:>;: New Message Posted By The Disaster Management Centre at http://www.abcd.lk/xyz.html :>;;:

An ICT4 Peace blog review on SMS is here http://ict4peace.wordpress.com/2007/09/13/sms-alerts-during-emergencies-lessons-from-sri-lankas-tsuanmi-alert-on-13-september-2007/

The Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) seems to be an XML based format to keep watch/warning/evacuation messages consistent and it seems to be a web friendly format.

So it doesn’t look like much work needs to be done here.

Watch/warning messages are already being typed up on a computer by the Met Dept (http://www.meteo.slt.lk/Tswarn.html) judging by this link and now its a matter of taking it out as fast as possible to a predefined database such as the media.

The benefits of this include a fewer number of calls to the call centre bombarding officials seeking detail that is already on a website, journalists not wasting time getting the news, and journalists not relying on secondary unreliable sources.

The message needs to be fed once to the XML web feed and it will be available to all disaster warning technologies needing the XML input message. (I am thinking a configured automatic email will not be a problem here). Its as simple as cutting and pasting the message on to a web page text box.

The next step is to send an SMS to first responders (my interest is in media getting this – anywhere between 500 to 5,000 people)

If there are concerns about summarizing a message in under 160 characters, and to have someone do that reliably 24/7, an SMS could be sent simply saying the following:

“New Message Posted By The Disaster Management Centre at http://www.abcd.lk/xyz.html”

There is nothing to change in that message, it will be the same every time (a time stamp could be added to the SMS as well, if needed)

Sending out an SMS is very easy. There are plenty of password-protected internet-based applications that telecom operators can provide with the number database stored by the telecom operator.

Its simply a matter of opening a web page, entering username/password, pasting the message and pressing SEND.

In fact, an even easier method is available.

An SMS from a predefined mobile number with some predefined protection coding sent to a particular number will be sent to the relevant database. The SMS text will look something like this

:: New Message Posted By The Disaster Management Centre at http://www.abcd.lk/xyz.html ::

So the official in charge of alerting media simply has to put the watch/warning/evacuation message on a website and send the above SMS to a predefined number from his or her phone (only) and up to 5,000 people are alerted to a new message in matter of minutes. (Under 1,000 can be done very comfortably and very quickly) This person can also be on the list so he or she gets the same message and knows it was delivered immediately.

The benefits of all media institutions receiving this SMS, which can be extended to local government officials (as a second line of communication to the main technology), are enormous as valuable minutes are saved in news dissemination. They will all be able to log on and read a reliable DETAILED watch/warning/evacuation message on a website.

Journalists who will be caught in the middle of their daily lives chatting in their offices, driving their vehicles etc etc, will immediately get an SMS saying “new message posted.” If they don’t log on immediately (using mobile web browsing) they can ask a colleague to do it for them.

News stations will immediately start reading out a reliable, detailed, well-sourced report via TV and Radio while SMS news services and web media will start pushing out well-sourced news.

JNW being an accredited news agency with the Government Information Department with experience in SMS news delivery since early 2006, and the use of SMS applications, will be happy to volunteer to help set this up.

JNW currently reaches the public via SMS mainly with its tie up with majority state-owned Mobitel.

The above is my outsider view on how an SMS alert for the media could be set up.