This technology might now look dated, but the city hall of Rio de Janeiro found an interesting way to turn SMS into a public service. Through a partnership with the operators Vivo, Claro, TIM and OI, the city is promoting a programme of communication with the population over weather alerts via SMS. 

The service is designed to send alerts up to 4 hours before the occurrence of rain and thunderstorms in the city, avoiding accidents caused by such natural disasters. Available since December 2011, the programme is free and only requires you to send an SMS to 4000 with the text “DCRJ” to start receiving information provided by meteorological satellites maintained by the city.

To date, the service, which has 22 000 people registered already sent eight warnings to the population of the ‘wonderful city’. It seems that SMS is still a considerable option to warn a large number of people inexpensively.

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SMS alerta a população sobre chuvas no Rio de Janeiro

Esta tecnologia já pode parecer coisa do passado, mas a prefeitura do Rio de Janeiro achou uma forma interessante de transformar o SMS em serviço público. Através de uma parceria com as operadoras Vivo, Claro, TIM e OI, a prefeitura do Rio está promovendo um programa de comunicação com a população sobre alertas de temporais por meio de SMS.

O serviço tem como objetivo avisar com até 4 horas de antecedência a ocorrência de chuvas e temporais na cidade, evitando acidentes causados por esses desastres naturais. Disponível desde Dezembro de 2011, o programa é grátis e exige apenas que se envie um SMS para o número 4000 com o texto “DCRJ” para passar a receber as informações fornecidas por satélites meteorológicos mantidos pela prefeitura.

Até o momento, o serviço, que conta com 22 mil pessoas cadastradas, já enviou oito alertas para a população da cidade maravilhosa. Parece que o SMS continua sendo uma opção considerável para avisar um grande número de pessoas de forma barata.

Growing up amidst opportunity and convenience within the Internet age, the Gen Y are inspired by new business ideas brought about by easy access to information and advanced technologies. The changing face of the digital landscape has also paved the way for new voices to be heard through a convenient and highly accessible portal.Young entrepreneurs are coming to the forefront as they see these innovations as potential forces not only in driving profits, but in changing perceptions as well.

Today’s Techtastics are among the 14 kinds of youth entrepreneurs featured in Culture Vulture, our new quarterly trends series that offers a global snapshot of current and emerging cultural trends, bringing fresh insights from around the world to inspire and ignite new strategies for brands.

The first edition of Culture Vulture seeks to explore and understand the Entrepreneurial Spirit of Gen Y and how the youth’s innovative ideas can help stimulate game-changing strategies for brands that aspire to become more enterprising in their outlook.

Download our FREE Culture Vulture iPad app from iTunes for an overview on the global growth of entrepreneurship as well as the different behaviors that embody youth entrepreneurs worldwide, along with tips for nurturing “entrepreneurial” attitudes for brands.

Don’t have an iPad? Then download the interactive PDF . Also check out all of our 14 videos showcasing the different types of youth entrepreneurs around the world.

Interested to know more? Visit the Culture Vulture page or email culturevulture@mindshareworld.com.

This is definitely one of the coolest gadgets I’ve heard about in awhile – a mobile projector. From Microvision, the Show WX+ hooks up to an iPod/Phone/Pad (or with an adapter to a laptop and a digital camera) and viola, you now have a projector. All you need is a dark wall. Well, you also need high resolution photos, television shows or movies stored on whatever you hook the Show WX to. After that you’re good to go. It’s priced at $450 dollars.

I’ve had a few embarrassing texting mishaps but none quite as amazing as the ones found on Damn You Autocorrect. Reading the 10 most popular made me almost pee my pants. Despite the plethora of time wasting, uploaded hilarity on the internet, DYA has an added dimension of humanity versus technology that makes me recall 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Remember Hal, the artificial intelligence that starts acting out? What’s going on with autocorrect anyway? – What a dirty mind it has. Ah, the technology we can’t control and the awkward, amusing scenarios they produce.  Beware of texting the word snack from now on, autocorrect might just go subversive on you.

