RE: Please Review: Dissemination of Earthquake / Tsunami data via Atom

[Bob Wyman]

We’ve made a good bit of progress on cleaning up our PubSub Earthquake/Tsunami reporting service and would like to ask folk on the list to take a look at the feed we’re generating. (Note: This isn’t “publicly” announced yet, so please restrict comments to personal email or the list.)   You can see a sample Atom feed of all recent earthquakes (and tsunami reports in “AddOn” fields – when we receive them) at:   http://atom.pubsub.com/90/69/6169a3b8e062b66f7afd592f.xml   Use “View Source” to see the actual Atom file if you are using a browser that supports style-sheets.   I’m sure there is much to be said about this kind of service; however, my interest in sending this message to this group is to get comments on our use of Atom for this application. Please note that in the near future we’ll be allowing people to access this data via “Atom over XMPP PubSub” for real-time push distribution. Thus, you’ll be able to say things like: “Only send me quakes over 5.0 magnitude that occur in Southern California and have ‘waveforms’ data in AddOn records.” We’re also going to be supporting a pure TCP/IP “telnet” socket connection for folk who want the full stream. Naturally, REST, SOAP, Email, and other distribution mechanisms will either be enabled by default (as with all other PubSub services) or could be provided if demand exists.   I am particularly interested in “Atom-related” comments at this point. For instance, you’ll notice “Delete” messages in the feed. We’ve talked about “Delete” or “Retract” capability often in the past and I’ve usually argued against it. However, it turns out to be necessary with this kind of feed since often earthquake reports are retracted as erroneous – often as the result of telemetry glitches. How should we best handle the need for “Delete” in this context? What will be easiest for clients to handle?   Also, please be aware that I am aware of no existing standards for this data. If you know of any such standards, please let me know. (Note: I am aware of CAP and have participated in that forum. It solves a different problem.)   Thanks in advance for your assistance. My hope is that we’ll be able to use Atom to make a real contribution to making the world just a bit safer…                           bob wyman