Common Alerting Protocol – Workshop 2016

Common Alerting Protocol (Cap) Implementation Workshop

23-24 August 2016, Bangkok, Thailand

Hosted by AIT (Asian Institute of Technology) and Sahana Software Foundation

Co-sponsored by IFRC, ITU, OASIS and WMO

(Updated as of: 24 August 2016)

Speaker for Agenda Item: 1.1 Welcome from Asian Institute of Technology (AIT)
Surendra Shrestha Surendra Shrestha is AIT’s new Vice President for Development. He has recently joined after over 20 years with the UN in senior management positions in Africa, Asia, Europe and North America. At the UN he has mobilized support for programs and led teams on assessment, policy development and multilateral agreements. He held senior positions at the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development in Nepal, and at AIT. He has led many initiatives including: Atmospheric Brown Cloud and Black Carbon; the UNEP Eco Peace Leadership Centre; the Asia Pacific Sub-regional Environment Policy Dialogue; the UNEP-Tongji Institute of Environment for Sustainable Development; and, the Regional Resource Centre for Asia and the Pacific.
Speaker for Agenda Item: 1.2 Welcome from IFRC,
3.2 GDPC Hazards App Progress Report,
3.3 New Zealand Red Cross Case Study and Mosul Dam Preparedness Campaign
Omar Abou-Samra Omar Abou-Samra works for the IFRC Global Disaster Preparedness Center (GDPC), hosted by the American Red Cross in Washington, DC. He secures grants for GDPC work; expands partnerships with government, private and non-profit organizations; and he pilots and manages innovative programs at a global scale to promote disaster preparedness. Omar has over fifteen years of experience working in non-profit, disaster and technical fields, with specialization in mass care including emergency feeding, relief distribution and shelter. He is also an experienced responder to complex emergencies both domestically and internationally.
Speaker for Agenda Items: 1.3 Welcome from OASIS,
3.10 Questions of Specific CAP Usage,
3.11 Update from OASIS Emergency Management Technical Committee
Elysa Jones Elysa Jones is an internationally recognized expert in Emergency Interoperability Communications via Data Messaging. Elysa is Chair of the OASIS Emergency Management Technical Committee since 2004. Her Committee developed and maintains the Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) Standard, which is also ITU recommendation X.1303. Additional standards for message distribution, resource messaging, hospital availability and tracking of emergency patients are products of her Committee.
Speaker for Agenda Item: 1.4 Welcome from Sahana Software Foundation
Devin Balkind Devin Balkind works at the intersection of the nonprofit sector, the Free/Libre/Open-source (FLO) movement, and grassroots community organizing initiatives to help each benefit from the best practices of the others. He began his career as an entrepreneur who developed a challenge-based crowdfunding platform for nonprofit organizations. During this experience, he realized that a lack of collaboration among nonprofits was limiting the social sector’s effectiveness much more than its lack of funding. Since then, Devin has been applying FLO methodologies to civic challenges by developing and deploying software tools and operational techniques for a wide range of groups including software development communities, grassroots organizing initiatives, new media publications, conventional nonprofits, small farms, community spaces and, most recently, disaster relief coalitions. Devin holds a Bachelor of Science from Northwestern University.
Speaker for Agenda Items: 1.5 Welcome from WMO,
3.8 Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) in WMO
Sam Muchemi Samuel Muchemi is the Scientific Officer, Public Weather Services (SO/PWS), WMO since 2006. He joined the Kenya Meteorological Department (KMD) in 1980 as a weather forecaster and later as a weather presenter on television for the Kenya Broadcasting Corporation (KBC). He was also in charge of the Public Weather Services Division of KMD.
Speaker for Agenda Items: 2. Organization of the Workshop,
3.5 Filtered Alert Hub,
3.24 Survey of Other CAP Implementations,
4. Summary Report and Closure of the Workshop
Eliot Christian Eliot Christian is a consultant to and retired from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). He was a chief architect of the WMO Information System and the Global Earth Observations System of Systems (GEOSS). Eliot is also retired from, but remains a volunteer to, the United States Geological Survey (USGS) where he helped lead broad programs for environmental data sharing. For about 15 years he has been active in promoting CAP, especially internationally.
Speaker for Agenda Item: 3.1 Sahana CAP Implementations: Lessons Learned
Nuwan Waidyanatha Nuwan Waidyanatha is a Sahana Software Foundation Board Director and a LIRNEasia Senior Research Fellow. He has strong credentials in emergency communication systems; especially, the development and deployment of early warning and first response systems. He is leading the design, development, and implementation of the Sahana Alert and Messaging Broker in Myanmar, Maldives, and the Philippines. For over a decade, Nuwan has been conducting CAP related action research and pilot implementations in the Asia Pacific Region. He has a several peer reviewed publications on the CAP research findings. He has worked with the International Telecommunication Union and LIRNEasia on short term assignments evaluating national emergency communications and advocating CAP: India, Timor-Leste, and Nepal. He applies his Operations Research (Analytics), Computer Engineering, and Systems Theory training, in his work, along with a Social Science touch for delivering practical solutions that make economic sense.
Speaker for Agenda Item: 3.4 OpenBroadcaster
