Emergency Alerts Delivered to Your Desktop

Given the recent subway bombings in London, England, Canadians might be reassured by the fact that a homegrown company is at the forefront of a web-based emergency alert system.

Developed by Ottawa-based Solana Networks and Sombra Labs, five Canadian cities are testing the Internet Public Alerting System (IPAS). This Web-based alert system would allow local governments to broadcast emergency warnings about terrorist attacks, natural disasters, disease outbreaks, and other emergencies straight to users' desktops.

Users of the system must register for the type of emergency alert notification and then in the event of an emergency, the system would send an alert message that would pop-up in a window on the subscriber's computer.

For more information see the IPAS web site.