[LINK] Australian Community Warning System Propopsal

[Tom Worthington]

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 PROPOPSAL

     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/>
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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, Australian National University