[LINK] Faster Mediterranean Tsunami Warning System Needed

[Tom Worthington]

Recent research suggests the Mediterranean is overdue for a tsunami 
<http://www.nature.com/ngeo/journal/vaop/ncurrent/pdf/ngeo151.pdf>. 
An initial tsunami warning system was to be in place by end of 2007. 
But progress on NEAMTWS (North Eastern Atlantic, the Mediterranean 
and Connected Seas Tsunami Warning System) does not seem to be 
progressing very well. Three months after the latest meeting 
(November 2007) the official report is: "Please check back here for 
the meeting report following the meeting." 
<http://www.ioc-tsunami.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=255&Itemid=928>.

Perhaps it is time to use the Internet to clear out the clutter of 
multiple levels of government and have the warnings go straight from 
the warning center to the citizens?

I thought that would make a useful topic for an ethics lecture for 
ANU ICT students 
<http://www.tomw.net.au/technology/it/webethics.shtml#tsunami>. My 
conclusion is that the ICT professionals involved in designing such 
warning systems are required to tell the emergency experts and 
bureaucrats how to build a simpler and more reliable system, which 
will bypass most of those people. Such a system design may be 
politically unpalatable, as it would cut across levels of government 
and bureaucracy, but otherwise the death toll may be several million.

ps: I was going to visit Greece in June. Anyone know of tsunami 
warning system workers there?



Tom Worthington FACS HLM tom.worthington at tomw.net.au Ph: 0419 496150
Director, Tomw Communications Pty Ltd            ABN: 17 088 714 309
PO Box 13, Belconnen ACT 2617                      http://www.tomw.net.au/
Adjunct Senior Lecturer, ANU