Web 2.0 Continued – Uses and Misuses:

Stewart points out that a system referred to as Reverse 911® has been in place in the USA for the past few years. To quote their website:

...  REVERSE 911® is playing a key role in ensuring effective communication, not only for general information, but also in times of crisis.  ...

REVERSE 911 is used effectively in thousands of communities, counties, commercial businesses, schools and non-profit organizations to dramatically improve the lines of communication to the general population and targeted groups. The system has played a key role in solving and preventing crimes, and it has a wide variety of potential uses in many organizations, such as:

• Law Enforcement Agencies
  
• Emergency Management Agencies
  
• State and Local Governments
  
• Utility Companies
  
• Chemical Manufacturing Companies
  
• Transportation Companies
  
• Health Care Facilities
  
• Public Safety Agencies
  
• Universities

Stewart suggests that it could be plausible to expand the scope of this method of communication to be adopted by agencies such as the FDA, USDA, CDC or EPA in disseminating information on outbreaks, food borne disease or pollution hotspots.

It would be amiss of me not to highlight the ”viral” (using air quotes) video campaign used by the UK FSA to expand on the need to handle poultry safely over the Christmas period. The video is unfortunately lacking in specifics with the required cooking temperature being piping hot! I live in the UK and if it hadn’t been for Doug Powell’s Barfblog I would still be none the wiser on how to treat my Christmas turkey. So much for the viral aspect of the campaign.

Just to put viral marketing into perspective, Seth Godin (Dec 2008) defines it as: Viral marketing is an idea that spreads -- and an idea that while it is spreading actually helps market your business or cause.

I raise this point for possibly the same reason that Seth did in December 2008: viral marketing is getting a bad name; mainly from clueless marketing agencies and marketers (Seth) and now from governmental agencies (me). Seth’s comments can be found here.