Connecting our community in an emergency with mobile messaging

In a crisis, one of the hardest things to manage is coordination of the citizens and volunteers. Making sure there is reliable and safe communication between parties is critical, and not always possible in natural disasters like bushfires when normal communication modes aren’t possible. SMS and MMS are still some of the most effective ways of communicating, as studies show texts to mobile are much more likely to be read and acted upon than email.

For mass-communication, timing is crucial. We need to have robust, automated services in place that can get the right message, to the right people, at the right time. That’s where APIs come in. APIs (i.e Application Programming Interfaces) allow different apps and services to communicate with each other to: Access Data, Hide Complexity, Extend Functionality and add Security. Messaging APIs specifically allow us to send and receive SMS and MMS using a few lines of code. Integrate them in your platform to Allow scalable automation of services and Make workflows faster and more productive.

Some examples of emergency situations where this would pose a challenge, is when volunteers are brought together at short notice. Or you might want to manage a workforce of public services that make cities safer and smarter. In an emergency situation, how can we communicate and coordinate the people and services to where they are needed most?

To solve this challenge, we encourage you to work with different technologies that incorporate the Messaging API.

Additional Information:

Video Presentation: Presentation of the Challenge

Technologies to highlight: TelstraDev’s Messaging API (Free Trial available)

Other useful links:

• Learn more about communication APIs in the TelstraDev GovHack conference workshop: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JU4cA5JnQG8

• TelstraDev’s messaging API: https://dev.telstra.com/content/messaging-api

• A short video explaining how to get started with the API: https://dev.telstra.com/content/get-started-telstradev-messaging-api