The personal SOS messages the BBC used to send
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Re: The personal SOS messages the BBC used to send
#2That's awesome! We kindof have a more targeted system (for example, Amber Alerts), but it seems like something very similar.
This makes me wonder if the mobile carriers and phone OS manufacturers could collaborate on a similar type of targeted system. Let's assume that an accredited healthcare provider has an emergent patient. The patient has been identified, and a name of a friend/relative/etc. has been provided, but no contact information is available[0].
In a situation like this, the healthcare provider would provide to the mobile carriers & OS manufacturers the patient's name, the relative's name (with an indicator if spelling is correct or guessed), and the provider's contact info. The carriers/manufacturers could then check their user/subscriber lists for anyone with either a matching or a similar (using something like SOUNDEX) name, building a list of candidate recipients.
The candidate recipients would be notified via a free SMS, push message, or similar. The patient would give explicit permission for this action to be performed, knowing that a limited number of random people would get notified. Finally—and importantly—the provider (and the patient) would not get any information on who (if anyone) was notified. Each candidate recipient would get a unique verification code, which they would provide if they chose to call in. That would reveal the name and contact info of the recipient who is calling in. It may also help prevent multiple unrelated people from calling in (by detecting code reuse).
Re: The personal SOS messages the BBC used to send
#3The stranger memorizing the license plate from a single announcement on the radio and then finding that car on the street to deliver news of a sick kid is a fantastic story.
It's hard to imagine for someone brought up in the age of the information overload just how starved people were back then for entertainment and news. I remember the anxiety with which I waited a whole week for my favorite (and only) cartoon I could watch on the national television (the only TV station available). It was a Japanese show called Spaceship Sagittarius and the episodes are forever burned into my memory down to the planet names the protagonists were visiting, minor characters and plot twists. Back in the 50s, I could imagine thousands of people memorizing a license plate announced on the radio, and the story of the SOSes becoming talking subjects in the local pub.
Re: The personal SOS messages the BBC used to send
#4I remember a few of those being read out when I was young. I thought it was funny at the time, but it must have been terrifying to have someone personally address you over national radio.
Re: The personal SOS messages the BBC used to send
#5That's awesome! We kindof have a more targeted system (for example, Amber Alerts), but it seems like something very similar. This makes me wonder if the mobile carriers and phone OS manufacturers could collaborate on a similar type of targeted system. Let's assume that an accredited healthcare provider has an emergent patient. The patient has been identified, and a name of a friend/relative/etc. has been provided, bu…
I have emergency contacts on my phone. You can access them, together with my medical information, without having to unlock my phone. A simple system that works.
Re: The personal SOS messages the BBC used to send
#6That's awesome! We kindof have a more targeted system (for example, Amber Alerts), but it seems like something very similar. This makes me wonder if the mobile carriers and phone OS manufacturers could collaborate on a similar type of targeted system. Let's assume that an accredited healthcare provider has an emergent patient. The patient has been identified, and a name of a friend/relative/etc. has been provided, bu…
I have emergency contacts on my phone. You can access them, together with my medical information, without having to unlock my phone. A simple system that works.
Your system doesn't earn anyone government contracts.
Re: The personal SOS messages the BBC used to send
#7The stranger memorizing the license plate from a single announcement on the radio and then finding that car on the street to deliver news of a sick kid is a fantastic story. It's hard to imagine for someone brought up in the age of the information overload just how starved people were back then for entertainment and news. I remember the anxiety with which I waited a whole week for my favorite (and only) cartoon I cou…
Back then the first three letters of the license plate identified the city council where the car was registered.
There wouldn't have been a lot of cars in London with that particular three-leter code which increases the chance of recognition a lot.
Re: The personal SOS messages the BBC used to send
#8The Eddie Mair documentary would be here, but as is usual the BBC never makes old archive programs available: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01mdf9r
I'm like 99% sure I listened to it, but unfortunately I didn't make a copy probably because I listened to it on the broadcast radio rather than download.
Re: The personal SOS messages the BBC used to send
#9That's awesome! We kindof have a more targeted system (for example, Amber Alerts), but it seems like something very similar. This makes me wonder if the mobile carriers and phone OS manufacturers could collaborate on a similar type of targeted system. Let's assume that an accredited healthcare provider has an emergent patient. The patient has been identified, and a name of a friend/relative/etc. has been provided, bu…
I like this idea. It’s cute and thinks about the privacy of the people involved.
However I do not know how many times this would be useful at all? How often are relatives known, but contact information is unknown? In the developed world at least, because I do not think this system would be of much use elsewhere. And if the patient opts into it, then the patient could also simply hand a phone number or three.
It would also be really expensive, wouldn’t it? I don’t see a huge market for it, so performing the service for a dollar doesn’t sound good. I’m not sure if a patient would be okay with spending several hundred on both the service and someone to handle the phone calls. You could use a robot to handle that.
Still, I think a patient could just leave a phone number if they decide to opt in anyway. But it’s a nice and helpful idea!
Re: The personal SOS messages the BBC used to send
#10The stranger memorizing the license plate from a single announcement on the radio and then finding that car on the street to deliver news of a sick kid is a fantastic story. It's hard to imagine for someone brought up in the age of the information overload just how starved people were back then for entertainment and news. I remember the anxiety with which I waited a whole week for my favorite (and only) cartoon I cou…
Back then the first three letters of the license plate identified the city council where the car was registered. There wouldn't have been a lot of cars in London with that particular three-leter code which increases the chance of recognition a lot.
Still does (the first two letters anyway). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vehicle_registration_plates_of...