FEMA ENCOURAGES INDUSTRY, PUBLIC, PRIVATE STAKEHOLDERS TO PROVIDE 
FEEDBACK ON PROPOSED PROFILE FOR CAP 1.1

WASHINGTON - The Federal Emergency Management Agency's (FEMA) is urging emergency 
management industries, state and tribal leaders and first responders across the country to review and 
comment on the open standardization process for the Emergency Alert System (EAS) Profile for the 
Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) Version 1.1 OASIS Standard. The EAS profile is a component of the 
agency's Integrated Public Alert and Warnings System (IPAWS) program

From today through May 2, 2009, emergency management stakeholders have the opportunity to 
participate in online brainstorming on the standardization process through the Organization for the 
Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS) and its Emergency Management Technical 
Committee. Comments from members and non-OASIS members will be collected online via 
http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/comments/index.php?wg_abbrev=emergency the organization's 
publicly archived comment facility. 

"Arriving at standards and protocols that work for everyone is a complex process," Walter Florence, 
IPAWS program manager within FEMA's National Continuity Programs Directorate, said. "We 
encourage industry and our public and private stakeholders to participate in this important venue to help 
us meet this challenge."

CAP 1.1 is a format for exchanging emergency alerts that allows a consistent warning message to be 
disseminated simultaneously over many different warning systems. IPAWS is the nation's next 
generation public communications and warning capability. FEMA is working with the public and private 
sectors to integrate warning systems that allow the President and authorized officials to communicate 
with the public in times of emergency via television, radio, telephone, email, and other communications 
technologies. 

"FEMA's contribution of the Emergency Alert System profile to OASIS is an exciting milestone in the 
advancement and adoption of CAP," Laurent Liscia, executive director of OASIS, said. "Our open 
standards process ensures that all interested parties will be able to review and comment on this 
specification, confident that their views will receive thoughtful consideration by the Emergency 
Management Technical Committee. We encourage everyone to become involved in this work--as 
participants, observers, or commenters--so that going forward CAP will continue to reflect the broadest 
possible range of input."

FEMA's federal partners in developing the federal CAP profile include the National Weather Service, 
Federal Communications Commission, Department of Homeland Security's Science & Technology 
Directorate's Command, Control and Interoperability Division, and the Emergency Interoperability 
Consortium.

FEMA submitted its draft "Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) v1.1 Profile Requirements" to the OASIS 
Emergency Management Technical Committee on Dec. 12, 2008. These requirements are publicly 
accessible on the OASIS Web site. The Emergency Management Technical Committee formed a CAP 
Profiles Subcommittee to evaluate the requirements and develop a working draft of the profile. When 
the subcommittee completed its work, it was submitted to the full committee for a vote to accept as a 
committee draft. After further review, the Emergency Management Technical Committee voted to 
advance the committee draft to a 60-day public comment review. OASIS will conduct one or more 
public reviews of the draft before it can be advanced to a specification and then standard. 


FEMA leads and supports the nation in a risk-based, comprehensive emergency management system of 
preparedness, protection, response, recovery, and mitigation, to reduce the loss of life and property and 
protect the nation from all hazards including natural disasters, acts of terrorism, and other man-made 
disasters.

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