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The City of Somerville provides a free service of alerts via phone calls, text messages or email to let you, the constituent know about important civic information.
Previous CTY calls have been about the following:
* Possible snow emergencies.
* Construction projects.
* School closures
* Road detours
* Community events
Signing up is quick and easy, just click on the link below and provide us with your information.
https://portal.blackboardconnectcty.com/welcome.aspx?eiid=1207B6088C3473A4637E
If you have any questions please call Somerville Constituent Services at 617-666-3311 or 311.
segmenting the SMS alerts
Date: 2011-02-16 03:45 pm (UTC)Thanks,
Jesse
Re: segmenting the SMS alerts
Date: 2011-02-16 03:58 pm (UTC)The user model I'm thinking of is someone who wants to hear about snow emergencies asap (because "OH GOD TIME TO MOVE THE CARS PLZ") but doesn't want to otherwise get texted for stuff because not everyone has unlimited text messaging on their cellphone. :)
(I'm the person who set up a snow-emergency-only twitter acct (svillesnowemerg) a few years ago when the city didn't have a twitter presence, so I think I think too much about this stuff)
Re: segmenting the SMS alerts
Date: 2011-02-16 05:43 pm (UTC)Think about it: there really *has* to be one way to disseminate useful official information about planned construction, road closing for special events that have been scheduled months in advance, etc. and a totally different was to communicate urgent and emergency messages and messages about road floods, snow closings, other immediate/urgent issues. It's really not rocket-science.
Re: segmenting the SMS alerts
Date: 2011-02-16 06:20 pm (UTC)Re: segmenting the SMS alerts
Date: 2011-02-16 07:07 pm (UTC)The reason that I had signed up for SMS service is that my work takes me away from computers and internet all day several days a week and on those days I'd like to keep up with what's important to keep up with but really can't handle being interrupted by announcements of parades and road work that I know about already or could read about when I get home to my computer.
Again: there's a difference between information it's worth being interrupted for, and information it's not. If finding out about something anytime in the next 24 hours is sufficient, it can be labeled "important" and should go to one announcement group for access in a timely fashion.
If it's potentially relevant anywhere from immediately to within the next 2 to 3 hours, and can *severely* impact constituents who do not hear about it it can be labeled "urgent" and should go out via more interrupt-driven media.
Please consider that not all users are at leisure to check and read messages all day long whenever they come in and that a great many people require uninterrupted work time and still access to true urgent or emergency information. The key to keep in mind when classifying a message is When must this information be acted upon? What are the consequences of not acting on it (when weighed against interrupting someone else's important work).
Re: segmenting the SMS alerts
Date: 2011-02-17 04:22 am (UTC)