Although the name may suggest otherwise, Empire 2.0 is actually a program under New York’s state department. Many exciting initiatives have launched from this idea, including testing to use Xbox and other online gaming networks as emergency alert resources. In the original InformationWeek article, Paul McDougall writes of other Empire 2.0 actions:

“…the Department of Mental Health is monitoring some Facebook posts in an effort to spot suicidal behavior, the Office of Homeland Security is using Second Life to train 700,000 first responders, and senior members of the state CIO’s office are using Twitter to disseminate information about technology initiatives to the public.“

New York state officials must have a lot of preteen kids at home. By investigating Xbox as a host for emergency messaging, they certainly know about effective PSAs. Also, kudos for using such a post-apocalyptic program name, New York.

Epic Nicolas Cage action photo courtesy of starz.com