Coincidence is a funny thing, in the week that Google released its new communication system called Google Wave, Samoa suffered from a tsunami.

My commiseration's and best wishes to the people of Samoa. Of course there was another smaller wave which has rippled through New Zealand since that event; a wave of annoyance and anger with the question, "Which world was Civil Defence living in?"
In the week when the newest "real time" communication system was unveiled (it is slower than talking) Civil Defence seemed to be waiting for a letter delivered from an official observer via NZ Post.

I have to ask what systems of communication Civil Defence is using and why are they not reviewing these methods? I question that the only source of guidance to the public is via the local radio. Have they never stopped to think that some work places don't actually have a radio playing? Not just, not turned on, but not physically in place. While I agree radio is a great method of wide easy broadcast, for after the event; but to also tell other media outlets to listen to the radio – come on.
Many years ago in London, the shops along Oxford Street had pagers. In event of terrorist activity the pagers would all go off with a message and then the duty staff could ring a number and get updates. Simple and easy.
Now it's even easier, a simple text to a mobile or an email. Ensure the same message goes out by putting it up on your web site. But there is a major shift in the way we consume news which the Civil Defence has totally failed to take into account and there is a wide range of news sources. We now have so many ways of receiving our news that talking to one media format means a large chunk of the population will not get the message.
We live in an instant, real time world, we no longer wait for the bulletin; we want the news now. We don't expect to go to the Civil Defence site and find the same message from two hours ago.
It is time Civil Defence updated their process and worked on the simplest methods to create the largest broadcast. In the information age people want valid, useful in-time information.

As poorly as Civil Defence understand modern communications, Google have proved that they not only understand it, they intend to shape it. Google Wave is conversational writing. I got my invite to Google Wave at the weekend and spent some time talking to a friend (@scoblitz) in the USA and trying it out with him. You can see what and when other people are writing and find yourself second guessing them. You even see them check their spelling. You get a sense of the way they are forming their thoughts. You can even interrupt them. But at the same time it helps, you pause and really think about what you are going to say. It is like an instant forum, and gets rid of a lot of the repetition of email. It will not revolutionise collaboration, but it will definitely cause some major improvements for some organisations. One major thing it will need, especially for the enterprise, is presence notification. But it is still only in limited preview, I will be watching with interest.