DISQUS

Martin Ringlein · 1 year ago

What is a "brilliant" idea worth if there is no realistic strategy for execution? Hey, how about a magic pill that stops disasters from happening in the first place?

Isn't one of the largest hurdles to this concept the issue of connectivity? Granted it was almost 7 years ago, but during 9-11, having a cell phone would be a great thought but was relatively useless to anyone in NYC and many in the Washington, D.C. area. The service providers can't sustain emergency disaster scenario where large amounts of individuals are trying to access at the same time.

Twitter during a school shooting is interesting (assuming the students use twitter), but Twitter for disaster on a large scale -- useless not because of Twitter but because of connectivity.

Anthony LaFauce · 1 year ago

The technology is based on the principle that SMS and Tweets take far less bandwidth, there for less signal, than standard cell communication. Several DoD agencies use simple messaging services to reach there staff in the event of an emergency. Using Twitter just expands on those ideas.

Andrew Wright (@batterista) · 1 year ago

Great article. Twitter could be great tool to distribute on-the-ground human intelligence across a network in real-time (maybe somewhat asynchronously).

Twitter, however, appears to have some significant architectural issues that they haven't been able to overcome. If Twitter goes down during Steve Jobs' keynote, can it stand up to a real emergency? If they get these issues resolved, there's real value in such a tool in disaster situations.

Martin Ringlein · 1 year ago

Yeah ... in response to your title. The only lives that twitter is saving is that of the geek that can't "live" without it.

Andrew makes a great point ... if Twitter can't survive Jobs, how is it going to hold up against a real disaster.

People have been talking about the implementation of a Twitter like app since the UVA shootings ... again, worthless thought until there is some sustainable execution strategy. But hey, it gives us a reason to use the word "Twitter".

Bill Burgess · 1 year ago

Interesting discussion. Twitter is just one of many resources available in an emergency. Check out the work of the nonprofit Stargazer Foundation in VA, at www.Stargazer.org. There you will find an entire suite of Web tools for emergency preparation AND response. It's free and built on an IBM Websphere platform. The services have been used successfully by the Red Cross and the Washington D.C. Metro Council of Governments. Also see the Tracker service, that allows form-based communications via PC or Web-enabled device so people can send, receive and track information and other people in an emergency. By the way, text type messaging did not go down during the major disasters...only the voice networks were inaccessible, as noted by Anthony.