Two Mexican citizens were arrested in August in Veracruz, accused of spreading false rumors about drug-related violence in their area. The couple used Twitter and Facebook to report kidnappings and shootings at local schools–which were later proven to have never happened. Nonetheless, the reports caused panic in Veracruz. Initial charges of terrorism have since been dropped, though controversy continues to swirl.

As the BBC reports, social networks have increasingly become a primary source for local news on drug-related violence in Mexico. People check Twitter and Facebook before leaving their houses to see if there may be threats of violence in the area.

Addressing false alerts in emergency management

Our community on AWARE has written about many of the challenges of social media in emergency management (such as the limitations of mobile devices, information overload, the sustainability of social media initiatives, and using analytics to recalibrate efforts). But the potential for false information spreading virally to masses of people during or after a disaster surely keeps many public safety officials up at night. Phoney alerts not only misdirect the attention and resources of emergency personnel to non-existent threats and hazards, but they can also cause public panic, exacerbating situations unnecessarily.

Governments have many tools for communicating directly with the public during an event. But an increasing number of people are turning to social media as a source of emergency information. This calls for governments to take a proactive position by taking part in the conversation on social networks (as guest author Hal Grieb argued last month) and rapidly investigating and addressing cases of potential misinformation.

Questions to consider in applying this case to alerts and warnings:

• What lessons have you learned in responding to potential misinformation (or disinformation) on social media?
• How can emergency managers and PIOs mitigate the risk of false information before an incident occurs?

• What the Australian CAP Profile is seeking to achieve.
• What process is Australia using to develop the Australian CAP Profile.
• Lessons Learned during development of the Australian CAP Profile.
• Australia’s future intentions with CAP.

The Australian Government Attorney-General’s Department (AGD) is working closely with the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS) in the USA to develop a CAP Profile for Australia (CAP-AU), which is scheduled for public release by June 2012. The AGD, among other things, has responsibility for the Australian Government’s role in emergency management. One of the outcomes that AGD seeks to achieve is coordinated federal emergency management activity to ensure a safer Australia.

Emergency Alerting Systems in Australia

Australia’s emergency alerting systems focus on enhancing the protection of human lives. These systems are mostly run by emergency service organisations in our states and territories, including: Fire, Rescue, Police, Health, Transport, and Infrastructure. A national approach to emergency warnings and alerts is achieved through collective efforts based on partnerships of the Commonwealth, States (6), Territories (2), local and regional governments, non-government organisations, industry and the community.  Alert messages in Australia are typically generated by an emergency service using approved message templates. Distribution of alert messages is usually achieved to networked sites, RSS feeds, media broadcasters, fixed and mobile telephones, and other mobile devices. The following systems are used throughout Australia to facilitate notification of alerting and warning messages:

• Emergency Alert is the national telephone-based emergency warning system that has been operational since 1 December 2009. Emergency Alert is operational in all States and Territories with the exception of the Australian State of Western Australia who operate their own telephone warning system. Emergency Alert sends alerts within a defined area to landline telephones based on the location of the phone and to mobile phones based on the registered service address.
• StateAlert has been implemented in the Australian State of Western Australia as a multi-agency, all hazards public emergency warning system that sends critical messages to people whose lives may be in danger. The warnings can be sent via voice messages to mobile and/or fixed phones and text messages to mobile phones (based on the customers billing address), email and RSS feeds. StateAlert also has an opt-in function that enables members of the community to register mobile and/or fixed phone details for up to three separate addresses.
• Emergency telephone Hotlines are available across Australia to enable the community to report emergencies, crime, and national security matters. The main all-hazards emergency telephone number across Australia is 000 (known as “Triple Zero”) or 112 on mobile telephone devices, which is analogous to the 911 service provided in North America.
• Earthquake and Tsunami alert system. The Joint Australian Tsunami Warning Centre (JATWC) is operated by Geoscience Australia, and the Australian Bureau of Meteorology. The Centre monitors earthquake activity to detect any potential to generate tsunamis around Australia and its external territories. A network of sea level monitoring equipment is used to warn the Australian community of potential tsunami impacts. Geoscience is responsible for releasing earthquake related messages and the Bureau is responsible for issuing the relevant tsunami warnings and bulletins, usually through media outlets, primarily television and radio station networks.
• One Source One Message (OSOM) is a system used in the State of Victoria to provide emergency service organisations with a single source of information for emergency warnings and advice. OSOM provides the ability to publish warnings from Incident Control Centres direct to Emergency Service agency websites and simultaneously inform support organisations, the Victorian Bushfire Information Line and emergency broadcasters. This capability also includes automatic posting of warnings and advice to a twitter feed. Alerting of the public remains the responsibility of the Emergency Alert and State Alert systems in all States.
• Standard Emergency Warning Signal (SEWS) is an attention grabbing signal that is transmitted over radio stations, television broadcasts or telephone messages ahead of an emergency alert, warning or public advice message relating to a major emergency or disaster. SEWS is used very selectively in order to draw attention to a follow-on warning or advice about a rapid-onset emergency or disaster.

