By Mary Jane Irwin, 5:36 PM on Thu Jan 17 2008, 253 views (Edit, to draft, Top, Slurp)

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Perhaps inspired by Jason Calcanis's successful Twitter for help when stranded sans passport in Paris, the do-gooding Google.org has launched the Innovative Support to Emergencies, Diseases and Disaster project — essentially a Web 2.0-fueled emergency broadcast system that will spread disaster-related tidings. With so many people friending and tracking strangers, it only seems logical that you'd base an early warning system on Twitter and Facebook. Instead of inane ramblings, InSTEDD would track text messages between humanitarian workers to help track down resources in the event of an outbreak, and it will help people track down nearby friends. Hopefully InSTEDD's Twitterlike bot will be a bit more reliable than the original.