GSA launches online clearinghouse for federal alerts, notifications
The General Services Administration added a new site to its USA.gov Web portal that offers access to thousands of real-time federal notifications and alerts.
Federal authorities have launched a new online website where the public can sign up for access to thousands of U.S. government notifications, news bulletins and alerts.
Notifications.USA.gov is part of the USA.gov Web portal operated by the General Services Administration.
Visitors to the website can sign up to get real-time alerts from 144 federal agencies and offices, GSA said in a news release on Sept. 21. Those alerts are delivered by e-mail, text message and really simple syndication feeds to computers, smart phones and other mobile devices.
The notifications cover weather events and emergencies, as well as thousands of other topics that include food or drug recalls, emergency closures and notices of public events.
Related stories:
Federal web portal has been redesigned with citizens in mind
Widgets, Twitter to fuel FEMA emergency alerts
“By putting real-time notifications at citizens’ fingertips or in the palm of their hand, we have created a way for agencies to provide critical information that citizens want in ways that they want it,” said David McClure, associate administrator of GSA’s Office of Citizen Services and Innovative Technologies.
The current notifications menu includes more than 7,000 updates covering 6,200 topics. A beta test of the service starting a month ago generated 12,000 subscriptions across 74 participating agencies, GSA officials said.
The notifications site offers a search capability to help visitors locate the alerts to which they want to subscribe. For example, a search for “weather information" identified 269 feeds at various federal agencies.
GSA contracted with solution provider GovDelivery Inc. of St. Paul, Minn. for support for the notifications platform.