Altaf Shaikh

In the past few months, we have been witness to a major social (and worldwide) paradigm shift. Hi-tech communications and more nimble forms of messaging are allowing people to convey info at unprecedented speeds, and almost limitlessly via cell phones, twitter, facebook – and now one more establishment has been rocked (in a good way) by this.

9-1-1 will soon be taking your texts.

According to a recent article on Mashable.com – the 911 Emergency Response system will soon be rolling out plans to receive images, texts, and videos to help facilitate communication in any emergency and to help emergency responders get information and arrive on scene faster.

With social media, smart phones, and other technologies lending a hand in getting the word out fast for causes good (the “Arab Spring” demonstrations this year, earthquake/tsunami disaster relief in Japan) and bad alike (the current riots in London) – it will be great for our emergency responders to be armed with one more (social) weapon.

Read the Mashable article here.