I've posted before about the use of social networking site by government agencies -- especially the police. There's another entry (besides Facebook and Twitter) that appears to be set on making this a secure reality.
Nixle is a free service that allows you to receive trusted, up-to-the-minute, neighborhood information for where you live, work, visit – or for where your family and friends are located throughout the country.
Hmm, so trusted means secure? I guess we'll see how that goes over.
Police can send you information about car accidents or crime that's going on in your neighborhood—either by email, text messages to your cell phone, or both.
For now, I must admit there seems to be a decent movement underway. Apparently, more than 1,000 agencies have joined Nixle so far, and over 40,000 people have signed up. That's not a real good show of interest. I'm concerned especially since it requires both a learning curve for using the site (both the department representatives and the citizens) and a marketing push to get them to the site.
They do have a pretty impressive list of partners.
What do you think?
1 comment:
The concept is solid, it's much more secure than Twitter alone (being built on NLETS), and it still integrates with Twitter while also allowing for text messages and emails.
That said, the same people who avoid Twitter are likely to avoid Nixle, if they think it's "just one more Internet thing."
I wonder how many of these communities are getting media coverage for their move to Nixle -- and how those media are covering it, if they're covering it? Presentation is everything, and there are so many uncontrollable variables to how people receive the news...
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