Emergency Broadcast Alerts coming to your Cell Phone, baning of Mobile Cell Phones, baning of parental rights...

This week I noted a couple of different items that are a good example of the right hand of the Government not knowing what the left hand of the Government is doing, in the headlines this week. The first being that the Government is establishing a system to push Emergency Broadcast Alerts to our Cell Phones and other electronic widgets. The second is the banning of using Cell Phones while in a vehicle, so we could not get them while moving.

As the first item has some technology relevant to embedded systems I'll cover it first. Over at The Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) we find the following announcement:

"... announced the adoption of a new digital message format for the Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS), the nation's next generation emergency alert and warning network. The new digital message format being adopted by FEMA is the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS) Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) v1.2 Standard. This open standard will enable alert messages to be easily composed by emergency management officials for communication with citizens using a much broader set of devices to reach as many people as possible. The three documents defining the FEMA IPAWS technical standards and requirements for CAP and its implementation are: (1) OASIS CAP Standard v1.2; (2) IPAWS Specification to the CAP Standard (CAP v1.2 IPAWS USA Profile v1.0); (3) CAP to EAS Implementation Guide."

First leaving one to wonder what is the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS), and where to find the Common Alerting Protocol Version 1.2 standard.

OASIS, Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards, is a not-for-profit consortium that drives the development, convergence and adoption of open standards for the global information society. OASIS is a good place to look before you go off and invent yet an other new standard; "The great thing about Standards, is everyone can have their own." OASIS has an Emergency subdivision where we find out the details about CAP.

Abstract:

"The Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) is a simple but general format for exchanging all-hazard emergency alerts and public warnings over all kinds of networks. CAP allows a consistent warning message to be disseminated simultaneously over many different warning systems, thus increasing warning effectiveness while simplifying the warning task. CAP also facilitates the detection of emerging patterns in local warnings of various kinds, such as might indicate an undetected hazard or hostile act. And CAP provides a template for effective warning messages based on best practices identified in academic research and real-world experience."

The OASIS open standards consortium ... announced approval of the Emergency Data Exchange Language (EDXL) Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) version 1.2, a message format for exchanging emergency alerts and public warnings over all kinds of networks. Advanced via an international collaboration of the public and private sectors, CAP 1.2 is now an official OASIS Standard, a status that signifies the highest level of ratification.

EDXL-CAP allows a consistently well structured message to be disseminated simultaneously over many different warning systems. The standard is simple to understand and easy to implement. Its all-hazard, all-media format means it can provide notifications via radio, television, cell phones, email, and other media. The new version of CAP delivers digital signature support, which offers added security and authentication for next-generation alerting systems.

--- OASIS News Augest 12, 2010.

As an aside, the "Earthquake Report" example in the CAP v1.2 Appendix, reminded me of something I wanted to pass on. Check your home owners insurance to see if you have Earthquake Insurance. Unless you live in someplace like California, your house insurance does not cover Earthquakes without an additional rider, which is generally fairly inexpensive. Check with your insurance agent, because the insurance is cheap in places that don't normal have them. However in the history of the North America Continent the biggest Earthquakes happened in places that did not normally have Earthquakes. If you wait till you have even a miner tremor before investing in this cheap insurance, you'll have to wait a month or more before the policy would take effect.

I also came across Alcatel-Lucent's announcement of their new Broadcast Message Center solution to help service providers turn mobile phones into life savers. While I'm sure there is a connection to this and the FEMA announcement above, finding a tangible link to cite eludes me at the moment.

I just hope they don't make me pay for these incoming messages, Cell Phone Spam is a distraction we do not need. What happens during Rush Hour when everyone gets the same message at the same time and no one is looking at the road??

That brings us to the second item I mentioned in the opening of this Blog entry, Cell Phone Distractions.

The Internet rummer mill has miss quoted U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood as saying the Government is working towards preventing Cell Phones from working in moving vehicles, because of the distractions that they cause.

Over at the official blog of the U.S. Secretary of Transportation, we find out what he actually said about Setting the record straight on technological solutions to distracted driving:

"There's a lot of technology out there now that can disable phones and we're looking at that. A number of [cell technology innovators] came to our Distracted Driving Summit here in Washington and presented their technology, and that's one way. But you have to have good laws, you have to have good enforcement, and you have to have people take personal responsibility. That's the bottom line."

The new Government run site Distraction shows some graphic examples of how Distracted Driving kills.

"U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood Monday, September 20, 2010 announced that distracted driving-related crashes claimed 5,474 lives and led to 448,000 traffic injuries across the U.S. in 2009. According to National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) research, distraction-related fatalities represented 16 percent of overall traffic fatalities in 2009 - the same percentage as in 2008."