Rob Hopkins Rob Hopkins comes from a pioneering family of Canadian inventors. He started in the arctic communications industry in 1992 by building a private mountain top wireless link connecting Tagish and Whitehorse (120kms away) to communicate purchase order faxes with East Asia. This was followed by an “under regulated” broadcast radio station in 1997 from his home in Tagish. While struggling to make his station accessible to the local populace while providing community access programming and public alerting, he began to envision a web based “radio station in a box” prototype with unattended CAP Emergency Broadcasting at its core. His group has since released an open source Media Asset Management (MAM) system supporting CAP images with video and audio messaging. This is being used throughout all broadcast sectors in Canada, including commercial, community, campus, faith, indigenous, development, and tourist information for radio, along with TV, scrolling LED, and digital signage systems.
Speaker for Agenda Item: 3.6 CAP-abilities of Modern Weather Radar Networks
Andre Weipert André Weipert is head of the Meteorological Information System Department and SESAR program manager at Selex ES in Neuss / Germany (SESAR = Single European Sky Air Traffic Management Research, the European version of the global effort in research and development to implement the International Civil Aviation Organizations (ICAO) Global Air Navigation Plan (GANP)). He graduated in electrical engineering and has over 23 years experience in the design of integrated meteorological data processing, fusion, dissemination and display systems. During the last 2 decades he managed successfully product solution implementations and research initiatives in more than 50 countries worldwide.
Speaker for Agenda Item: 3.7 ADPC Experiences in End-to-End Early Warning Systems
Atig Ahmed Atig Ahmed works at the Asian Disaster Preparedness Center as a prominent regional expert in the areas of multi-hazard early warning systems, climate information applications, climate risk management and social-ecological resilience building. He has about two decades of hands-on experience at various levels in around 15 countries, bringing science, institutions and societal applications together to build climate resilience and adaptation in different social-ecological systems. Involved in a variety of flagship regional early warning systems initiatives, Atiq has applied cutting-edge tools of multi-hazard early warning and risk information to Disaster Risk Reduction and to Climate Change Adaptation. He holds two bachelors and masters degrees, in Applied Anthropology and Social Sciences. He is an honorable Fellow of the Society for Applied Anthropology, a Member of the American Meteorological Society, and an expert reviewer of the latest assessment report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
Speaker for Agenda Item: 3.9 Meteoalarm CAP Topics
Guido Schratzer is responsible for developing the software since 2005 for the European Weather Alert System (Meteoalarm) and CEO of backbone Internet Service GmbH in Salzburg (Austria). Guido Schratzer handles the Meteoalarm CAP Profile.
Speaker for Agenda Item: 3.12 Pictographs in Alerting: Survey Session
Lutz Fromberger Lutz Fromberger is the manager of the “International Lab for Local Capacity Building (Capacity Lab)” at the University of Bremen. The Capacity Lab focuses on the use of ICT for reducing poverty in developing countries. Lutz is a computer scientist by training. His research interests include AI technologies for geo-spatial mobile applications.
Speaker for Agenda Item: 3.13 CAP for Emergency Management in Italy and Europe
Marcello Marzoli Marcello Marzoli, Fire Captain, degree in Aerospace Engineering, since 1990 he has been working for the Italian Ministry of Interior, Department of Fire Corps, Civil Defence and Public Rescue. In 1997 he was at the Rome HQ Control Centre, in 1998 he moved to the National Control Centre, then to the Air Service and the National IT Office, to come back in 2005 to the Rome HQ. Since 2001 he has been working on European and National R&D projects: namely, ITALSCAR (ESA 2001) and the EU projects LOCCATEC (2000), INStANT (2001), LIAISON (2003), PETRA-NET (2005), REACT (2005), SAVE-ME (2008), IDIRA (2010), REFIRE (2010), HELI4Rescue (2011) and AF3 (2014). Since 2002 he has been appointed as expert evaluator by the EC in the Space, IST, NMP and Security R&D activities. He is inventor and assignee of a couple of Italian Patents in the medical apparatus domain. He has published several papers.
Speaker for Agenda Item: 3.14 Implementing CAP-AU
Simon Moffat Simon Moffat is the acting Director, Capability and International Engagement, in the Crisis Management Branch of Emergency Management Australia (EMA). He is responsible for managing the development of national emergency management capabilities including the Australian Standard of the Common Alerting Protocol. Simon is also one of EMA’s principal international engagement officers with a particular focus on the Pacific and the Americas. Simon is also a member of his local volunteer bushfire fighting brigade, the ACT Rural Fire Service.
Speaker for Agenda Item: 3.15 CAP Implementation in Taiwan
Mei-Chun Kuo Mei-Chun Kuo graduated from the National Taipei University of Technology with a degree in Civil Engineering. Her career field is GIS, and her job function is GIS spatial analysis, alerts warning information system analysis and design management. She is a research assistant since 2007 in the National Science and Technology Center for Disaster Reduction. She is a member of the team that develops and maintains the CAP warning system in Taiwan.
Speakers for Agenda Item: 3.16 MASA and SAMBRO in the Maldives
