There is a good article on the basics of IPAWS at Emergency Management Magazine, see The Impact of IPAWS on Public Alerts and Warnings Lorin Bristow is part 1 of the dynamic duo that also includes part 2 Rick Wimberly. They blog on Alerts and Warnings and have forgotten more about the technical aspects of the topic than I've ever learned.
It will be interesting if the Feds try to come up with a new name for the Emergency Alert System (EAS). I say that because everyone I know outside of emergency management (the general populace) still calls it the Emergency Broadcast System (EBS).
Commercial Mobile Alert System (CMAS) is also addressed in the article. This is going to save a ton of time for those jurisdictions that are now out there trying to recruit people to "opt in" for a local alerting system. It also will eliminate the worries of overloading the system with bunches of one to one text messages. All of this is explained in the article.
Lastly, as I noted previously, leadership by FEMA is needed on a variety of subjects to get us all on the same sheet of music. In this case it is a technological "music score."
