Emergency Messages To Come Through Your Xbox New York State Planning To Send Emergency Messages Through Xbox Live

Imagine you're playing your favorite level from Call of Duty, shooting
terrorists and saving the day, when suddenly, you get an alert about an
incoming tornado. Except this tornado isn't in the game, it's right
outside your window. The State of New York is planning to send
'emergency messages' to New York games through Xbox Live, and
eventually, other systems as well.
The New York Emergency Management Office is now planning a system that
would let them issue alerts to games over the Xbox Live network, and
later on, other gaming systems. The alerts would include things like
severe storm warnings and that sort of thing.
Rico Singleton, the Chief Information Officer of New York, said the goal
of the plan is to reach the 25 and younger crowd that are spending more
time on video games than TV and radio. Information Week reported that
little details are out about the system yet, and Singleton reported that
right now they're in the testing phase.
The State of New York recently launched an state-wide program called
'Empire 2.0′ that has uses various technological advancements.
Some of them include State Senators using a Wiki to markup proposed
bills, state employees using Linked In and the state's Department of
Mental Health monitoring Facebook for suicide warning signs. Emergency
responders are even being trained by the state in the virtual world
Second Life. Right, because if you can give CPR and put out fires in
Second Life you're completly ready to do it in real life.
This the second story in a short time involving governments using Xbox
Live to their advantage. A few days ago,ย we reported that British
Intelligence was trying to recruit employees through Microsoft's gaming
service.