Next Tuesday I will talking on "Community Warning Systems - Balancing Technology and Reliability" at the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials Australia 2009 Conference in Sydney. The conference topics have been changed at short notice to address some early lessons learnt from the recent and ongoing Victorian bushfires. I was asked today to speak. So my presentation has been prepared in the last three hours. Comments, corrections and suggested additions are welcome: http://www.tomw.net.au/technology/it/community_warning_systems/

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"The Internet and web have a useful role in emergency communications, provided the use is planned. However, VOIP communications and the Government's National Broadband Network will make Australia more vulnerable, unless the system is built to a higher standard. The an ad-hoc arrangement of state based telephone-based emergency warning systems is no substitute for a nationally coordinated system. Digital technologies such as Cell Broadcast provide a better alternative. Emergency officials need to listen to what the ICT professionals tell them is possible and not just try and build digital versions of old analog and teletype systems. Both professions need to take the public into their confidence and treat the community as partners, not as victims. Current warning formats, such as used by Tsunami Warning Centers, do not make good use of Internet technology and there is the potential for Social Networking to be used for emergencies."

Summary from "Community Warning Systems - Balancing Technology and Reliability", Tom Worthington, For the APCO Australasia Annual Conference, Australian Technology Park, Sydney, 10am, 3 March 2009
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My talk on Community Warning Systems at the APCO Communications Conference was reasonably well received. So I have proposed Australian Governments build such a national CSW system before the next fire season:

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To: Council of Australian Governments (c/o COAG Secretariat, COAG Unit, Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet)

AUSTRALIAN COMMUNITY WARNING SYSTEM PROPOSAL

This is to propose that Australian governments build a national community warning system. Such a system can be in place for the 2009/2010 bush-fire season at a cost of less than $10M. The system would be used for fires, tsunami, terrorist incidents and other emergencies. It would be capable of delivering a warning message in less than a minute to most of the Australian population, or a specific geographic area.

At the APCOA emergency communications conference today, I gave a brief outline of problems with the current proposals for the use of telephone based warnings and SMS messages. The alternative proposed is the use of "Cell Broadcast" text messages for alerts. The Internet, with specially designed web pages, can be used to provide preparatory information to the community before an emergency and information to help with recovery afterwards.

The technology for issuing text warnings is built into the mobile telephone network in Australia. A small amount of work will be required to make this system available for emergency personnel to issue warnings. The more difficult task is to educate the emergency personnel and the public as to what the system is for and how to use it.

See: Community Warning Systems - Balancing Technology and Reliability, Tom Worthington FACS HLM, for the APCO Australasia Annual Conference, Australian Technology Park, Sydney, 10am, 3 March 2009: http://www.tomw.net.au/technology/it/community_warning_systems/

tomw like I suspect a few others I noticed your first post.
It interested me, I even put a post on the subject together, communications is my hobby I did not post it.
Ham radio, and a life time commitment to bush fire brigades and emergency radio communications.
I note you post after you did your thing and am still interested.
What power is proposed?
While this month my group go,s into the bush to cover an event over 24 hours using only our own power, every one hearing us has no need of power lines.
in such an event power may be the first victim.
no intent to be anything other than interested how will your system work?
good luck with it.

Belly wrote 4 March 2009 5:54:30 AM:

>... What power is proposed?
>... in such an event power may be the first victim. ...

Yes, mains power may be lost during an emergency, such as a bushfire. I was proposing to use the Internet and the web to prepare before an event and for recovery afterwards. For the urgent warnings during the emergency I was proposing to use the mobile phone networks, which have some level of backup power supply.

Of course this is not a perfect system, but seems better than the alternative of using landline phones. Many people now use cordless phones and more are using VoIP, neither of which work without mains power.

In an ideal world the community would invest in highly reliable communications for emergencies. However, in the absence of that investment we have to do the best with what we have got and plan for its use. The Victorian Government issued an ad-hoc SMS message this week. Fortunately this mostly worked, but it was not a good idea and could have gone badly wrong, making the situation worse. It is not the time to experiment with communications technology in the middle of an emergency.

Tomw I understand your idea and thanks for your reply.
The ABC northern cyclone watch looked ok too but it would be hard to get people to listen.
However consider this, as you would know scanners are a hobby many have.
If radios could be part funded by governments that have one emergency services channel included.
Just like a scanner but restricted to that one channel, soon people able to hear that channel may leave it on as the hobby is sticky.
Once heard it gets you, in any case in an emergency every radio and TV channel could broadcast a request that the radio be turned on.

I am writing a very comprehensive article about FIRE BUNKERS which may be of interest to you. It can be found at:
http://home.iprimus.com.au/ianpullar/firebunkers.htm
Feedback welcomed. Regards - Ian Pullar