The Personal Localized Alerting Network, or PLAN, is a new program devised by the FCC to keep Joe Citizen abreast of imminent safety threats in his area within the US.

Although the system won’t be available nationally until next April, it is rolling out in New York City and Washington DC later this year. And while towers sometimes get jammed with traffic during catastrophic events like the September 11th attacks or recent weather outbreaks, the government assures us that the geographically-targeted, text-like messages for your mobile-enabled device won’t be impeded by higher than normal network activity.

In a statement released by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate explained the genesis for the program:

“Following the devastating tornadoes in the Southeast, we are witnessing yet again the critical role the public plays as part of our nation’s emergency management team. Making sure that they get useful and life-saving information, quickly and easily, right on their mobile phones, will help more people get out of harm’s way when a threat exists,” said FEMA Administrator Fugate. “This new technology could become a lifeline for millions of Americans and is another tool that will strengthen our nation’s resilience against all hazards.”

PLAN will be free to users, and is slated to deliver three types of alerts: alerts issued by the President, alerts involving imminent threats to safety of life and Amber Alerts. Carriers have the option of allowing users to block all but Presidential alerts.

One one occasion last year, location-aware social game Foursquare alerted some New York City users to a possible bomb threat in Times Square.

FCC rolling out Emergency Broadcast System for text message is a post from: The Inquisitr

Finished getting caught up on all the swine flu news on our dedicated page for the health scare and just need a little more disaster news to get your day rolling?

Well I may have just found the site just for you courtesy of Lorelle VanFossen from over at the Blog Herald as it was through her post that I am able to share the news about Twisaster with you. Want to know what is happening right now when it comes to things like murders, floods or volcanoes then this is definitely the site for you.

Twisaster’s whole purpose for being is to keep you up to date with anything happening that includes the following keywords

• Accident
• Bombs
• Cyberwar
• Earthquake
• Flood
• Hurricane
• Murder
• Terrorists
• Volcano

While the site definitely doesn’t get any points design wise (fugly) it will definitely keep you up to date with all the bad stuff being tweeted about on Twitter.

Enjoy!

Twisaster – your disaster watchdog on Twitter is a post from: The Inquisitr

It seems lately that when somewhere in the world goes to hell in a hand basket everyone starts lining up on either side of the fence as to whether or not Twitter is a valid news source. Hell some are even calling it Twitter journalism, but if that is the case then journalism is really in a sorry state.

As convincing an argument as Mathew Ingram wrote late yesterday about how it is a source of journalism, I think there is an important ingredient missing from his point. Which is that unsubstantiated or wrong news fill travel faster and wider than any news which corrects those first reports. By the very nature of Twitter and how one’s friend network is setup it almost guarantees that while you may first hear the wrong news you won’t necessarily hear the corrected version because it might be coming from someone who isn’t a part of your network.

Both Svetlana Gladkova from Prof.com and Mathew do rightly point out that being a mainstream news service doesn’t guarantee that they won’t make errors as well. I would suggest thought that their ability to get the corrected information out to the same people who who heard the incorrect version is much more likely. Just because they are your friends or a part of your social network doesn’t imply that they won’t pass along misleading or incorrect information and the idea that that what they are sending your way is journalism is drop dead wrong.

At best Twitter is an excellent way to get leads for news or information that you then follow up via other means; at worst the network is nothing more than a global hen party. The idea that a 140 characters; which has passed through so many hands by the time it actually reaches you, is even remotely similar to a live feed from any journalist on the ground; even with the mistakes they might make, is head shaking.

The other argument that the Twitter proponents like to use; and we see it all the time, is that the news will hit Twitter before the mainstream journalists write; or speak, a single word. So what? In this day and age and the speed by which information traverses the world does five minutes, ten minutes or even twenty minutes for that matter really make that much of a difference? Do we really need to be plugged in that badly?

Twitter might be a fun way to waste some time but it is not the next frontier of journalism; or at least I sure as hell hope it isn’t.

Twitter News Network? You’ve got to be kidding is a post from: The Inquisitr