research-article

Rethinking the Future of Wireless Emergency Alerts: A Comprehensive Study of Technical and Conceptual Improvements

Authors:

Hakan Erdogmus,

João Diogo FalcãoAuthors Info & Claims

Proceedings of the ACM on Interactive, Mobile, Wearable and Ubiquitous Technologies, Volume 2, Issue 2

Article No.: 71, Pages 1 - 33

https://doi.org/10.1145/3214274

Published: 05 July 2018 Publication History

Abstract

The Wireless Emergency Alerting (WEA) service is a standards-based transport and presentation channel used nationwide in the United States. The service can deliver short text warnings to wireless subscribers through a cell broadcast mechanism. For emergency situations in which a broadcast modality and a single, short text message are sufficient to convey information, the WEA service can be efficient and effective. However, the content to be delivered may necessitate more than a single, unchanging short message. In this research, we first examine the WEA service from the perspective of alert originators. We then use the insights gained to explore the efficacy of a range of potential extensions to the service. The extensions mainly address the importance of user context and the ability to create awareness through careful attention to the integrity of the vital information. We evaluated these extensions using a WEA emulation testbed in two public usability trials. We present an analysis of the broad range of improvements as a basis for further research into improving the service. We conclude that (1) precise geo-targeting augmented with location information and maps is an important aspect of capturing users' context, and (2) presenting information in a digested form can markedly improve the actionability and the accuracy of interpretation.

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Mukange TMokoto BMoipolai TNdamase Z(2024)Accelerating the use of mobile phone capabilities to maximise the effectiveness of public emergency alerts in South AfricaProceedings of the 17th International Conference on Theory and Practice of Electronic Governance10.1145/3680127.3680144(75-80)Online publication date: 1-Oct-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3680127.3680144
Haesler SWendelborn MReuter C(2023)Getting the Residents’ Attention: The Perception of Warning Channels in Smart Home Warning SystemsProceedings of the 2023 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference10.1145/3563657.3596076(1114-1127)Online publication date: 10-Jul-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3563657.3596076
Olson MSutton JCain LWaugh N(2023)A decade of wireless emergency alerts: A longitudinal assessment of message content and completenessJournal of Contingencies and Crisis Management10.1111/1468-5973.12518Online publication date: 27-Nov-2023
https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-5973.12518
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Index Terms

Rethinking the Future of Wireless Emergency Alerts: A Comprehensive Study of Technical and Conceptual Improvements
1. Human-centered computing
  1. Ubiquitous and mobile computing
    1. Ubiquitous and mobile computing design and evaluation methods
2. Information systems
  1. Information systems applications
    1. Mobile information processing systems
    2. Spatial-temporal systems
      1. Location based services

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cover image Proceedings of the ACM on Interactive, Mobile, Wearable and Ubiquitous Technologies

Proceedings of the ACM on Interactive, Mobile, Wearable and Ubiquitous Technologies Volume 2, Issue 2

June 2018

741 pages

EISSN:2474-9567

DOI:10.1145/3236498

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Copyright © 2018 ACM.

Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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Publication History

Published: 05 July 2018

Accepted: 01 April 2018

Revised: 01 April 2018

Received: 01 November 2017

Published in IMWUT Volume 2, Issue 2

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Cited By

Mukange TMokoto BMoipolai TNdamase Z(2024)Accelerating the use of mobile phone capabilities to maximise the effectiveness of public emergency alerts in South AfricaProceedings of the 17th International Conference on Theory and Practice of Electronic Governance10.1145/3680127.3680144(75-80)Online publication date: 1-Oct-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3680127.3680144
Haesler SWendelborn MReuter C(2023)Getting the Residents’ Attention: The Perception of Warning Channels in Smart Home Warning SystemsProceedings of the 2023 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference10.1145/3563657.3596076(1114-1127)Online publication date: 10-Jul-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3563657.3596076
Olson MSutton JCain LWaugh N(2023)A decade of wireless emergency alerts: A longitudinal assessment of message content and completenessJournal of Contingencies and Crisis Management10.1111/1468-5973.12518Online publication date: 27-Nov-2023
https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-5973.12518
McBride SSumy DLlenos AParker GMcGuire JSaunders JMeier MSchuback PGiven Dde Groot R(2023)Latency and geofence testing of wireless emergency alerts intended for the ShakeAlert® earthquake early warning system for the West Coast of the United States of AmericaSafety Science10.1016/j.ssci.2022.105898157(105898)Online publication date: Jan-2023
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2022.105898
Grinton WPaige F(2022)Keeping Our Heads above Water: An Exploratory Study on the Equity Opportunities of Coastal Virginia Wireless Emergency AlertsCivilEng10.3390/civileng30200233:2(385-399)Online publication date: 8-May-2022
https://doi.org/10.3390/civileng3020023
Bean HGrevstad N(2022)Wireless emergency alerts: Public understanding, trust, and preferences following the 2021 US nationwide testJournal of Contingencies and Crisis Management10.1111/1468-5973.1243831:2(273-288)Online publication date: 23-Nov-2022
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Moitra AHassan NMandal MBhuiyan MAhmed S(2020)Understanding the Challenges for Bangladeshi Women to Participate in #MeToo MovementProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/33751954:GROUP(1-25)Online publication date: 4-Jan-2020
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Kumar SCarley K(2018)Towards Group-Activities Based Community DetectionProceedings of the 2018 ACM International Joint Conference and 2018 International Symposium on Pervasive and Ubiquitous Computing and Wearable Computers10.1145/3267305.3274765(1178-1183)Online publication date: 8-Oct-2018
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Falcão JKrebs JKumar SErdogmus H(2018)OpenAlertsProceedings of the 2018 ACM International Joint Conference and 2018 International Symposium on Pervasive and Ubiquitous Computing and Wearable Computers10.1145/3267305.3274115(1250-1255)Online publication date: 8-Oct-2018
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