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A website is not the same as having robust infrastructure for public notifications. And to be clear-- neither is twitter, but a website you have to visit isn't
by ineedasername 3y ago
A website is not the same as having robust infrastructure for public notifications. And to be clear-- neither is twitter, but a website you have to visit isn't as convenient or useful in an emergency where you want people to receive an alert without going to a website.
So, the requirements are more than a website, but also not a private 3rd party platform w/o service guarantees, and preferably something that doesn't have municipality, department or agency rolling their own solutions, duplicating effort, etc.
In the US the traditional systems are Emergency Alert & WEA but those don't encompass all the public awareness & notification needs that drive organizations to use something like Twitter. I'm not sure if the right answer is to expand those or creating something similar for scenarios currently outside their scope, but we could do worse than starting the conversation with that question.
- bobthepanda 3y agoComputers lack a protocol that drowns out anything and freezes your computer for broadcast alerts. The online strategy so far, has to be where the people are, so most governments have multiple social media accounts, like Facebook and Twitter, and also websites and RSS. I’ve also seen, depending on the government, Instagram, TikTok, WhatsApp, etc.
- davvolun 3y agoAnd, if I may, I think the point is that is all well and good, but for reliability's sake, a publicly, not privately, controlled alternative to any of the above (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, WhatsApp, etc.) should be carefully considered. Mastodon is perfectly set up to be a valuable ADDITIONAL option for local governments using Twitter -- that doesn't mean "stop posting to Twitter," it means "also post to Mastodon" and be certain that, whatever shortcomings that may have, it's not entirely susceptible to the whims of a billionaire. Similarly, are Facebook posts by local government failing to reach users because of some change Zuck made to The Algorithm? Maybe we need to start looking into effective alternatives. If not, then we don't.
- bobthepanda 3y agoThose self-owned things, the website and RSS, already exist; all governments I’ve interacted with have one, and the subject of the article is no exception: https://news.gov.bc.ca/connect https://news.gov.bc.ca/connect The reality is that when it comes to spreading info to citizens you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink.
- mcv 3y agoNetherland has something like that too. We had a big storm recently. Got three alerts on my phone. It works very well. Certainly better than Twitter.