After the devastation of the wake of the Japan Earthquake and Tsunami last week, Voyage Manager and its sister product ShoutSafe are being offered free to all people affected by the disaster.
Similar to the Google supplied People Finder, Shoutsafe was developed after Voyage Manager founder John Scott was travelling in Sri Lanka at the time of the 2004 Tsunami. He recognised the need to efficiently and quickly get a message out to as many friends and family members as possible to tell them of his safety even though communication lines were limited.
ShoutSafe was created to allow one message to be sent from the area of conflict or disaster which would then be passed on to anyone on a personalised list (in a variety of formats: email. SMS, or through a website) - ensuring that all important people were notified of the traveller’s safety without individual messages and contact attempts having to be made. "I had been travelling on the coast the day before the tsunami, but was fortunate to be up in the hills when it hit," John explains. "Friends and family back home couldn’t have known of our exact movements and were desperate for news. The difficulty and expense of communicating made me realize the need for an efficient service to say that you’re OK - that’s how ShoutSafe evolved."
This basic service was then expanded and developed into Voyage Manger, a complete travel tracking and management system which not only allows travellers complete access to their information and itineraries but also serves as a monitoring system to ensure that travellers reach their destinations. Safety features are built in to Voyage Manager, allowing messages to be sent from the traveller to the system which then also notifies important people in the traveller’s workplace or family.
In light of the disaster that has struck Japan, Voyage Manager is offering its services, and those of ShoutSafe, for free to aid any individuals, organizations, companies or countries that have been affected by the event.
Picture from National Geographic