The Toronto International Film Festival has found a new home – the TIFF Bell Lightbox. Designed for “the love of film” this building features a three-storey public atrium, 5 public cinemas, 2 galleries, 3 learning studios, a centre for students and scholars, a bistro, a restaurant, and a lounge.  A cinematic complex that raises the international bar for film makers/lovers everywhere.

Of course, what new structure in Toronto would be complete without condos – starting at a cool $1 million, no doubt. The website for Festival Towers is so laughably dramatic I just had to mention it.

There have been mixed reviews about this space having been erected in the midst of an area that has historically been quaint Victorian houses cum restaurant/bars. Some fear it’s enormity will change the feel of the block. But you can’t please everyone. This building is going to be a major hub for Canadian and International cinema. All the activities of TIFF can be focused in one space year round, with a focus on youth training, state of the art technology and the celluloid brilliance of the past, present and future.

With TIFF underway, the new building celebrated it’s inauguration with a block party on Sunday, September 12. As TIFF gets more acclaim and status each year, it makes sense that the festival needs a new home. I hope that this building lives up to it’s glory/purpose and doesn’t become another massive expenditure that fails to fulfill it’s ambitions.

Brandon is a 24 year old multi-disciplinary artist living between Berlin, Los Angeles and New York. He primarily creates video installations and is part of the art collective devo1ded under the name xorzyst. Devo1ded is a Berlin-based shaman society specializing in the dark media arts. Founded in 2009 by valquire (DE) and xorzyzt (US), they channel the spirit world through a combination of old and new video/sound/scrying technologies presented in the form of interactive installations and performances. As well as all this Brandon also writes, makes photographs and has his own personal blog.

One of his projects for example, the Image Fulgurator, was originally a normal analogue camera, which he transformed into a piece of high-tech equipment, with which he is able to manipulate pictures on other people‘s cameras while they are in the process of taking them. With this gadget he is able to project any image he want‘s into other peoples digital cameras.

If you saw the speech of Barack Obama while he was still a presidential candidate in Berlin last summer and took a picture you might want to double check it now because Julius and his Fulgurator were also present.

www.juliusvonbismarck.com

But to be honest there is no finite explanation of the website either. What there is instead are the highlights of the net and everything else pop-culture related between photography, design, music and curiosities.

On a daily basis Rene is scanning the internet for the artefacts everyone else might miss and publishing them on his page. An endeavour which has gained him third place in Europe‘s Blog Top 50.

This month’s music post is dedicated to my new Philips Streamium Webradio. What a great gadget! How much do I love radio again (commercial free). This wonderful piece of technology allows you to listen to a few thousand radio stations from around the globe. It features all the well known treats (and yes I like BBC3), but more importantly it allowed me to tap into a few music genres that I lost touch with, or was never in touch with.

My record / CD collections got stolen about 5 years ago and since then I never really bothered to build up a new one. It is a bit like with lost love. The Streamium brings back all these old memories, as there seems to be a radio station for every genre ever invented. There is a massive pre-selection, plus a search function.

I also realized that I became very fond of world music, which is strange as I dislike people that embrace “not their own” culture, e.g. Tango dancing on public squares, Salsa classes for couples, Indian chill out music to come down, etc. And now, I wake up in the morning listening to Hawaiian folk music and fall asleep while listening to traditional Persian music. Thx Philips for this great gift.

Weloveyouso.com is the collective-backstory-production-commentary to Spike Jonze’s “Where the Wild Things Are.” From the site: “This place has been established to help shed some light on many of the small influences that have converged to make this massive project a reality.” This blog proofs that good research is the key to everything that is being created now.

I find Ted to be very handy – lots of short lectures about science, technology, global issues.

Unlike.com call themselves “the definitive city guide for the mobile generation”. I don’t actually know what that means for me. But I check the site from time to time and think that it is the best source of well-written reviews of clubs, bars, restaurant. A smart combination of cool technology and interesting journalism. Not long time ago Guardian picked them as the blog of the month.

Stanislaw Boniecki gives me the impression that I don’t miss any party in my city. Good hipster photography.