A draft version 0.6 of the Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) has been published by the CAP Techincal Working Group, including an XML Schema, data dictionary, and related documentation. The Common Alerting Protocol "is an open, non-proprietary standard data interchange format that can be used to collect all types of hazard warnings and reports locally, regionally and nationally, for input into a wide range of information-management and warning dissemination systems. The specification has been under development since 2001 through the efforts of an international ad-hoc Common Alerting Protocol Technical Working Group composed of technical and public safety experts. The developers have implemented the protocol in a number of prototype demonstrations. The chief benefits for public safety include (1) better coordination of warnings to the public across the wide range of available warning and notification systems; (2) reduction of workload on warning issuers, since a single warning message is compatible with all kinds of warning delivery systems; (3) enhanced situational awareness, since CAP will permit the aggregation of all kinds of warning messages from all sources for comparison and pattern recognition."

Motivation for the protocol: "Warning systems... are a chaotic patchwork of technologies and procedures; not only is there no coordination, there is no mechanism for coordination... existing systems are limited in scope both by their technological legacies and by the organizational mandates and priorities of their sponsoring agencies. In particular, none of the existing national systems are well suited to the needs of state, local and private emergency-information programs. As a result, dozens of different technical and operational warning systems have sprouted, seemingly at random, throughout the nation. The Common Alerting Protocol [is designed to] benefit the public, public agencies and private concerns (such as industrial plant operators) with warning responsibilities, and developers of new sensor, threat-evaluation, and warning-dissemination technologies." (from the CAP overview document)