Wasted Time: SMS Based Information Distribution
We know text based information systems work, they have done well in every major resiliency problem faced in the past five years or so; but no one is thinking big enough –
Dr. Pellow lobbied for a change he had long been considering: a text-messaging system that could send information about an unfolding crisis to individual cellphones.
Yesterday the technique was praised by everyone from Gov. Eliot Spitzer to Assemblyman Rory I. Lancman of Queens, who presented legislation requiring text-messaging systems at college and university campuses across the state.
If these colleges were able to look past the specific threat of on-campus violence, the thousands of dollars that were wasted by each to bring in what is basically a Twitter-hack could have boosted the open global app that is Twitter into a platform.
The ideal result: entire generations networked with the ability to react to scalar threats.
Instead, as it stands, silos of information are shooting up at every center of higher education.
But the cause is not wholly lost – here’s an opportunity for a fun non-profit – leverage the security imperative and force the companies involved to open up their apps. Build the interfaces and get each of these to talk to one another.
Solve one big problem instead of 2,474 possible problems.
-Shlok
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