LA Fire Department's aTwitter with Web 2.0

You know Twitter, right? One of the zillions of networking sites that let you keep in touch with, well, anyone. I Twitter, and so does this little blog, not much of a surprise considering we both live online. But the LAFD?

Turns out our city fire department is on the cutting edge of Web 2.0, the new wave of innovation that has moved the internet away from the static screen and helped turn it into a dynamic, world-wide community. Exhibit A for the LAFD - the Twitter feed. Every time fire trucks roll or rescue helicopters fly in the city, details of the emergency go out on Twitter.

Remember the train versus pedestrian accident in The Valley earlier this week? The first news of it went out on Twitter. Ditto for a few house fires today, a brush fire last week and a helicopter rescue of a trapped hiker earlier this summer. For Ron Meyers, a spokesman for the LAFD, it's just business as usual.

"We have about 80 Web 2.0 projects in the works right now," Meyers said. "We bring them in slowly, keep them if they work and if they're not sustainable, we move on." Meyers works with Brian Humphrey, also a spokesman for the department, and the the men dream up the innovations on their own time.

Adding to the department's Web 2.0 cred: a Flickr group, a YouTube channel, a blog, Gabcast and Jaiku. Under consideration right now is a Twitter disaster feed for LA residents, not a bad idea where cataclysmic earthquakes, fires, rains and mudslides are part of the SoCal life.

So, do you Twitter?

--Veronique de Turenne

Comments

[jose palacios]

is the porter ranch fire off is there still danger