Meet Vine, Microsoft's superhero software
With a new product called Vine, Microsoft is tackling the issue that, in the Digital Age, contact management is no longer static--where you are and what you're doing at a given moment can matter just as much as what your cell phone number is. But instead of focusing on roving business travelers, Vine's slant is community management and emergency preparedness. It's in a private beta test right now.
Here's how it works. You download a "dashboard" application, and then you log in with your Windows Live account. Its interface takes the form of a map, where geo-tagged notifications pop up if a news story or public safety announcement--sourced from 20,000 news sources as well as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)--happens in a specific location. (You can set preferences to only display stories from locations and areas of interest that you care about.)
Your contacts are also listed on the dashboard, where you can check out alerts that they've sent you or even just keep tabs on their Facebook status messages. "Alerts" pop up like instant messages (or text messages, as you can opt to get them on your cell phone). You can also "check in" to let your neighbors know you're at home safe if, say, there's a tornado on the rampage outside, or if you're out of town.
Existing real-time, find-who's-where applications typically have a nightlife slant, like Buzzd and Foursquare. But Microsoft hopes that the same tools of convening can be used to organize community activities and stay in touch in the event of an emergency.
The company has unveiled the product in its home city of Seattle, and, according to the Seattle Times, plans to beta-test it there in addition to a rural Midwestern town and an "isolated island community," which makes the whole thing sound just a little bit Dharma Initiative. Just a little.
All joking aside, the Web's biggest players are gunning for a way to appropriately harness social media for emergency preparedness. Google's nonprofit Google.org arm has launched a project called Innovative Support to Emergencies, Diseases and Disaster (InSTEDD) with similar goals, and Google has invested $5 million in it. InSTEDD does not have a live software product yet, but organizers have said that it plans to use, among other things, a mash-up of SMS alerts and the Google Earth mapping application.
Caroline McCarthy, a CNET News staff writer, is a downtown Manhattanite happily addicted to social-media tools and restaurant blogs. Her pre-CNET resume includes interning at an IT security firm and brewing cappuccinos. E-mail Caroline. 
Also, most devices that connect to Windows Live are not location aware.
Just remember the difference between PHP and ASP, and you'll eventually get my point.
What is your point? I think i missed it.
ASP is a dead language (as apposed to ASP.NET) and Windows now has native support for PHP (arguably one of the fastest currently)?
Death to Microsoft!
Amen
I too participate in emergency management and would be embarassed to have such an unprofessional attitude.
And NO. I definitely don't want to rely on any MS products during a real world disaster.
Amen
Is this 2000? This type of comment is so passe and tiresome. Find something new to ***** about.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Those who remain ignorant of history are doomed to repeat it. Knowing M$'s history, I work hard at NOT being doomed by them!
Consider: there is a disaster. So you fire up your winblows PC, deal with the updates, scan for viruses, have it hang, reboot, get to your desktop, start this dashboard app, have *it* hang, then get a blue screen. Reboot, scan for disk errors, get to your desktop again, start this dashboard app again, have it hang *again* ...
I guess the disaster that first panicked you isn't that big of a concern anymore now, is it? Is this what "emergency management" means to M$?
We haven't yet touched the lack of intelligence it takes to trust anyone with M$'s security history and history of hostility toward their paying customers (known as "slaves" to the rest of the world - doubters can look up "wga" themselves) with live location data of their customers. Think of the joy coming when an abusive spouse figures out how to hack this system to track their victims.
Nothing good can come of this.
What if there's a disaster and the only system available is Microsoft? Are you going to say "Sorry, I can't help you.. I don't use MS products..". That's plain silly...
Be professionals! And we're talking lives here.. use any resource you have!
And web based systems for Emergency response??? The world is ending but lets assume my 3G connection will be fine? Or what: rely on a an Offline capable platform (Google Gears). Isn't that a beta (like everything else Google).
What about a Microsoft Smart Client Application?
- by ade234uk May 5, 2009 12:21 AM PDT
- Microsoft the 4th emergency service, please don't make me laugh.
- Like this Reply to this comment
-
(26 Comments)