# FOSS Public Alert Server for Mobile Devices > [! note]- > The content of this page is generated by audio/video transcription and text transformation from the content and links of this source. Source: [https://fosdem.org/2025/schedule/event/fosdem-2025-5102-weather-and-emergency-alerts/](https://fosdem.org/2025/schedule/event/fosdem-2025-5102-weather-and-emergency-alerts/) <video src="https://video.fosdem.org/2025/h2214/fosdem-2025-5102-weather-and-emergency-alerts.av1.webm" controls></video> ## Summary & Highlights: The session at FOSDEM 2025 focused on the development of a FOSS Public Alert Server, aiming to enhance the delivery of weather and emergency alerts on open-source mobile platforms. **Introduction to FOSS Public Alert Server** The session introduced the FOSS Public Alert Server designed to ensure users of open-source platforms receive crucial weather and emergency alerts. This initiative addresses the limitations faced by proprietary systems, ensuring inclusivity and accessibility. **Challenges with Current Alert Systems** Existing alert systems, such as cell broadcasts and national warning apps, are often limited to proprietary platforms and single-country use. The session highlighted the need for a universal, open-source solution that transcends these limitations. **Utilizing the Common Alerting Protocol** The Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) serves as the foundation for the alert system. CAP is a well-established standard that provides a structured format for alert dissemination, including multi-language support and detailed event descriptions. **Building the Infrastructure** The session detailed the technical infrastructure, including a Django application with Postgres and Celery, to manage alert feeds and push notifications. The system aggregates alerts from over 100 countries, ensuring wide coverage. **Developing Client Applications** Efforts are underway to develop client applications like FOSSWarn, an open-source app initially available for Germany, now expanding globally. The app utilizes UnifiedPush for notifications and aims to support various platforms, including Linux. **Call for Community Involvement** The project encourages community contributions to build more clients, improve translations, and enhance alert integration across platforms. Collaboration with local alert infrastructures is also sought to expand coverage. ## Importance for an eco-social transformation The FOSS Public Alert Server is a significant step towards eco-social transformation by democratizing access to critical emergency information. This initiative addresses the digital divide by ensuring that open-source mobile users are not disadvantaged compared to proprietary platform users. It promotes inclusivity and resilience in communities, especially during natural disasters. Eco-social designers can leverage this open infrastructure to integrate alerts into various applications, enhancing community preparedness and response. Challenges include ensuring global coverage, overcoming technical barriers in geolocation and language support, and navigating political hurdles in accessing local alert data. Collaboration with governmental and non-governmental organizations is crucial for expanding the system's reach and effectiveness. ## Slides: | | | | --- | --- | | ![[FOSDEM 2025/assets/Weather-and-emergency-alerts/preview_001.jpg\|300]] | The first slide introduces the FOSS Public Alert Server, developed by Nucleus and Volker Krause, with contact information for collaboration. It is funded by public sources and aims to provide open-source solutions for emergency alerting. | ![[FOSDEM 2025/assets/Weather-and-emergency-alerts/preview_002.jpg\|300]] | The second slide highlights the motivation behind the project, emphasizing the life-saving potential of emergency alerts. It references past disasters in Valencia and Ahrtal, noting the increasing frequency of natural disasters and the critical role of mobile phones in alerting. | ![[FOSDEM 2025/assets/Weather-and-emergency-alerts/preview_003.jpg\|300]] | The third slide discusses mobile phone alerting, focusing on national warning apps that offer detailed information but are limited to proprietary platforms and single-country use. It also mentions Google's integration of alerts into maps and routing, which is not accessible to all users. | ![[FOSDEM 2025/assets/Weather-and-emergency-alerts/preview_004.jpg\|300]] | The