« This could really be neat: Echo MyPlace for sharing | Home | Chertoff cyber-security plan: who will fill the post? »
FCC & cellphone carriers get it! Targeted wireless alerts!
By WDavidStephenson | April 9, 2008
USA Today reports that the FCC may approve, as early as today, the technical standards for a nationwide system that would send text messages to cellphones and other wireless devices whenever there’s an emergency. The system could be operational by 2010, and could be used for terrorism, weather, or child abduction alerts.
That’s great: finally a recognition that in 2008 most people are likely to be reached first by a wireless device, and that texting is the best way to send alerts, conserving bandwidth and increasing the chance the message will actually reach the intended recipient!
According to the story, AT&T, Verizon, Sprint Nextel and T-Mobile, had said they will “almost certainly participate.” Initially, the messages would be limited to 90 characters (BTW, since I’ve come to rely more on Twitter, 90 characters seems ample, and forces you to come right to the point!) and would be only in English.
It stems from a 2006 law requiring upgrades to the emergency alert system.
Until the new system is implemented (with the exception of areas such as Contra Costa County in CA, where the always-ahead-of-the-curve Art Botterell had the sense to bring in SquareLoop, so that he can send automatic alerts to any cellphone owners who happen to be in the county during an emergency) we’re limited to the obsolete approach so many colleges and universities took after VA Tech, signing up with opt-in text alert systems. If you’re a student, staff or faculty member who didn’t sign up, or a member of the public who happens to be on campus when everything goes to hell in a handbasket, you’re out of luck.
By contrast, SquareLoop automatically broadcasts to cell phones that happen to be in the affected area right now, and only to those people, minimizing panic and allowing much more targeted messages: for example, those downwind from a chemical spill could get evacuation notices, while those in the other direction could get a different message to shelter-in-place.
According to the article:
“Under the planned system, a county, state or federal first responder would send an alert to a still-to-be-determined federal agency that would serve as a clearinghouse. That agency then would relay the alert to participating wireless carriers.
“The messages would be broadcast on a single pathway to many users in the affected region, like a radio signal, avoiding the congestion that now afflicts such warnings. Few cellphones today can receive such messages, but most will be able to in three to five years, says Verizon Chief Technology Officer Tony Melone. Consumers with compliant phones would receive alerts unless they opt out.”
Let’s get that system up and operating ASAP. It’s about time that we relegate the broadcast alert system to a subsidiary role in recognition of the dramatic shifts in technology and lifestyles.
Technorati tags: homeland security antiterrorism EDXL e-gov e-government 2.0 e-government crowd-sourcing wisdom of crowds crowdsourcing smart mobs swarm intelligence emergent behavior networked homeland security collaboration CTIA FCC location-based services geo-spatial web web 2.0 homeland security 2.0 disaster management 2.0 disaster management cellphonecell phone wireless disaster planning disaster planning 2.0 SquareLoop
Sphere: Related ContentTopics: empowering public, technology, policy and politics, collaboration, e-gov transformation, networked security | |
