Delivering Public Warnings Online and to Mobile Devices (CAP Flyer)
This two-page flyer explains how public warning messages can be delivered quickly and at low cost to people online and on mobile devices—without requiring major new investments in specialized broadcast technology. It highlights examples of digital dissemination such as the Red Cross/Red Crescent “Hazards App,” Google Public Alerts, and the Federation for Internet Alerts, and emphasizes that these services rely on alerts being published as internet news feeds in the Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) standard format. The flyer also provides a plain-language overview of what CAP is, why standardized alert fields improve automation and multi-channel distribution, and how CAP supports situational awareness for emergency managers by enabling alerts from many sources to be compiled and mapped together. It introduces the WMO Alert Hub concept as a way to aggregate CAP alerts from authenticated official sources and notes the growing global adoption of CAP, while encouraging more alerting authorities and media organizations to implement CAP to help protect lives and property.