[EAS] BLU Alert Comments.

[Botterell, Arthur@CalOES]

And, of course, the Common Alerting Protocol was devised as an open non-proprietary standard format for exchanging alerts across different alerting systems.  Unfortunately, once messages are down-converted to the SAME format, they're stripped of a lot of the detail that makes such interoperability useful.  

Some equipment vendors are still pursuing a strategy of non-interoperability, though, with interfaces designed to keep customers locked into their proprietary product lines.  It's as if Motorola radios were being designed not to talk to radios from Vertex or other brands.  

Remarkable, perhaps, that we've been so slow to understand that the challenge of interoperability isn't restricted to two-way radios.  Effective integrated public alert and warning requires us to be just a tiny bit smarter about how we spend our budgets.

Art