How ShoutSafe Started

Image of the founder of ShoutSafe ShoutSafe was conceived as a result of the 2004 Asian Tsunami. I was on vacation in Sri Lanka when the tsunami hit. My friends and I had been down on the coast just a day before . We had traveled up into the mountains the day before, and heard about it from our driver.

In the days after the tsunami most of our friends and family tried hard to get in touch with us. We spent a lot of time assuring them that we were OK. This gave me the idea of setting up a website for communicating with friends and family in the case of a disaster, incident or other major event, and so ShoutSafe was born.

John Scott
ShoutSafe Creator

How ShoutSafe Can Be Used

Events and Disasters
ShoutSafe was set up in response to the 2004 Asian Tsunami. Personal experience showed the ShoutSafe team that Internet communication was a valuable way to get in touch with family and friends in the event of an emergency – now, ShoutSafe will be there in case of future disasters, helping people communicate with their loved ones.

Image from Huricane Katrina It’s best to play it safe – after all, disasters don’t care if you’re at home, traveling on business or on holiday. With a ShoutSafe account, you can send messages to friends and family quickly and easily, letting them know you’re safe. Using ShoutSafe’s blog functions, you can also keep everyone informed about your progress and experiences on a day-by-day basis – perfect if you’re on a long holiday or overseas for work or the military. If you can’t access the Internet from your location, you can also send messages and update your blog by sending SMS text messages to ShoutSafe, or by getting a Trusted Contact to update your info it for you. All you need is to get one message out to someone you know and trust. They can tell everyone else.

Natural Disasters
Major natural disasters occur more often than most people expect, and can hit anywhere, at any time. Recent times have brought a number of large-scale natural disasters, including the 2004 Asian tsunami, 2005 Pakistan earthquake and Hurricane Katrina in 2005. In addition, smaller disasters occur on a regular basis, including forest fires, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes, tsunamis and flash floods.

Image of a hiker walk in moutains Man-Made Disasters
Man-made disasters can often be as or even more devastating than natural disasters. Events like the September 11, 2001 attacks, the London Tube bombings and the Bali bombings are a few of the man-made disasters that have occurred in recent years, and terrorist attacks, wars and transportation accidents can happen at any time. ShoutSafe helps you keep your friends and family informed in case you’re ever affected by one of these unfortunate incidents.

Trekking, Skiing and Outdoor Activities
When you’re trekking, skiing or doing other outdoor pursuits, it’s important to let people know where you are going and when you will return. You can use your ShoutSafe account to set up a Timer message, making it easy to keep friends informed of your safety. A Timer message is set to be sent at a predetermined date and time. If you do not disable the message before it is triggered, it will be sent to your selected contacts, who can react accordingly. You can also set a Timer message to send you an alert message, alerting you to disable the message before it is sent to your contacts.

Image of a soldier on duty The ShoutSafe Itinerary and Diary allow you to keep a record of where you have travelled and where you plan to travel. Using Google® Maps you and friends can see where you have been where you will be and where you should be. Using SMS, your itinerary status can be updated while on the move. Alerts can be sent to you to verify that you have arrived at your planned destination.

Military
Soldiers and other members of the armed services may want to set up automated messages that are sent should they not return from a sortie or assignment. This is also true for any professional whose job could be considered dangerous. ShoutSafe's Timer messages are perfect for this task. A timer message can be configured to be sent at a predetermined date and time. The owner can disables the message before it is sent.

Contributors

Image of a Jessica Schilling Jessica Schilling
Jessica Schilling has been the design guru for ShoutSafe. She has designed all the marketing material, including the ShoutSafe cards and brochures. She also been an invaluable in the design and branding of the website. Jessica is also a user of ShoutSafe.