[EAS] Where attention needs to be

[Rod Zeigler]

While I, and many others, saw the inherent technical flaws in public 
internet based alerting I also see some of the political aspects. All 
technical challenges can be overcome by the application of logic and 
capital. The political challenges, not so much. First we have two 
Federal agencies (FCC & FEMA) attempting to work together to create an 
entirely new system. Each of these agencies are charged with completely 
different responsibilities. One, to create the mechanism and 
dissemination of emergency information, the other to regulate those end 
dissemination entities. Both need certain amounts of control over the 
system, but the disparate bureaucratic cultures in each are immediately 
at odds over that control. When you add political pressures such as 
"Broadband Initiatives" and  schemes to advertise fragile infrastructure 
as robust and dependable, you now have logic thrown out the window and 
political posturing and obfuscation taking it's place. Meanwhile, those 
of us charged with deploying and incorporating this required technology, 
under penalty of law, scramble to try to keep our businesses both 
profitable and legal. Until the outside political interests are somehow 
silenced, and these two Federal agencies are allowed overcome their 
inherent obstacles, and come to a consensus on public alerting, we will 
continue on the path we currently travel.

As to the "Zompocalypse" alert, we can put any security schemes together 
that we desire, and somewhere there will be rooms full of people working 
for unfriendly foreign and domestic forces laboring to overcome them. 
Think of it as the "Hacker Race" as we had the Space Race, Arms Race, 
etc. back in the good old days of the Cold War. One idea is to use CAP 
for additional information only and NEVER EVER for automatic 
alerts-to-air in a broadcast or cable plant. CAP can be used for CMAS 
alerts, as long as a "See Local Media For Information" tag is used. This 
will alert consumers that there is something going on, but you have to 
check with local media for the who, what, when, where, and why. Local 
media would then inform them that the dead are NOT rising from the grave 
and to go about their business. If there is a "Tornado Warning for Jones 
County", you find out the specifics from local media. Should local media 
shirk their responsibilities in this area, there is a mechanism for 
change. If CMAS consumers do not care to use that mechanism, then they 
are voting with their apathy. We can spend millions of dollars and hours 
to make these alerts available, but we cannot force people to act upon 
them. We give the public all the information we can, and our 
responsibility stops there. Sometimes we get so caught up in making sure 
we alert everyone, everywhere, at all times, we lose sight of the fact 
that some people just don't want to be bothered.

--
R. V. Zeigler, Dir. of Eng.
Nebraska Rural Radio Assn.
KRVN-KTIC-KNEB
Newsletter: http://tinyurl.com/RRNnews