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Welp, that's terrible. Key question: how would a Mastodon (or other ActivityPub service) have fared here? There are companies that offer alert broadcasting ser

Welp, that's terrible. Key question: how would a Mastodon (or other ActivityPub service) have fared here? There are companies that offer alert broadcasting services (e.g., [0]). Have any of them started to support ActivityPub? Could they make 1:m focused platforms that implement a subset of the standard really well? Do we need to define a subset of ActivityPub that increases efficiency for this kind of mass communication? I have no answers, only questions [0] https://voyent-alert.com/us/communities/municipalities/ https://voyent-alert.com/us/communities/municipalities/

phoe-krk 3y ago
> Welp, that's terrible. Key question: how would a Mastodon (or other ActivityPub service) have fared here? For once, no hardcoded tweet/toot limit. The only limitation would be the network - the ability for toots to leave the home instance as they're pushed to other instances. Given the current size of mastodon.social (the largest Mastodon instance) and its ability to push toots out to other instances (including mine) despite the size of m.s, I don't think it would be an issue in the current circumstances.
mpalczewski 3y ago
They would have posted and much fewer people would have seen the announcements. You have to go where the users are.
lostlogin 3y ago
Wouldn’t geofenced SMS be a better solution than Twitter for this? Or maybe those Emergency Mobile Alerts? If something less obtrusive is wanted, a simple push notification or webpage?
- RustomMS 3y ago
  Maybe but I think it is more like how most people don't use SMS for messaging vs some kind of internet based app/ecosystem. SMS/telcos couldn't support what people needed, multimedia support, group chats etc. I think the use of Twitter and social media in general would be similar for these government groups. They just have better tools. I think the best approach is to still use Twitter but also use all Social Media like Facebook (especially), Insta (hard to do for text) but you could link to their Website with the same posts/info. In the end you have to try and inform the public where they are, just like would happen on TV or Radio in the past. Maybe it is actually a space for Google/Apple/Microsoft/Linux as OS makers to provide some functionality to do this kind of broadcasting over the internet in addition to working with Telcos for SMS/mobile based alerting.
  - lostlogin 3y ago
    > Maybe it is actually a space for Google/Apple/Microsoft/Linux as OS makers to provide some functionality to do this kind of broadcasting over the internet Isn’t this the emergency alert notification? Or are you imagining something for situations where it isn’t an emergency but the information needs to be out there? If so, I’d be thinking a dedicated app is what’s needed.
foxylad 3y ago
Mastodon.nz fared very well during recent heavy rain events in New Zealand. Absolutely no tech limitations, and more importantly no arbitrary management-imposed limits.

phoe-krk 3y ago

> Welp, that's terrible. Key question: how would a Mastodon (or other ActivityPub service) have fared here? For once, no hardcoded tweet/toot limit. The only limitation would be the network - the ability for toots to leave the home instance as they're pushed to other instances. Given the current size of mastodon.social (the largest Mastodon instance) and its ability to push toots out to other instances (including mine) despite the size of m.s, I don't think it would be an issue in the current circumstances.

mpalczewski 3y ago

They would have posted and much fewer people would have seen the announcements. You have to go where the users are.

lostlogin 3y ago

Wouldn’t geofenced SMS be a better solution than Twitter for this? Or maybe those Emergency Mobile Alerts? If something less obtrusive is wanted, a simple push notification or webpage?

RustomMS 3y ago
Maybe but I think it is more like how most people don't use SMS for messaging vs some kind of internet based app/ecosystem. SMS/telcos couldn't support what people needed, multimedia support, group chats etc. I think the use of Twitter and social media in general would be similar for these government groups. They just have better tools. I think the best approach is to still use Twitter but also use all Social Media like Facebook (especially), Insta (hard to do for text) but you could link to their Website with the same posts/info. In the end you have to try and inform the public where they are, just like would happen on TV or Radio in the past. Maybe it is actually a space for Google/Apple/Microsoft/Linux as OS makers to provide some functionality to do this kind of broadcasting over the internet in addition to working with Telcos for SMS/mobile based alerting.
- lostlogin 3y ago
  > Maybe it is actually a space for Google/Apple/Microsoft/Linux as OS makers to provide some functionality to do this kind of broadcasting over the internet Isn’t this the emergency alert notification? Or are you imagining something for situations where it isn’t an emergency but the information needs to be out there? If so, I’d be thinking a dedicated app is what’s needed.

foxylad 3y ago

Mastodon.nz fared very well during recent heavy rain events in New Zealand. Absolutely no tech limitations, and more importantly no arbitrary management-imposed limits.