Hacker News Reader

Comment by csw-001 | Hacker News Reader

This is really cool. I've worked in the Emergency Management space for a decade, and this is a clear win - great idea well executed, so kudos. Even if people never look at them, the process of creating them and thinking through personal disaster responses is hugely valuable (plans are nothing, planning is everything). Well done.

It's scope creep for sure, but I'd love have a version of this for international travel that populates local consulate/embassy offices, visa numbers, airline, hotel numbers, and personal emergency medical info in the local language. I had a coworker that would make international travel wallet cards for folks traveling abroad - it was pretty cool.

View on HN

I've been surprised how many people don't know the number of their doctor, lawyer, siblings, even partners. So even a minor problem like a dead/broken phone becomes a much bigger problem. While not a real emergency the EWC can help, there's extra fields for whatever.

> I've been surprised how many people don't know the number of their doctor, lawyer, siblings, even partners.

How many people…

a.) Have a personal lawyer?

b.) Need to have said lawyer on speed dial?

c.) Also need to have the lawyer’s phone number memorized in case they don’t have some way to look up the number?

Ive kicked the idea around to start a company that would attack this issue in a few different ways..

get an app or on the site, enter in some info..

an easy to remember 800 number that is answered 24/7..

the person who answers can unlock the info you saved via the app or web site - and call numbers for your X or your Y and even do it three-way / conference call.. and even call your Z or V after you hang up - to notify you've been detained or whatever.

I think people would pay for this, and it would be easy to freemium - as you could pre-roll a local bail bonds ad when called if freemium user..

I have some other ways to make this work even better with some added tech things.

could even have a set of info that is made available to paramedics / hospitals should they find your emergency card in wallet and such.

now I want to build this more, I'm guessing a premium phone number is not cheap these days, so keeping this in the ideas phase.

Re: c). You only get one phone call, right?

A few years ago, I borrowed a combination lock from my wife while I went to the Y to work out in the pool. When I finished my swim, I realized I'd forgotten the combination. I called her from the pool office phone. It took several calls and a couple messages for her to pick up and answer.

I too will often not answer the phone if it's an unfamiliar number, but I do answer if it's the local area code which is not the area code of my wife's and my phone numbers since I figure it's more likely to be something legitimate like a call from a school or a local business where maybe I've forgotten I had placed an order or left dry cleaning and my stuff is now ready. If she had this policy, I would have spent less time waiting to get the combination.

My policy for calls from unknown numbers:

1 call: very likely spam; let it go to voicemail.

2 calls: Someone genuine is trying to reach me; let it go to voicemail. Listen to voicemail as soon as it arrives.

3 calls: emergency, pick up right away.

Exception: PagerDuty calls; pick up on first ring.

My wife is aware of this policy of mine. And I store kids’ school numbers in contacts.

Because no one dials the numbers anymore -- they just select the entry in their contacts list. And the contact's name (and possibly picture) is displayed more prominently than the phone number.

Before speed dial, I used to have everyone's number memorized because it had to be hand dialed.

A couple numbers I don't put in speed dial so I will remember them.

International travel strikes me as the sort of thing where you'd want a paid enterprise subscription instead of an offline JS app, since you'd want numbers kept up-to-date. (Just look at all the airlines integrating entry/exit test/quarantine requirement iframes.)

$dayjob gives us a mobile app from International SOS, although certainly I think there's room to make the app prettier / faster / more tolerant of spotty internet.

Thank you :)

And this is a great idea (please consider adding an issue on GH); I think many will benefit from EWC using them in unfamiliar conditions such as traveling. I wonder what would be a good way to remind users to print an updated EWC before traveling.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com