Umar Fikry Umar Fikry is the head of emergency operations of the Maldives National Disaster Management Centre (NDMC), having been introduced to disaster management during his time in UNDP Maldives. Under his leadership, NDMC has strengthened emergency operations service delivery and established strong partnerships and networking with the local councils. Umar has actively worked in developing emergency response mechanisms, standard operating procedures, relief, repair, damage assessment guidelines and standards. Mr. Umar also guides and supports NDMC teams that implement risk reduction and preparedness and is one of the key contributors to the National Disaster Management Act of the Maldives. He holds a Masters Degree in Human Rights Law and Policy and a Bachelors degree in Social Work. He has extensive experience in international treaty mechanisms, international organizations, drafting reports and project documents, resource mobilization and working with island communities and vulnerable groups.
Speaker for Agenda Item: 3.17 CAP on a MAP (Myanmar)
Tun Lyn Kiaw Tun Lyn Kiaw is a Staff Officer from the National Earthquake Data Center, Seismological Division under the Department of Meteorology and Hydrology, Myanmar. He is responsible to issue the earthquake news and Tsunami Early Warning based on standard operationg procedures. In 2015 he participated in a two week “training of trainers” session on CAP at the Asian Institute of Technology. He received in 2007 a Master’s Degree in Earthquake Disaster Mitigation from the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies in Japan.
Speaker for Agenda Item: 3.18 Common Alerting Protocol in the Philippines
Resly George Amador works for the Philipine Atmosperic, Geophysical amd Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) where is assigned at the Techniques Application and Meteorological Satellite Section, Weather Division as a technical staff. One of the function of the Section is the development/maintenance of PAGASA website. Mr. Amador is also a core member of PAGASA Technical Working Group on Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) development team, which manages the public communication of weather related warnings and advisories via social media and CAP.
Speaker for Agenda Item: 3.19 CAP Implementation in National Disaster Warning Center
Song Ekmahachai Song Ekmahachai, Rear Admiral in the Royal Thai Navy, is Director of the Warning and Dissemination Section in the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology and is responsible for the disaster warning operations at the National Disaster Warning Center (NDWC). He graduated from Chiengmai University in 1978 with a Bachelor of Science in Nuclear Physic and then earned a Masters Degree in Marine Meteorology from New York University in 1988. Prior to his assignment as Director of the Warning and Dissemination Section of NDWC, Rear Admiral Song was Station Commander, Royal Thai Navy Seismic Research Station (2004 – 2006) and Director for Marine Weather Forecast within the Meteorological Division of the Royal Thai Navy. Throughout his career, he was in direct support of disaster warning for naval operations.
Speaker for Agenda Item: 3.20 CAP Implementation in Thai Meteorological Department
Kesaraporn Techapichetvanich Kesaraporn Techapichetvanich received her Ph.D. from the University of Western Australia in Computer Sciences. She has worked for Thai Meteorology Department (TMD) as a computer scientist, responsible for computer system analysis, computer system design, implementation, etc., and has also developed and improved a variety of computer and information systems since 2005. She is a core member of the CAP development team in Thailand.
Speaker for Agenda Item: 3.21 Emergency Alerting in Canada
Lawrence Sham graduated from the University of Toronto with a degree in Industrial Engineering. Working as a business analyst at Environment Canada since 2012, he has gained experience with alerting system design and warning message production. He is currently a member of the team that develops and maintains CAP for Environment Canada.
Speaker for Agenda Item: 3.22 CAP in Mexico
Mario Ruiz Mario Alvaro Ruiz Velazquez is an advisor to the Centro de Instrumentación y Registro Sísmico and a specialist in Emergency Alert Systems. He holds a Master’s Degree in Computing Systems and his Ph.D. studies focus on Emergency Alert Systems and Crises Leadership. An information technology advisor in Safety and Warning Systems to various levels of government in Mexico, he participates in design, development and installation of the Mexican Earthquake Alert System (SASMEX) using EAS-SAME and CAP. He also works with academic, specialist and civil protection authorities in developing the Earthquake Warning System in California, USA.
Speaker for Agenda Item: 3.23 IPAWS Evolution
Scott Shoup Scott Shoup accepted a FEMA temporary position shortly after graduating college in 1994, taking tele registration calls for the Northridge Earthquake. He then worked in various mission areas, including Logistics, Personnel, and Recovery. In 2001 he accepted a position as an IT Specialist within the Office of the Chief Information Officer and founded FEMA’s enterprise data warehouse. In 2011 he worked on establishment of the current IPAWS web service architecture and the promotion of NIEM and EDXL at FEMA. Under the guidance of FEMA Chief Technology Officer Ted Okada, he implemented FEMA’s Open Government program (OpenFEMA). Mr Shoup is a very strong advocate of open data policies and notes that FEMA strategic foresight studies predict that integration of public, private and humanitarian sectors will be critical in meeting the future disaster mitigation and response needs of the United States. He became FEMA’s first Chief Data Officer in September, 2014.

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