[LINK] SMS - shortcomings in emergency services

Michael Meloni mike at somebodythinkofthechildren.com
Tue Sep 23 09:30:21 AEST 2008


> At 08:04 AM 19/09/2008, Richard Chirgwin wrote:
>   
>> ... 3G Americas has produced this white paper ... The conclusion, 
>> that SMS is unsuited to emergency notification, doesn't surprise me.  ...
>>     
Here's a story on mobile and web use through the recent US hurricanes.

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Online social networks tapped for disaster relief
http://www.smh.com.au/news/biztech/online-social-networks-tapped-for-disaster-relief/2008/09/22/1221935516482.html

'You are caught up in the path of Hurricane Ike or Gustav, the phone 
lines are down and the power is out. What do you do if you need help but 
you've only got your mobile phone and you can't seem to reach the 
emergency services?

'Enter online social networking sites like Twitter, MySpace and Ning, 
where you can SMS for help or look for the latest information on 
disaster relief. These sites functioned like a bulletin board at a 
shelter, a loud hailer or a emergency broadcast system, and aimed to 
reach out to users when the hurricanes hit the US coast.'

[...]

"The memory of Hurricane Katrina is still strong," said Christopher 
Carfi, whose organisation Cerado set up the Hurricane Gustav Mobile 
Resource Guide for mobile phones, iPhones and blogs. The guide provided 
mobile users with minute-by-minute updates, references on how to help 
and searchable listings on shelters, aid resources and evacuees.

Other social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook were also 
mobilised. Tapping into their existing user base, which numbers in the 
hundreds of millions in the US alone, the Department of Homeland 
Security and the Federal Emergency Management Agency used MySpace to 
link individual pages to the federal disaster alert system. Facebook 
users set up groups to share information about how people could help. 
Twitter, a micro-blogging service that uses instant messaging or SMS, 
was used by some to enquire about the status of their neighbourhood from 
those who did not evacuate or to ask for help in the cleaning up process.

-----

On a different note, when will the media stop differentiating between 
mobile phones and the iPhone. Its like referring to cars and BMWs. Five 
years on and many still call generic MP3 players 'iPods.'

- Mike

-- 
Michael Meloni
http://www.somebodythinkofthechildren.com
http://www.netalarmed.com



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