fourth slide outlines the need to identify commonly used data formats for emergency alerts, a crucial step in developing a universal alerting system that can operate across different platforms and regions. | ![[FOSDEM 2025/assets/Weather-and-emergency-alerts/preview_005.jpg\|300]] | The fifth slide explains the Common Alerting Protocol (CAP), an OASIS standard that uses XML to describe alerts. It includes details such as event descriptions, instructions, affected areas, and supports multiple languages, making it suitable for global use. | ![[FOSDEM 2025/assets/Weather-and-emergency-alerts/preview_006.jpg\|300]] | The sixth slide continues the process of acquiring emergency alerts by collecting available alerts from official sources, highlighting the importance of aggregating data to provide comprehensive coverage. | ![[FOSDEM 2025/assets/Weather-and-emergency-alerts/preview_007.jpg\|300]] | The seventh slide introduces CAP feeds, which are RSS/Atom feeds containing CAP messages. It lists providers like Alert-Hub.org and the World Meteorological Organization, noting the availability of over 200 feeds from 100 countries. | ![[FOSDEM 2025/assets/Weather-and-emergency-alerts/preview_008.jpg\|300]] | The eighth slide describes the next step of building a server that allows users to subscribe to specific areas for alerts, an essential component for personalizing and delivering relevant notifications. | ![[FOSDEM 2025/assets/Weather-and-emergency-alerts/preview_009.jpg\|300]] | The ninth slide details the aggregation service built using Django and PostGis, with Celery for scheduling. It manages geocode resolution, handles subscriptions, sends push notifications, and monitors feed quality. | ![[FOSDEM 2025/assets/Weather-and-emergency-alerts/preview_010.jpg\|300]] | The tenth slide emphasizes the need to develop clients for users, complementing the server infrastructure to ensure alerts are accessible across different devices and platforms. | ![[FOSDEM 2025/assets/Weather-and-emergency-alerts/preview_011.jpg\|300]] | The eleventh slide presents current clients like FOSSWarn, an open-source app expanding from Germany to global use. It uses UnifiedPush for notifications and is in alpha testing for broader functionality. | ![[FOSDEM 2025/assets/Weather-and-emergency-alerts/preview_012.jpg\|300]] | The twelfth slide is not detailed in the provided text, but it likely continues the discussion on client development and integration strategies for the alerting system. | ![[FOSDEM 2025/assets/Weather-and-emergency-alerts/preview_013.jpg\|300]] | The thirteenth slide outlines the importance of promoting the project and seeking contributors, inviting community involvement to enhance and expand the alerting system. | ![[FOSDEM 2025/assets/Weather-and-emergency-alerts/preview_014.jpg\|300]] | The fourteenth slide builds on the previous, emphasizing the need for contributors to help develop the project further and spread awareness about its capabilities and benefits. | ![[FOSDEM 2025/assets/Weather-and-emergency-alerts/preview_015.jpg\|300]] | The fifteenth slide discusses next steps, including the release of stable versions of FPAS and FOSSWarn, developing more clients, and integrating cool features like smart home alerts and travel route registration. It invites contributions from developers, testers, and translators. | ![[FOSDEM 2025/assets/Weather-and-emergency-alerts/preview_016.jpg\|300]] | The sixteenth slide provides links to the project's source code and social media contacts, encouraging engagement and collaboration through platforms like GitHub and Mastodon. ## Links [FOSS Public Alert Server sourcecode](https://github.com/nucleus-ffm/foss_warn) [FOSSWarn sourcecode](https://invent.kde.org/webapps/foss-public-alert-server) [Join our Matrix space](https://matrix.to/#/#FPAS_discussion:tchncs.de) [Video recording (AV1/WebM) - 71.5 MB](https://video.fosdem.org/2025/h2214/fosdem-2025-5102-weather-and-emergency-alerts.av1.webm) [Video recording (MP4) - 448.6 MB](https://video.fosdem.org/2025/h2214/fosdem-2025-5102-weather-and-emergency-alerts.av1.mp4) [Video recording subtitle file (VTT)](https://fosdem.org/2025/events/attachments/fosdem-2025-5102-weather-and-emergency-alerts/slides/238134/FOSDEM25_NDGdRjb.pdf) [Chat room(web)](https://fosdem.org/2025/chat) [Chat room(app)](https://fosdem.org/2025/chat/app) [Submit Feedback](https://fosdem.org/2025/feedback)