Utah Department of Public Safety Launches New First-of-its-Kind Mobile Application for the Media
The Utah Department of Public Safety recently announced the launch of a new mobile Web application developed exclusively for communicating public safety-related news, information, and alerts directly to mobile devices used by media outlets. The mobile app will run in conjunction with the Public Safety Media Portal available on Utah.gov (http://www.Utah.gov), the state of Utah’s official Web site. Utah is the first state government in the nation to develop and release a mobile application of this kind.
The mobile extension to the media portal uses HTML5, the next major version of HTML, and the user’s geographic location to display mapped pinpoints of active incidents in proximity to the user’s mobile device. The media can now access real-time information from the Public Safety Media Portal directly to their mobile phone regardless of venue or environment.
“This is a major advancement in our ability to communicate important information to the media and the citizens of Utah,” said Sgt. Jeff Nigbur, Public Information Officer for the Department of Public Safety. “By extending this application to mobile devices, we are responding to our constituents’ feedback to provide a more responsive and useful connection to our department.”
The State of Utah’s Department of Public Safety Media Portal is a national award-winning application and has recently received both a Gov 2.0 Award from O’Reilly Media’s Government 2.0 Expo Showcase and a Digital Government Achievement Award from the Center for Digital Government. It provides a comprehensive view into current statewide law enforcement activities and includes sections for news releases, multimedia downloads, and pushed alerts via Twitter. While the Media Portal is restricted to authorized media outlets, the Twitter feed is available to the public at http://twitter.com/utdpspio. Members of the media wishing to gain access to the portal should visit http://www.utah.gov/pio.
Filed Under: Software
About the Author: Faysal Chowdhury, a Civil Engineer at day and an intelligent tech blogger at night. Stationed in Dhaka, Bangladesh he is has been with HotCellularPhone.com since the beginning, dated back to 2008. After receiving his Bachelor’s Degree in 2006, he started working as a Civil Engineer for Bangladesh Water Development Board (BWDB) but his tech savvy mind always kept up with the mobile world and keeping everyone updated as well.