Australia’s CAP Profile

CAP is currently used in all the systems mentioned above except for the telephone hotlines and SEWS where it does not apply, but provides the flexibility and potential to be adapted to interface with these systems if a requirement emerges. The Australian CAP Profile will be aligned with the OASIS CAP version 1.2 standard, and will provide the Australian community with a common and standardised approach to deliver warning and alerting messages that have been tailored to the Australian emergency management environment.

Image courtesy of New South Wales Police Force, Australia.

Testing on the new system begins in June 2011 and plans are in place to launch it soon after. Currently government agencies are still ironing out regulatory issues and there are of course concerns regarding the time it takes to issue an alert and the fact that some some people still do not use cell phones.

The sound of air raid sirens will become a thing of Israel’s past starting some time next year, to be replaced by mass text messages delivered to every cell phone in the probable target area.

The new system, developed by Israel’s Home Front Command and high tech start-up called e-Vigilo, and being deployed in conjunction with the country’s cellular operators, will alert users about incoming rockets in a matter of seconds, said Lt. Col. Levi Ittah, head of the project for Israel’s Home Front Command. It will offer faster and more pinpointed warnings than ever before, he said.

“The system’s potential is virtually limitless,” Ittah told The Media Line. “In the future, it could be used by police or emergency medical services. It could alert citizens about any kind of disaster, including earthquakes or other environmental catastrophes.”

Rockets have emerged as the key weapon for Israel’s most implacable foes – the Hamas movement in the Gaza Strip and Hizbullah in Lebanon – neither of which can field conventional forces but aim to win future conflicts by threatening Israel’s civilian population with barrages.

Israel experienced a taste of conflicts to come when the Lebanese Shiite Hizbullah organization showered northern Israel with some 4,000 rockets during the month-long Lebanon War in 2006. On Tuesday, Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi warned that Israel may need to evacuate cities and towns in a future conflict with Hamas or Hizbullah. Some reports estimates that Hizbullah has built a stockpile of 40,000 rockets while Hamas has sought to upgrade its smaller arsenal with more powerful and longer-range missiles.

Employing technology called cell broadcast, which is already in use by Israel’s four mobile operators, the warning will be sent to clients in a given geographical area defined by local cell sites. Testing of the system is set to begin in June 2011 and it is expected to go into operational use several months later.

Ittah said cell phones will vibrate, flash and send a text message, possibly in several languages, immediately alerting users of the looming danger, ensuring that people don’t miss the message. Cell phone users will get an alert between 10 to 20 seconds from the time the warning is released by the Israel Defense Forces.

Israel’s Communications Ministry is working on the regulatory and legal aspects of the new innovation, Ittah said.

“This program is part of our vision of pinpointed warning,” Ittah added. “In the future, we hope to eliminate the country’s warning regions, which send out broad alerts, and focus on the exact area of danger.”

Ittah added that in the first operational stage the system will back-up the standard air-raid siren, but the plan is that it will eventually become the primary system in the future. Already about seven million of Israel’s 10 million registered cellular phones support the technology needed for the alert system.

To read the entire article please click here.

The media has already begun looking at the role social media played in this event. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article7142639.ece

It can be expected that this incident will force local and national authorities to examine how effective current alerting methods were in protecting the public during this event, and how they can be improved in the future. A rapid mobile alerting campaign may have been critical in avoiding casualties.

Maldives to get early warning alerts via SMS

02 September 2009

 

Facing increased threats triggered by climate change, Maldives will soon receive text based early warning alerts for disasters. Cell broadcasting, a technology will enable delivery of information to multiple users simultaneously in a specified area.

Texting short messages through mobile phones could help in early warning of natural disasters in the Maldives, says a new report.

The technology, called cell broadcasting, helps to deliver messages simultaneously to multiple users in a specified area.

In the case of the Maldives, if an early warning is introduced, it must be able to reach all of the outlying islands including tourists on resorts.

With mobile phones quite ubiquitous, it may be an ideal time to introduce an emerging technology — cell broadcasting — for public early warning,” says the report, ‘Mobile Cell Broadcasting for Commercial Use and Public Warning in the Maldives’, which was published last month (15 July).

More at: http://southasia.oneworld.net/ictsfordevelopment/maldives-to-get-early-warning-alerts-via-sms