Twitter is terrible ... except it is still the best real-time broadcast tool available to governments and those without IT staff and budgets. Most local groups

Twitter is terrible ... except it is still the best real-time broadcast tool available to governments and those without IT staff and budgets. Most local groups around me just stopped trying, or reverted to Facebook. They used it because it was free and easy -- the idea they could build their own alternative and get people to follow it is just impossible for them. During some recent fires near me the official communication was confused and awful. One retired firefighter just decided to tweet status updates from listening to the operations radio and he became the most reliable source around. At least the mobile phone alerts worked for evacuations.