[EAS] No TOE for WEA

[Robert Bunge - NOAA Federal]

Lowell is on the mark.  With about two years of experience under our
belt, we at NWS have learned much about WEA; the good, the bad, the
ugly and wonderful.  One of them is one's relationship to that little
device in your pocket is very personal.  The threshold for over
warning arrives much quicker than any other media used to date.  Use
cases for how people relate to and use these devices is almost
unlimited.  NWS has backed out of using WEA for the long fused
products (like blizzard warnings).  Feedback was quick and negative.
However, for the short fused, life threatening products, the feedback
and experience is positive.

The 90 character limit was one of technology and what was politically
possible.  I believe we'll see some changes in the coming year(s).  A
phone number, or hyperlink in the message is not looked upon with
favor by the carriers for the resulting negative feedback when their
network becomes saturated.  Breaking the 90 character limit may also
be related to technology used in a device... meaning that in the
future, one phone might see a short message, where another in the same
room would get a longer message.

In a perfect world, the message received by the device contains the
geodata for the warned area and the device decides if it is in the
warned area instead of depending on cell tower coverage areas that are
never as even and clean as you might image.

WEA is also just the start of a new generation of warning devices.
House hold thermostats and fire detectors are examples of wifi or cell
carrier enabled devices that can include software capable reading
something like a CAP message and doing something about it.

Bob Bunge
NWS

On Thu, Feb 20, 2014 at 8:13 PM, Lowell Kiesow <lkiesow at kplu.org> wrote:
> WEA messages should have to hit a much higher threshold than EAS messages.  I don't think TOE meets the standard.  WEA messages should only be used for imminent events that have the potential to harm large numbers of people.  Anything less just pushes people to turn it off completely.
>
> The general public finds an EAS message on their radio or TV a minor annoyance.  By contrast, many people consider WEA very intrusive.  If an EAS message is a warning gun shot, a WEA message is a nuclear bomb, and needs to be treated with the same level of caution as the missile launch codes.
>
> The only exception is Amber alerts, because people are sympathetic toward them.  WEA can be used for an Amber alert during normal, waking hours and people are accepting, but send one late at night and expect major backlash. People are much less tolerant toward other event codes.  A TOE sent by WEA at any time of day would result in a flood of complaints and turn-offs.  Miss-use or over use of WEA will effectively kill it as an effective waring tool. We already have enough experiences with WEA that demonstrate all of this.
>
> A huge flaw of WEA is the 90 character message limit.  It simply isn't long enough to convey many messages.  An incomplete or vague message has the effect of sending phone users to calling, texting, or web searching for information which just clogs the network.  For that reason alone, it needs a major overhaul.
>
> --
> Lowell Kiesow, Senior Engineer
> KPLU 88.5, KVIX, KPLI, KPLK
> www.kplu.org  www.jazz24.org
>
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