: From New Scientist:
The GSM cellphone standard already enables phones to receive short data messages from the nearest cellphone base station on a separate channel from normal voice and text message communications. The Cellular Emergency Alerts System Association (CEASA), a non-governmental organisation based in the UK, is campaigning to have the system turned into a disaster warning service.
The "Cell Broadcast" or "Area Information System" was originally designed to let network operators offer location based services, but is now rarely used.
To turn it into an early warning service, a customised PC needs to be installed at the headquarters of each network operator. This contains the geographical co-ordinates of all phone masts, enabling operators to target emergency messages to all phones in the required region.
: SMS.ac is working with foreign governments to create a mobile emergency warning system.
: BBC on text messages aiding disaster recovery
And that's when Mr Senanayake started to wonder if SMS might be put to more practical use. "SMS networks can handle so much more traffic than the standard mobile phone call or the land line call," he says. "In every rural community, there's at least one person who has access to a mobile phone, or has a mobile phone, and can receive messages."
Mr Rampersad, who used to work in the military, knew how important on the ground communication can be in times of disaster. He wondered if there might be a way to automatically centralise text messages, and then redistribute them to agencies and people who might be able to help.
Mr Rampersad said: "Imagine if an aid worker in the field spotted a need for water purification tablets, and had a central place to send a text message to that effect. "He can message the server, so the server can send out an e-mail message and human or machine moderators can e-mail aid agencies and get it out in the field." He added: "Or, send it at the same time to other people who are using SMS in the region, and they might have an excess of it, and be able to shift supplies to the right places."
Mr Rampersad and others had actually been thinking about such a system since Hurricane Ivan ravaged the Caribbean and the southern United States last September.
Last week, he sent out e-mail messages asking for help in creating such a system for Asia. In only 72 hours, he found Dan Lane, a text message guru living in Britain.
The pair, along with a group of dedicated techies, are creating what they call the Alert Retrieval Cache. The idea is to use open-source software - software can be used by anyone without commercial restraint - and a far-flung network of talent to create a system that links those in need with those who can help.
: More on the Alert Retrieval Cache
WorldChanger Taran Rampersad was on Public Radio International / BBC's The World today, talking about setting up an SMS-based alert retrieval cache, for coordinating immediate disaster relief and managing an event's aftermath. (You can hear the segment online, in .wma format, here.)
: Bottom up early warning system
: WorldChanging on The Future of Tsunami Warning systems and Disaster relief
: SMS to the rescue
Using SMS as an early warning system makes sense in theory, though it would be immensely difficult to carry out, according to analysts. Because cell phone owners typically carry their handsets with them, cell phones could be a much more suitable means of relaying information instantly to those in harm's way. Existing warning systems funnel warnings through various intermediaries and rely on televisions or radios.
Yankee Group analyst John Jackson said the effort could have an enormous upside, given that most phones now are capable of sending and receiving text messages. However, coordination could be a big headache. "It could mitigate the capital expense of setting up sirens and other bits of early warning systems," he said. "But one of the major problems could be who's going to assure that message actually gets through?"
There is precedent for such a system. Both Hong Kong and the Netherlands already incorporate SMS into their own emergency systems. To pull it off on a worldwide scale, all that's really needed is a database of telephone numbers to send messages to. But such efforts are gigantic and could take months to implement just on a regional scale.