Public warning takes a step forward
The folks on the Google Crisis Response Team have come up with an interesting concept. By making use of the Common Alerting Protocol (CAP), they are able to post warnings from credible sources to Google maps to create a public alerting system. Currently the system is only providing warnings from the National Oceanic and Atmosphere Administration, the US Geological Survey and the National Weather Service. However, they have a mechanism to include warnings from state and local government organizations and expect the system to grow rapidly.
Many of my colleagues have been working on CAP since 2001 and it's great to see the protocol making the leap to social media. This is exactly what CAP is intended to do – allow warning information to be freely exchanged across multiple platforms.
Currently the Google system is displayed when you perform searches on Google maps. However, it's not beyond the realm of possibility that someone will quickly figure out a way to push warnings to the end user. Meanwhile, the Google public alerting system has the potential to be a one-stop source for warning information, something we've been needing for a long time.