Have you heard of Twitter? How about Jaiku or Pownce? All of them allow you to send out quick notifications to ‘followers’ and they may be of use to your organisations.

The notifications are instantaneous, worldwide in reach and not limited to email or web, as they may also use text messaging. There are many places where cellphones have a reach not possible with landline phones or computers.

Here’s an edited report from a blog called State of Grace about how Twitter got the word out about a recent big earthquake in Mexico. Why Twitter May Matter in a Huge Way:

I was on Twitter when a 6.0 to 6.5 earthquake hit Mexico City. Robert Scoble spotted the Twitter reports — Tweets — coming in with the quake news from Mexico City. He put out his own Tweet. Then, not unlike a news agency, he began to compile the information on Scobleizer.

At the same time, Chris Pirillo was broadcasting from his live web TV show as well as taking calls and hosting a chat room. He sent out a Tweet asking for anyone from Mexico City to call in. An English speaking Mexican got through on a video feed and provided an eyewitness account.

Twitter users around the world began to call in and Chris’ show became a global conversation.

I’m thinking:

That this is Citizen Journalism 2.0, a mix of new web social networks and tools — Twitter, flickr — hooked in with blogs, webcast, chatrooms, video feeds, and mobile devices.

That Twitter and jaiku may be a valuable tool for disaster relief and recovery. What if we had these streams of incoming information from regular folks around the world before the Indonesian tsunami? Could we have saved some people in Thailand, letting them know through Twitter and jaiku, that a major earthquake had occurred and a tsunami was headed in their direction? The governments in the tsunami affected areas did not have a well coordinated warning system to do this, but now regular citizens have these web tools to initiate their own alert mechanisms.

Meanwhile, Nancy White from Online Facilitation is collecting Twitter Collaboration Stories.

Have you heard of these free tools? If not, it’s time to find someone in your organisation who can look into them, find out what’s involved, think about whether they could be useful in your situation.

Tell us your thoughts in the comments.

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