Slashdot Mirror
Facebook Tests 'Safe' User Tag For Disasters
aesoteric writes "Facebook has embarked on a nationwide test of a new disaster message board for users across Japan. The feature allows users to mark themselves as being 'safe' in the event of a disaster. Doing so introduces a 'safe' insignia next to their name on their profile. The Facebook announcement appeared to be geoblocked."
Like in the middle of a disaster people are going to start posting to facebook. Oh wait..
Lets try to file a bug report using New Orleans as an example in haiku format in honor of this being rolled out first in Japan...
Hurricane passes overhead
District Nine clicks Safe
Levees collapse; all drown; Whoops;
haiku formatted bug reports are superior to free text, although I'm guessing I shouldn't quit my day job and become a professional poet...
"Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
For Juan Pablo Montoya after he ran into the track jet dryer
I'm not a Facebook fan but this is an excellent idea. Send a tweet and everyone concerned will know you're safe.
If you're scared of your govt then you need to further restrict its powers
Vote 3rd Party in 2016 and beyond
But where can I be safe from the eyes of facebook?
Nae king! Nae laird! Nae yurrupiean pressedent! We willna be fooled again!
This doesn't add any new information.
"I'm safe", but as of when? You were safe when the earthquake hit, sure. But are you safe from the aftershocks? the tsunamis? the riots?
You'd still need to look in to see what "I'm safe" actually refers to, and as of when it was true.
This seems just as useful as a turn signal is to pedestrians: Sometimes gives accurate information for a brief moment when you might need it, but is too-often inaccurate, ignored, or out-of-date, to be useful.
It wouldn't be useful for this guy:
http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/safety-not-guaranteed
Okay so what if someone marks themselves as safe...then a few minutes later another earthquake hits and a roof falls on their head or something similar. Will the tag expire after a certain amount of time?
After years of not using a signature, I am going to make one to say the following: Fuck Beta
I don't see how clicking "safe" on Facebook is suppose to protect you from a disaster. Do they send people?
When will Slashdot get that feature? I'm tired of manually announcing that information every time I post on this site.
I am safe. (up 32 years, 2 users, load averages: 0.35 0.54 0.53)
if you are perfectly fine.. but can't access a computer or dont know about this feature? does everyone panic and lose their minds in anticipation?
Kinda tempting fate eh? I can just picture the gods going "we will see about that".
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
What happens when the earthquake is done, the tsunami hasn't arrived yet and your status says "I'm safe".
Next thing the tidal wave hits, wiping out your house, your phone line, your computer and the local cell phone mast, your status is still showing "I'm safe" when you're anything but safe.
When will Facebook automagically reset your status to something neutral? Is that going to happen at midnight UTC, midnight PST or midnight local (JST if you're in Japan)? How is braindead Facebook going to handle that? (BTW my answer to that is badly.) How is Facebook going to work with daylight saving time (which may or may not be in effect)?
I cancelled my Facebook membership on 9th Dec 2011 (because I got bored with all the changes they kept making and all the over commercialisation), I have to say I've not missed getting 20 new photos of my brother's cats posted everyday.
Sigs. We don't need no steenking sigs.
Does testing this feature in japan mean they're expecting a disaster there in the near future?
It should be coupled with a timestamp, eg "I'm ok @ 2012-02-28 10:12". Things can happen in a short time in a disaster zone. Good feature nonetheless!
Waiting for you by the bridge
If Italy can sue scientists for failing to prognosticate an earthquake, can the bereaved relatives of future Japanese disaster victims sue Facebook for the trauma of seeing their loved one was incorrectly shown "Safe" ?
"Safe for now.... posted at 10:01EST" I mean, what if the aftershock gets them? Who's going to update their status to "Dead"?
A neat idea, but this really is only effective if everyone is using generally the same social network(s). Facebook might be gaining popularity in Japan, but it is still severely underrepresented and unpopular (only about 2% of internet users) compared to other services like mixi and GREE. Of course I understand Facebook just wants to test the feature in an area prone to earthquakes and tsunamis with plans for global expansion, but that type of service would frankly be better served according to regional preferences. As far as a globally popular option goes, Twitter would be a better carrier for the "I'm safe" service in Japan and just about everywhere else.
Then again, this "I'm safe" thing is really only beneficial to personally identifiable profiles. That works fine for Facebook where you have to use your real name, but the main reason Japan is less inclined toward Facebook is because they prefer anonymity and pseudonyms. Telling the internet you are safe is of no use to your family or anyone else when they don't know who is behind the pseudonym. Again, that's not to say it couldn't work elsewhere, but it's interesting that Facebook chose Japan of all places to do this when they have probably the poorest market share there. Or, maybe it's just a clever ploy to gain popularity in Japan.
You know - so the dead can update their status too.
So will Facebook be turning off the ad servers and serving minimal pages after such a disaster, when presumably hundreds of thousands of people will be attempting to access it thought a network with severely depleted bandwidth in order to tag themselves as 'safe'?
Thought not.
Why would you need a special "safe" message? The usuial "I'm sitting on the toilet now" status updates already let you know that somebody is alive, since they're timestamped (and often geotaged as well).
As in, requires a Japanese IP? I can come up with one of those, probably!
Or, as in, requires a Japanese IP and a .jp address? That's harder.
Village idiot in some extremely smart villages.
Interesting use of technology that I thought would have come sooner since the tsunami in the Indian Ocean, the earthquakes in Haiti and Chile, and the tsunami that contributed to the Fukushima nuclear disaster.
I guess Spotify integration was much sexier.
I8-D
This is actually an interesting Idea, albeit in need of more thought and planning. I live in Alabama ... you know ... right where the tornadoes tried to vacuum the land clean in April of 2011. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alabama_tornado . Granted this wasn't nearly as disastrous as Fukishima or New Orleans, but power was down, roads cut off, cellular communications disrupted. During this whole time the city, local power co-op, County EMA, were using Facebook as a means to get messages to the people and get reports back from them - served not only as a morale booster for everyone but relayed vital information about shelters and supply areas quickly to the sneaker-nets that spread information further.
Was it perfect, hell no.
But it helped, and as others have pointed out, this is no where near a "ready for production" idea, but with refinement it might turn out to be a useful idea.
"Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind" - Dr. Seuss
Facebook is already a big player in Japan. They passed 10 million users last fall. Sure, there are bigger networks, but to say Facebook is ignored "almost completely" is simply not true.
http://www.netratings.co.jp/news_release/2011/09/facebook100017.html