Using twitter as an outage notification

[lists at internetpolicyagency.com (Roland Perry)]

In article <Pine.LNX.4.64.0907050334130.23511 at mail.pirk.com>, Steve Pirk 
<orion at pirk.com> writes

>> It's a High School. They don't have a "support desk" (or more than 
>>handful of  phone lines [1]). Even the local radio station can't cope 
>>with one call per  school asking them to broadcast the news that they 
>>have closed due to bad  weather.
>>
>If your resources are that tight, do what our local school district 
>did, mandate that all bus schedules will only be available on the web 
>site.

The school doesn't have any buses. About 80% of the students walk (the 
average distance maybe a little over a mile) and most of the rest get 
taken in their parents car.

>Roland, sounds like you should have a few "public service" 
>announcements saying that school closures will be delivered via a 
>certain twitter username.

That's what my objective is - to build a sturdy enough case for the 
school to have a twitter account to use during these events.

>Also send a flyer home with the students.

Only about half of those ever reach home (no-one knows where they end 
up, but it's probably the same place as all those lost Biros).

But if the school had a twitter account I'm sure the news would spread 
rapidly. Most of the students spend hours online every day, even if the 
school doesn't.

>The radio station can pick up the twitter feed like everyone else, and 
>announce closures. That is the way a certain group of people are doing 
>it in the middle east right now, word gets around and word gets out... 
>In your case, the community will know quickly, all from a couple of 
>people logging into twitter and sending a few messages. Sounds like a 
>simple, ideal solution given your budget constraints.

I hope so.
-- 
Roland Perry