones and internet service phones. The system is expected to begin operating in Fall 2010!
By Associated Press July 08, 2010 2:00 AM
CONCORD — Gov. John Lynch signed a law Wednesday that will allow the state to send New Hampshire residents automated phone messages about pending emergencies.
The messages will warn about emergencies such as ice storms, tornado warnings or floods through automated phone calls.
New Hampshire already has a database of landlines. Cell phone and Internet service phone users can opt into the system. Communities that already have their own emergency notification systems are encouraged to use the state system when it is up and running.
The state system will be able to place calls to people statewide or focus on a specific part of the state.
“Nationally, there was (Hurricane) Katrina and 9/11, but locally we had the ice storm, we’ve had fires and we’ve had floods. We’ve had people missing,” said Rep. Melanie Levesque, D-Brookline, a telecom consultant who sponsored the bill. “In all of these cases, if we had had a system … we could save lives and property.”
With the new law, New Hampshire will be joining at least one other state, Connecticut, in setting up a statewide emergency notification system. Connecticut residents started registering on a Web site last week to receive emergency alerts.
The bill allows New Hampshire to spend up to $600,000 on software and other equipment to set up the service and work off of a 911 database of phone lines. The state still must seek bids, and Emergency Services Director Bruce Cheney believes the system will be operating sometime this fall.
The bill had faced some concerns from phone service providers, such as whether a large volume of calls would be able to get out at once. A clause was included in the bill saying that no person or corporation who transmits messages to the public in good faith would be found liable for damages if sued.
Cheney said he had wanted the system to require cell users to “opt out” of participating and messages to be sent to cell users based on their proximity to cell towers, but that was rejected in favor of an “opt in” system requiring cell users to sign up to participate.
As a result, some New Hampshire cell users may be notified even when they are on vacation out of state, he said. On the other hand, visitors may not get the message. Landlines will get the message based on location, Cheney said.
“In most cases, this is going to be used on a local level,” Levesque said. “It may be used on a county level.”
Every community would have access to the service, although more than a dozen have invested in their own systems. For example, Portsmouth uses the CodeRED community alert system, which makes 6,000 phone calls a minute, meaning everyone in the city can be notified of an emergency within two minutes, according to Police Chief Lou Ferland.
Portsmouth residents can opt in to the city’s database and can sign up by logging onto the city Web site at www.cityofportsmouth.com/police/cas.htm. Those without Internet access may call communications manager Gil Emery at 610-7411, from 8 a.m. until 4 p.m. Monday through Friday, to provide the information by telephone.
Required information includes first and last name, street address, city, state, zip code and primary phone number. Additional phone numbers can be entered as well.
sidents can opt in to the city’s database and can sign up by logging onto the city Web site at www.cityofportsmouth.com/police/cas.htm. Those without Internet access may call communications manager Gil Emery at 610-7411, from 8 a.m. until 4 p.m. Monday through Friday, to provide the information by telephone.
Required information includes first and last name, street address, city, state, zip code and primary phone number. Additional phone numbers can be entered as well.
The original story can be found here: http://www.seacoastonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100708/NEWS/7080422/-1/NEWSMAP
As Washington begins its summer in earnest, Congress is looking to complete (some would argue “start” is a more appropriate word given the pace of recent activity) its work funding Federal government for Fiscal Year 2011 (FY2011), which beings on October 1, 2010. The annual appropriations process can be the epitome of inside baseball when it comes to Washington – terms like “302b allocation,” “discretionary spending,” “mandatory spending,” “budget authority,” “budget outlay,” etc. can be as difficult to understand for those outside the beltway as an American trying to decipher a cricket rulebook. However, the outcome of this process – funding the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and all other Federal agencies – is incredibly important to the alerts and warnings community, as well as all members of the homeland security enterprise. The following provides a summary of the current state of FY2011 appropriations.
The President requested $56.336 billion for DHS in FY2011. This represents approximately $1 billion more than the previous fiscal year. This funding is distributed across all DHS components including FEMA, the Science & Technology Directorate, ICE, CBP, and other agencies. Within FEMA is the National Continuity Programs Directorate (NCP), which houses the Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS) program. The request for IPAWS funding is $38.646 million, which is approximately $1.5 million more than the Office received in FY2010. This would fund the IPAWS Office’s procurements, staff, and activities for the coming fiscal year. In its request to Congress, FEMA highlighted the following as one of the major milestones it seeks to accomplish in FY2011: “Deploy initial operational capability of IPAWS Aggregator and Gateway supporting Commercial Mobile Alerting System [CMAS] Federal alert testing with cellular industry.” The FEMA IPAWS Office is not the sole office within DHS relevant to AWARE readers. The Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) conducts significant research, development, testing, evaluation, and standards work related to IPAWS as well as CMAS. The DHS appropriations bill will also shape how these research efforts progress.
Outside DHS, other areas of focus are the Department of Commerce and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). These Federal agencies play a key role in implementing the President’s National Broadband Plan (see http://www.broadband.gov/ for more details). How funding is potentially distributed to these agencies in order to advance the plan is of interest to the alerts & warnings community and can also signal where future Federal broadband investments are going to be made.
Given the billions in funding on the line for the next year – what is the status? According to Congress’s official budget rules, the current Congress is woefully behind (which is nothing new). Few appropriations bills have been debated (“marked-up” in DC-speak) in the relevant committees, let alone have moved to the House or Senate floor for votes. While on a calendar, it appears that Congress has plenty of time before the September 30th deadline, it is important to note that Congress will not be in Washington for the entire month of August.
Adding to the time pressure are the upcoming mid-term elections. Work in Congress will slow as each party will begin (or “continue,” depending on your views) posturing its work to “score points” with the American public at the expense of the opposition party. Typically, the more posturing, the less likely it is that consensus can be reached and progress made.
The second impact is that recent special elections, and the general tone of the nation, have indicated that reducing Federal spending is a key priority. Therefore, members of both parties are going to emphasize to their constituents how they are fiscally responsible and good stewards of taxpayer funds. This will result in increased pressure to reduce Federal spending this fiscal year. How this pressure will manifest appropriations legislation is difficult to predict, but it is clear that cuts will be made and funding increases will be few and far between.
In terms of the appropriations end-game, there are a few scenarios.
- Congress completes all appropriations bills (12 in total) and they are signed into law by September 30 – highly unlikely.
- Congress completes none of the work and needs to pass a continuing resolution in order to keep the government funded at minimal levels (keep the lights on, etc.) until the appropriations bills can be passed – more likely.
- Congress lumps its appropriations bills into one big bill (called an omnibus) or a handful of small bills (called minibuses) – the most likely scenario. While this funds the government, it limits the debate on individual issues since the overall bill becomes “must pass” for members of Congress.
As the summer continues, we’ll continue to watch the annual drama unfold. How do annual Federal appropriations impact you?
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