If you are looking for a good way to stay on top of emergencies and disasters in your local area, pre-IPO Twitter is now providing a way for all of us to stay in touch – and stay safe:
I would say that this has been a long time in coming – Twitter, for all intents and purposes, could have a whole lot more potential, and that seems to be the direction that they are headed with the latest bit of news (and no, it has nothing to do with Twitter’s IPO). Basically, Twitter claimed that they will work to assist users to receive special alerts from government agencies as well as aid agencies in the event of an emergency.
Those Twitter users who sign up will be on the receiving end of smartphone notifications via the Twitter app in addition to SMS text messages, although this does come with its very own caveat, that is, users will have to agree to hand over their cell phone numbers. The text messages received can be from any of the agencies that have already agreed to sign up with Twitter’s program. Some of those who are part of this program include the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency, Tokyo’s Disaster Prevention service and the World Health Organization. Better late than never, and you cannot quite tell just how useful such an alert system would come in during those split second moments when the world around you as you know it is irrevocably changed.
We will keep you posted with any additional information. And, if you check it out, let us know what you think.
Via ubergizmo