Cell phone message board to be extended for disasters

[Steve Bildermann]

A cellular phone message board service that proved incredibly useful for those caught in the aftermath of last month's Niigata Prefecture Chuetsu Earthquake will be extended across three major cell phone service providers from next year, reports The Daily Yomiuri.

Within 30 minutes of a major disaster, such as a large typhoon or an earthquake of lower 6 or higher on the Japanese intensity scale, the message board will appear in the i-mode menu on DoCoMo cell phones. The user chooses his or her status, such as "okay" or "in a shelter," and can then leave a text message of up to 100 characters.

Cell phones used in 9-11 disaster

Mobile Media Japan

Helpnet Keitai

[omae mona]

Can it be used in the wake of a web site defacing, too?

[Taro Toporific]

Yahoo Japan to start providing quick info on quakes
(Kyodo) Dec 07
...The information, also to be available via mobile phones, will include what time an earthquake occurred, which area it hit, where its focus was, in addition to the intensity, they said.
In the event of an earthquake, Yahoo Japan will provide the information in the upper part of the top page of its portal site for about one minute. As for other pages, banner ads will temporarily turn into bulletin boards on the quake. ......more...

[kurohinge1]

...The information, also to be available via mobile phones, will include what time an earthquake occurred, which area it hit, where its focus was, in addition to the intensity...

With all these features, phones will have to make some comprises with size ...



But the good news is that you will now be able to shelter under them in the event of an earthquake ... while you read the quake stats on the screen