back to article Japan to trial emergency 'calls' by Twitter in disaster zones

Japanese authorities will soon trial a new warning system that would allow imperiled members of the public to contact the emergency services by sending messages on social networking sites like Twitter. The Fire and Disaster Management Agency said it will test the system this (northern) summer, Kyodo reported. The disaster …

COMMENTS

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  1. LarsG
    Meh

    Yeah, Fake Calls

    The 999 system here is abused a lot, if they use Twitter for emergency calls the poor Japanese will be up and down their hillsides like mountain goats.

    Or

    There is also a chance that the emergency message never gets read having disappeared in a morass of inane boring, insignificant and self important posts from people who have inane, boring and insignificant self important lives.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Happy

      Re: Yeah, Fake Calls

      "There is also a chance that the emergency message never gets read having disappeared in a morass of inane boring, insignificant and self important posts from people who have inane, boring and insignificant self important lives."

      What, people like us commentards, you mean?

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    great idea but.... in the October 2012 'Hurricane Sandy' emergency in the USA, there were many episodes of zero comms available due to BTS having little to no backup power. And anecdotally there continue to be many GSM/3G/4G BTS being installed in EU without UPS (to save money) As the mains power is so reliable they can normally meet a 4 x 9s target - except when there's a crisis!

    http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-11-15/why-cell-phones-went-dead-after-hurricane-sandy.html

    The above article mentions how the FCC complained after 'Hurricane Katrina' that there was insufficient backup power, and the telecoms companies responded by suing the FCC and continued not installing.

    By all means use twitter/instagram/whatever for emergencies - but make someone install a sufficient infrastructure before relying on social media!!!. For the bearded readers, does RAYNET understand FB?

  3. tunaman7787
    Happy

    China Name Plate Co. LTD.

    It is a great idea. Twitter is popular in Japan and a good chunk of Twitter's users are in Japan. But Japan's 911 is not just 119. 119 is for the fire department. 110 is for the police. 118 is for an emergency at sea. http://cnp-keythai.com/

  4. Lexxy
    Go

    IT Crowd

    Dear Sir / Madam.

    Fire!

    Fire!

    Help me!

    123 Carrendon Road. Looking forward to hearing from you.

    All the best,

    Maurice Moss

    1. 1924MG
      IT Angle

      Re: IT Crowd

      @01189998819991197253 I am writing to inform you of a fire that has broken out on the premises of 123 Carrendon Road

  5. This post has been deleted by its author

  6. Don Jefe
    Meh

    Help

    OMG Big wave cmng 2 beach. I can haz PFD ASAP PLZ?

  7. Thomas 4

    Not actually a dumb idea

    For dealing with individual emergencies, the system would be pretty awful but in the event of a large scale disaster such as an earthquake or a hurricane, the system could gather locations that are being tweeted from and that would help to pinpoint emergency hotspots.

  8. Dan Paul
    Devil

    How about sending notifications in the other direction? (Makes more sense)

    It makes a lot more sense to me that any emergency declaration/notification be sent to the public via text message, Twatter, & Farcebook than to use the "Emergency Broadcast System" on TV or Radio (A cold war throwback from the "duck and cover" days of my youth)

    Unfortunately, this generation will continue to text away as the tsunami rolls them into human mush.

    The fact still remains that TV and Radio over the air broadcasts are more likely to be operating in an big emergency than any overall phone or IT communication backbone.

    Most TV & Radio broadcast transmitters are located at the antenna (usually out in the boonies) and have generator power available.

    A few hundred watts will go a LONG way on radio. I assume the same for TV.

    Cable, Internet or telephone relies on various fiber/copper backbones so there are a lot of potential points of failure.

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