DISQUS

Louis and Kristine,

I wanted to acknowledge the anniversary of a deep heartache (I'm so sorry this note is late), and tender my appreciation for the inspiration you both offer via this blog and in the raising of your twins. Yes, Molly would be proud for what you continue to offer - a warm and inviting place among friends, with thought provoking conversation, and unparalleled hope and vision for the future.

With warmest wishes.

Respectfully Yours in Safety and Service,

Brian Humphrey
Firefighter/Specialist
Public Service Officer
Los Angeles Fire Department

Robert, as one might imagine, this subject remains of profound interest in furthering our 'LAFD Everywhere' initiative. While we have no plans of leaving our popular Web2.0 properties such as Twitter @LAFD , we're really hoping to experiment and further some of these real-time tools in the near future. Hope to see you at CES. Be safe.

Brian Humphrey
Los Angeles Fire Department

Mark,

Thanks for being a spirited inspiration as we do our part to remain relevant to those we proudly serve.

Respectfully Yours in Safety and Service,

Brian Humphrey
Firefighter/Specialist
Public Service Officer
Los Angeles Fire Department

...and a blog, Twitter, Flickr account, BlogTalkRadio and much more. Thanks for your interest in the Los Angeles Fire Department and for spreading the word!

Brian Humphrey
Firefighter/Specialist
Public Service Officer
Los Angeles Fire Department

Stan,

You wrote...

"Twitter is great when the message is not important"

While we don't pretend to use our Twitter feed for essential elements of life safety, our experience with Twitter has shown it to be almost always useful and often beneficial for providing what our followers consider 'important' messages.

There are many tools in our tool chest, and we're quite pleased on our return on investment in Twitter.

Respectfully Yours in Safety and Service,

Brian Humphrey
Firefighter/Specialist
Public Service Officer
Los Angeles Fire Department

LAFD Blog: lafd.org/blog

Tom,

Fascinating stuff... especially since our office is striving to put similar Los Angeles Fire Department data on-line.

While we have had some success with our Twitter account, that have drawn kind comments from a prominent technologist, we've got more things planned that will not only be useful to our friends and neighbors, but also allow others to 'add value'.

Again, thanks for sharing your insight and code.

Respectfully Yours in Safety and Service,

Brian Humphrey
Firefighter/Specialist
Public Service Officer
Los Angeles Fire Department

LAFD Blog: LAFD>ORG/BLOG

...and we thought we were all alone!

Respectfully Yours in Safety and Service,

Brian Humphrey
Firefighter/Specialist
Public Service Officer
Los Angeles Fire Department

Steve, thanks for your kind mention of the Los Angeles Fire Department via Twitter. We've got a lot of great things planned for our Twitter feed and other web2.0 offerings in the coming year.

Happy Holidays and Best Wishes in 2008!

Brian Humphrey
Firefighter/Specialist
Public Service Officer
Los Angeles Fire Department

Needless to say, we'll be watching this one closely, as our agency uses Twitter and other tools for the common good of those we proudly serve.

Respectfully Yours in Safety and Service,

Brian Humphrey
Firefighter/Specialist
Public Service Officer
Los Angeles Fire Department

Karoli,

Thanks for your kind mention of LAFD Twitter!

Respectfully Yours in Safety and Service,

Brian Humphrey
Firefighter/Specialist
Public Service Officer
Los Angeles Fire Department

Robert,

Thanks for the list... which came in handy this week as I tried to frame Twittiquette into a public presentation on the Los Angeles Fire Department's use of the microblogging platform.


Respectfully Yours in Safety and Service,

Brian Humphrey
Firefighter/Specialist
Public Service Officer
Los Angeles Fire Department

Chris,

We enjoy your RSS Feed on a daily basis, and would offer the LAFD Twitter as a unique and (we hope) potentially meaningful use of the microblogging platform.

Please keep up the great efforts - and yes, mentorship that makes your feed one of our daily must reads!

Respectfully Yours in Safety and Service,

Brian Humphrey
Firefighter/Specialist
Public Service Officer
Los Angeles Fire Department

@Lazy,

Please know that the Los Angeles Fire Department is using a handful of Web applications such as Twitter and Google Groups as a complement to the well established "mainstream media" sources that we've used with great success for decades.

Along with robust telephone systems that have ring-down lines to wire services, as well as broadcast television and radio networks across the nation, we have for years sent an e-mail blast to many of our stakeholders.

All that was necesarry to implement Twitter was adding a single e-mail address to that lengthy distribution list.

While we haven't considered Twittering the Firehouse cook, we will warmly welcome your suggestions as to how we can make these ancillary offerings not only useful but palatable.

Respectfully Yours in Safety and Service,

Brian Humphrey
Firefighter/Specialist
Public Service Officer
Los Angeles Fire Department

...and they said there may never be a meaningful or relevant use for Twitter?

twitter.com/LAFD

Thanks Robert, for your continuing evangelism of all things digital.

Respectfully Yours in Safety and Service,

Brian Humphrey
Firefighter/Specialist
Public Service Officer
Los Angeles Fire Department

Ben,

I nominate your entry for blog post of the month!

Thanks for sharing a message that should resonate strongly among those of us with a Type A personality and an at-times oppressive workload.

Sam is adorable. If perchance he doesn't follow his Dad's footsteps, please let him know that we'd love to have him consider an alternate career.

When your travels may bring you to Southern California, please let us know. We'd love to welcome Sam for a visit to a Neighborhood Fire Station.

Respectfully Yours in Safety and Service,

Brian Humphrey
Firefighter/Specialist
Public Service Officer
Los Angeles Fire Department