The first assignment for the web design students (COMP2410) at The Australian National University this semester is the ethics of implementing bushfire warning systems. The second assignment will be to design a "National Bushfire Warning System" web page suitable for a mobile phone. I will be presenting a seminar on this at the ANU in Canberra on 16 April 2009. All welcome, no need to book, just turn up:

Seminar Announcement
School of Computer Science, CECS
The Australian National University

Date: Thursday, 16 April 2009
Time: 4:00 pm to 5:00 pm
Venue: Room N101, CSIT Building [108], North Road, Canberra

Speaker: Tom Worthington
Title: National Bushfire Warning System

Abstract:

Recent bushfires in Victoria and floods in Queensland have brought the issue of warning systems for the public to prominence. Modern digital communications, the Internet and web, have a useful role in emergency communications. However,some technologies such as VoIP may make Australia more vulnerable. An alternative national system using Cell Broadcast technology via mobile phones is proposed. The potential for Social Networking to be used for emergencies will also be discussed.

Biography:

Tom Worthington is an IT consultant and Adjunct Senior Lecturer in Computer Science at the Australian National University, where he teaches the design on Internet, web and mobile phone systems, including for emergency management.

He is a former IT adviser at Headquarters Australian Defence Force. Tom is a member of the Project Management Committee of Sahana open source disaster management system, used for the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. He was elected a Fellow of the ACS for his work on Internet policy for Australia.

URL: http://cs.anu.edu.au/lib/seminars/seminars09/dept20090416
Seminars homepage: http://cs.anu.edu.au/seminars/

On Saturday, I attended Bar Camp Canberra 2. This event was broadly about Internet, web and open source software. One of the Google staff talked about the mapping system they provided for the Victorian fires: http://www.google.com.au/landing/victorianbushfires/

Later I talked on a proposed bushfire warning system: http://www.tomw.net.au/technology/it/bushfire_warning_system/

This was for a Twitter literate audience, so I described the system as "Micro-blogging for emergencies", using the example of the US National Park Service, which uses Twitter to release public information during incidents at the Lake Mead National Recreation Area (NRA).

The idea is reasonably simple: you have a short text message, which includes a short web address for more details. The web pages are in a carefully designed format which will be compatible with email, telex, fax and mobile phones and well as ordinary web browsers. All Australian emergency agencies would use the same format and the public would be able to see messages in one standard format.

The system would be used by emergency agencies to send information to media outlets, including radio and TV broadcasters (no national system currently exists for issuing emergency warning messages in Australia). Government officials, company employees and the general public could get the same information at the same time.