WARP Newsletter 7 - May 2007

WARPLOG Issue 7 | May 2007.

3 rd Annual WARPs Forum

This year’s gathering of those who are ‘Serious about WARPs’ took place in Leeds, Yorkshire, to underline the wide appeal of WARPs, and to counteract the inevitable focus of activity on London. We were very fortunate to have secured the Director of CPNI to open the proceedings, demonstrating that top-level support for the WARP programme has survived the evolution of NISCC into the new CPNI organisation (www.cpni.gov.uk). We also had a stimulating presentation from a long-standing supporter of the WARP programme, Stuart Okin of Accenture, who was responsible for funding the original FWA development many years ago when he was CISO for Microsoft UK. We also had a wealth of international speakers and delegates, with no less than 5 very welcome visitors from IPA and Hitachi in Japan, who endured a 12-hour flight specifically to attend the Forum. The Netherlands were also well represented, but fog prevented some from flying here. We heard about the ambitious trial of WARPs in education over there, and about the prospects for SME WARPs in Switzerland. You can read a full report of the Forum on the WARP website http://www.warp.gov.uk/Index/Forum/indexannualforum.htm, confirming that it was another successful and enjoyable event.

WARPs for Schools   

The ‘WARPs for Schools’ package is now complete, thanks to generous support from CSIA and dedicated work from Judy Revell and others. This was based on the experiences of establishing the first Schools WARP (DSWARP) in Devon, and is designed as a standalone package aimed at groups of schools and education authorities to help them set up new Schools WARPs. There is also a special version of the WARP Toolbox dedicated to this project, now available on the main WARP website http://www.warp.gov.uk/schools/index.htm We will be working with the national authorities to promote the scheme, but individuals who wish to use the materials are more than welcome.

FWA – Version 5.0 and 5.1

Since the last newsletter there has been a major new release of the Filtered Warnings Application - FWA. Starting with V5.0 of the product the deployment costs have been drastically reduced, and it is now possible to install more than one FWA instance on a single server - meaning WARPs can share running costs. Development of FWA V5.1 started as soon as V5.0 was complete, and will be released very soon. This update adds some functionality that has come from the wish-list of the existing FWA users, and will be available at no cost to licensees of FWA V5.0. You can see the latest FWA features on the Avius Experience website http://www.aviusexperience.com/fwamarketing.php.

Comings and goings

It was with great sadness that we learned that MYCCI have made a business decision that they cannot continue with their MYSWARP. It seems that the excellent job they were doing did not quite balance the accounts, but we are hopeful that new developments may tip the scales back sometime in future. Meanwhile, the NEGWARP and NECWARP look as if they will be up and running again soon, thanks to Onyx in the North-East, and although the HUWARP and SCWARP have been dissolved following the acquisition of ITsecurity.com by a US company, Kevin Townsend has plans for more WARPs again in future.

There is also growing activity from a number of central government departments, but we’ll say more about these in due course.

The WARP Trust

As discussed at the WARPs Forum, work is well under way on the feasibility study to establish a free-standing WARP Trust. CPNI will still be involved, but it will be more independent than the current arrangements. A business plan is being produced which will be reviewed in the summer and if successful will lead to the WARP Trust implementation later in the year.

Emphasis is being placed on seeking views and input from all stakeholders to ensure the WARP Trust supports the sustainability of current and future WARPs. To this end, the WARP Survey results presented at the forum http://www.warp.gov.uk/Index/Forum/indexpresentations2007.htm, together with the results of the WARP Forum Trust questionnaire are being analysed together with the output from a sustainability workshop held on 28 March 2007. The results of this analysis will be published shortly for stakeholders to comment and review.

The business plan will include a set of requirements for a new suite of integrated software for running a complete WARP – a sort of ‘WARP-in-a Box’. The requirements will be discussed with stakeholders at a meeting scheduled for 10th May.

The WARP Trust will not provide WARP services directly to WARP members, but will provide services for WARP Operators and Providers. Opportunities for adding value are being considered including a turnkey hosted software service and generic Filtered Warnings service content. The integrated suite will also include software to help run Advice Brokering and Trusted Sharing services and will drastically reduce the cost and time in setting up a WARP. The business plan will also recognise the importance of marketing and raising awareness of the WARP brand.

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Thanks

PeterB