Originally Posted By: ToddW
From a 'web guy' point of view Twitter is nothing new. The technology, idea, etc isn't even new. Someone just tossed a new word at "updating a website" from a central spot that allows users to have their own accounts... L O L.

The fire departments could technically do this on their own site just as easily with a custom program, etc.

I guess the point is it's "COOL" now but in the years or even months to come does that mean the fire department, police, rc, etc are gonna jump ship and follow the trends?

An interesting approach at something that could have and should have been done already. Publish on your own site, provide XML feed, bam no need to use twitter or a 3rd party.


Wow, you totally missed the central idea - the SMS gateway services provided by Twitter and the immediate ability for ad-hoc group messaging.

We use SMS for dispatch messaging, and it takes 48 to 72 hours to get a phone number added to the dispatch list from 911. I could put an XML feed on www.ubefire.com but NONE of the members but me would even be able to pull an RSS feed to their phone.

The idea that I could invite the community to "follow" the fire company - and I don't need to know (nor care about) anything about them - I don't need to know their phone number, their carrier, if they are getting updated via the SMS, via the web, via RSS, or both.


That's the point - it's not "cool" it's "easy and effective" something that I think is often lost on technologists who often tell me how "easy" X, Y and Z is with XML SOAP PHP LAMP and all that, yet when it comes to intersecting with ordinary folks and technology, it's always some major issues and problems and the quest for perfect & easy is never ended.