Beacons

Beacon is a system that volunteers can use to share timely information, such as current alerts, the weather, and news of local services, on screens and printed sheets in shared spaces. It is meant for people who do not have reliable access to the internet, so that they can read much of the same information that others receive on their phones. Each screen and sheet can be set up to show what is most useful where it is posted.

Information Shown

A Beacon screen or sheet can show several kinds of information.

• Every current Emergency alert, which appears on every screen and sheet.
• Other current alerts of the kinds chosen for that screen or sheet, each with the colors and labels it has on the Alerts site.
• Short notes from relays, the messages volunteers work to deliver.
• Custom information that volunteers write, such as a new service or a change to an existing one, which can start and end on dates they choose.
• The opening of a page from this site, or one of its sections, with a QR code that leads to the whole page.
• The message line, the number anyone can call to leave a message for someone.

Organizations that would like to share information on Beacon can send it to info@voicestl.org, and a volunteer will review it before it is shown.

Screens

A screen can be a TV, a monitor, or a tablet. When there is more to show than fits at once, it moves through its information page by page, with the time and date in large figures that can be read from across a room. Beside them is the weather for today and the week ahead, with dangerously cold nights marked, and a line that changes every few seconds to note a Weather Service advisory, how cold the wind makes it feel, or rain on the way. A translated alert can be shown in each of its languages. A screen checks for new information every minute, and if it loses its internet connection, it keeps showing what it last received and says when that was.

Sheets

A sheet is a printed page for a board or a wall, laid out in one or two columns, and volunteers print a new one when its information changes. Each sheet says at its foot when it should be replaced. Each alert on it shows its code, so that anyone can check it on the Alerts site, and QR codes lead to the full alert or page online.

Messages From Relays

A note from a relay appears when the person who left the message asks for it to be shown, or agrees when a volunteer mentions the option. When asking is not possible, such as when the message comes from an office, a volunteer may post it and record why. Either way, a volunteer writes the words that are shown and chooses the screens, the sheets, and the first and last days. The person can ask for the note to come down sooner, either in a later message that mentions its relay number or at an in-person session.

Privacy

Anyone near a screen or sheet can read it, and many can also be viewed at their own address on a phone or computer. A note from a relay is shown with the relay's number, never with a phone number or an email address, and Beacon shows nothing else about the people who use VOICE. No record is kept of who looks at a screen or sheet.