1. 01/12/2011 1 The Future of Wireless Weather Where are NWS and the Enterprise Going? NWS Partners Meeting January 27, 2011

2. 01/12/2011 2 Agenda Background and overview of issues Panel discussion Summary and wrap-up

3. 01/12/2011 3 Goal Engage NWS, weather enterprise, and core partners (e.g., emergency managers) in discussions on how best to provide wireless environmental information services. Identify issues for further in-depth discussion in the Spring, if needed

4. 01/12/2011 4 Target Audience for Wireless Weather Information Ownership of wireless devices - 89% US population (June 2009, 276.6M subscribers) Government decision leaders and emergency managers – –Require timely, text and graphical information wherever they are, through multiple channels of dissemination –NWS needs to know they are looking at same data/products forecasters are looking at –Require tools to facilitate two-way information sharing and decision support with NWS General public – –Want instant and reliable information on-the-go –Want information presented in clear, non-technical language –Seek corroborating information from many sources before acting –Threats need to be better personalized to ensure responsive action is taken

5. 01/12/2011 5 Current Mobile/Wireless Services Mobile Decision Support Service/ interactive NWS Alert System –Target Audience: NWS core partners (EMs, Gov’t decision leaders, media) –Alert Types: Sub-catastrophic, “usual” watch/warning/advisory for moderate to high impact weather important to EMs FEMA IPAWS/CMAS (Commercial Mobile Alert System) –Target audience: General Public –Alert types : Cell broadcast of imminent/catastrophic threats (e.g., tornado warning) –In development and scheduled for 2012; all major wireless carriers participating; requires cell tower/phone upgrades Private Sector fee services –Target audience: businesses; public subscribers –Alert types: Value-added and custom alerts Private Sector free services –Target audience: General Public –Alert types: General weather info, all alerts FEMA

6. 01/12/2011 6 MOBILE Sector Relationships Alert Types Target Audience Community Leaders and Decision Makers (eg, EMs) Subscribing Public, Businesses General Public Advisories: Anticipate, Respond and Recover Watches: Prepare for Action Warnings: Urgent, Immediate Action Required KEY iNWS Private Sector IPAWS/ CMAS

7. 01/12/2011 7 NWS Guiding Principles Ensure NWS core partners have assured access to unaltered NWS products to facilitate communication with NWS forecasters – critical for decision support services Increase efforts to provide NWS information in standard formats/protocols to facilitate commercial provision of support services for general public Foster wide availability of NWS weather warnings and environmental information by diverse means Trademarks/copyrights –NWS data/products are not copyrighted and can be used freely –NWS encourages use of trademarked name/logo to identify unaltered NWS products –Cannot assert your own copyright for NWS products –Use of NWS trademarks does not imply affiliation/endorsement

8. 01/12/2011 8 Constraints on NWS for Providing Mobile Services Resource challenges Cost to provide a national guaranteed level of wireless service delivery to the general public Cost for ongoing development and support of device- specific “Apps” to deliver NWS information Cost for maintaining/supporting direct email services to general public Policy/Legal NWS will only consider approaches that do not in effect give anyone exclusive rights to NWS products.

9. 01/12/2011 9 Achieving a Balanced Way Forward 9 DRAFT NWS focus on core partners; limited mobile service for public NWS supports commercial mobile development through information centric services

10. 01/12/2011 10 Balanced Way Forward NWS focus on core partners –Continue direct service to core partners – iNWS –NWS web standards sensitive to access by mobile devices (vs. apps designed for specific devices) Support commercial sector with information centric approach –Make information more accessible and lower cost of entry Use of common data formats/protocols; data easier to work with Developers’ site/Wiki for better documentation of info feeds and direct feedback to NWS Application Programming Interface (API) Use of CAP standard and push –Greater visibility for Partners Prominent public listing of mobile services (e.g., apps) that use official NWS feeds (unaltered products, clearly labeled NWS content)

11. 01/12/2011 11 Panel Discussion What do you think? How else can Weather Enterprise best work together in providing mobile/ wireless weather services?

12. 01/12/2011 12 Backup/Details

13. 01/12/2011 13 Emerging Government Mobile Alert Services iNWS (NWS)CMAS (FEMA) Serves community decision leaders. Provides information relevant to user defined areas. Users receive alerts for NWS products to which they subscribe. SMS message up to 160 characters Embedded link to more info - full text, impacts, warning outline, storm track, radar, etc. Serves general public. Provides information relevant to user’s current location – cell tower Users only receive alerts for “imminent threats.” Message limited to 90 characters. Embedded links now allowed. Future capabilities TBD.

14. 01/12/2011 14 NWS Use of XML Standards Supports Mobile Development Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) –Emergency/alert information Really Simple Syndication (RSS)/Atom feeds –Allow subscribers to receive timely updates and aggregate feeds from many sites into one place Keyhole Markup Language (KML/KMZ) –Expresses geographic annotation and visualization on 2D and 3D maps

15. 01/12/2011 15 Benefits of XML for Commercial and Public Safety Interests Commercial Weather Sector –Low cost of entry –Can make many products from same easy to parse message –Minimal issues when NWS makes changes Public Safety –CAP to serve as basis for FEMA’s Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS) and CMAS –Enables/facilitates mobile decision support

16. 01/12/2011 16 Proposed Support for Private Sector Wireless Services NWS-hosted directory of wireless environmental information applications and related services (i.e., vendor name, type of service, description, contact information, etc.) One-stop-shop or wiki for developers –NWS data types (i.e., CAP, RSS, KMZ/KML, etc.) –Where to get the data –Sample mobile applications showing how to integrate the data –Related documentation