Do you know Vine?? Microsoft Vine??

With a new product called Vine, Microsoft is tackling the issue that, in the Digital Age, contact management is no longer static--where you are and what you're doing at a given moment can matter just as much as what your cell phone number is. But instead of focusing on roving business travelers, Vine's slant is community management and emergency preparedness. It's in a private beta test right now.

Here's how it works. You download a "dashboard" application, and then you log in with your Windows Live account. Its interface takes the form of a map, where geo-tagged notifications pop up if a news story or public safety announcement--sourced from 20,000 news sources as well as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)--happens in a specific location. (You can set preferences to only display stories from locations and areas of interest that you care about.)

Your contacts are also listed on the dashboard, where you can check out alerts that they've sent you or even just keep tabs on their Facebook status messages. "Alerts" pop up like instant messages (or text messages, as you can opt to get them on your cell phone). You can also "check in" to let your neighbors know you're at home safe if, say, there's a tornado on the rampage outside, or if you're out of town.

Users view and post alerts to some or all friends/family. These can be quick messages to family in the case of emergency, or a church or sports club for meetings or practice. Each person defines how they want to receive alerts - the client, email and/or text message.
Users can also post more lengthy reports which are sent to the dashboards of those you share it with. There are four types of reports at launch: check in safe and well, report upcoming plans, report a situation or general information.

The product is very early and Microsoft is stressing that this is an early beta, designed to get feedback from a small number of users. Eventually the client will have some limited functionality even when offline (which is a likely scenario in a crisis), and new interfaces will be built on other platforms like Mac and Silverlight.

Source: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13577_3-10229103-36.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20,http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/04/27/microsoft-vine-to-connect-family-friends-when-crisis-hits/




Sridutt speaks -

On Personal Experience a cool tool to experiment with; Is trendy, Resourceful, Vibrant but I must say kinda slow ( High speed Internet access is a must). But, by and large could end up being a life saviour - A Superhero.