Perhaps the right hand group and the left hand group, should spend some time over at the University of Minnesota's HumanFIRST: Human Factors Interdisciplinary Research in Simulation and Transportation project?

"The HumanFIRST (Human Factors Interdisciplinary Research in Simulation and Transportation) Program employs the tools and methods of psychology and human factors engineering to improve scientific understanding of driver performance and cognitive functions."

In the Law of Unintended Consequences the site Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, Highway Loss Data Institute, tells us in their September 28th, 2010 report that, Texting bans don't reduce crashes; effects are slight crash increases because the Texter is trying harder to hide what they are doing, becoming even more distracted.

Never rely on politicians and bureaucrats to understand what they are doing...

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A good example of the good intentions of politicians that turn out badly is Article #2, among many other sections, from the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC). The CRC is the body of independent experts that monitors implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child by its State parties. Ratified by all nations except the United States and Somalia. Which is something that some in our current Lame Duck Congress what to change before the end of the year. For our international readers, a Lame Duck in this context is a member of Congress that lost their reelection bid, but still has the power to make law until their new replacement is sworn in at the first of the New Year. Since they lost, Lame Ducks are considered the most dangerous kind of politician of all, because they are no longer answerable to their constituents.

Article 2:

"...2. States Parties shall take all appropriate measures to ensure that the child is protected against all forms of discrimination or punishment on the basis of the status, activities, expressed opinions, or beliefs of the child's parents, legal guardians, or family members."

Have you ever meet a child or teenager that did not need disciplined? Sending your Teen to their room for a week for Texting while driving might just cause Lawyers, or worse, to show up at your door...

FTC wants to save News Papers by taxing our electronic designs. Watch live June 15th.

On June 15th the Federal Trade Commission is going to hold a live web cast entitled "How Will Journalism Survive the Internet Age?". Details on the event are listed here. Comments on this event can be left here.

By now you are wondering what this has to do with Embedded Systems or Software Safety. That is explained by this document: POTENTIAL POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS TO SUPPORT THE REINVENTION OF JOURNALISM.

It comes down to the FTC in Government Double Speak is proposing many onerous Taxes and Fees (Taxes are not popular so raise the Fees that don't have the Tax stigma yet), on the products that you and I design.

Just a couple of highlights, of the many, many, new taxes to be discussed at the meeting:

Tax on consumer electronics. A five percent tax on consumer electronics would generate approximately $4 billion annually.

Advertising taxes. They note a considerable amount of our broadcast spectrum has been turned over to disseminating commercial advertisements, and a two percent sales tax on advertising would generate approximately $5 to $6 billion annually. In addition, they suggest that changing the tax write-off of all advertising as a business expense in a single year to a write-off over a 5-year period would generate an additional $2 billion per year.

It goes down hill from there with Them wanting to copyright "Facts" so only News Papers can use them...

Between approximately the year 1439 when Gutenberg invented the Printing Press and the year 1710 when the Copyright was created, information was controlled by the Printing Guilds. It seems that the FTC wants to turn the clock back by 300 years:

"...amending the copyright laws to create a content license fee (perhaps $5.00 to $7.00) to be paid by every Internet Service Provider on each account it provides."

Read this commentary on the report, mostly on how public input is being ignored by Them, by Jeff Jarvis of the New York Post, who tells them "Get of my lawn!". Mr. Jarvis raises the question who asked the FTC to 'help'?

About the FTC reads in part:

When the FTC was created in 1914, its purpose was to prevent unfair methods of competition in commerce as part of the battle to 'bust the trusts.'"

So now the FTC views Internet as the 'Trust' that needs busted. Is the FTC just killing off the trust they can not control, to support the trust that they can control?

I find it interesting that this event is being held at a 'Club', at our expense most likely, the National Press Club specifically. If you don't understand why Government meetings at clubs are bad for you and I, then you need to consider a speech given before the National Economists Club in Washington, D.C. on November 21, 2002 by Ben S. Bernanke:

"What has this got to do with monetary policy? Like gold, U.S. dollars have value only to the extent that they are strictly limited in supply. But the U.S. government has a technology, called a printing press (or, today, its electronic equivalent), that allows it to produce as many U.S. dollars as it wishes at essentially no cost. By increasing the number of U.S. dollars in circulation, or even by credibly threatening to do so, the U.S. government can also reduce the value of a dollar in terms of goods and services, which is equivalent to raising the prices in dollars of those goods and services. We conclude that, under a paper-money system, a determined government can always generate higher spending and hence positive inflation." - Ben S. Bernanke current chairmen of the Federal Reserve.

So we can see that as long as eight years ago it was already in the planing stages for Them to put the screws to you and I!

To wrap this all up watch this video and read 1984 by Gorge Orwell if you never have read it before.

I'm Taxed Enough Already, how about you?