As the community of Fargo, North Dakota continues to be pummeled by historic flood levels, local hospital Innovis Health is putting their crisis communications plan to the test.

Being the only hospital 100% open in Fargo has led to the need for quick decision-making in regards to the dissemination of information, especially while they’ve still got an entire hospital to run. Read more

Twitter, the microblogging website that allows users to post status updates of 140 characters or less, is no longer a portal just for  technology geeks or internet stars. News agencies, nonprofits, celebrities and television shows are joining in droves, as is evident by the microblogging service generating 4 million unique visitors in the U.S. to its website in February 2009.

However, long before you could follow The Ellen Show or Ashton Kutcher on Twitter, U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley was posting (also called “tweeting”) with the service while at events in Iowa (see Grassley’s first tweet from November 26, 2007).

Tweets from the Senator encompass what he is up to during the day and read as if he was holding a conversation one-on-one with his audience.

Whether it be “Ran in 45degree weather Tues morn. On way frigid iowa. Don’t LOL. TTYL” or “Just finishd hour long meeting in Rep caucus w Obama. He was recd well. Good discusion on stimulus and recession,” Grassley uses the 140-character platform to inform his 4,900+ followers about current issues, upcoming appearances and his role as a representative of the state of Iowa. Read more