This morning I am watching emails of an university who is implementing a web emergency alert system. They are conducting testing today and the general idea is to have a way to instantly, across all their web properties, alert their students and staff and provide the emergency information.

What if Google did this by working with local governments? Or imagine the massive information dissemination capacity a place like Facebook would have. How many people were using Facebook or Google when Katrina hit?

This would be a responsible move, of significant value to communities across the globe and would certainly be a media hook. There are not many technical challenges to creating such a system, and the system could be tied into existing governmental information distribution channels.

Just a thought.